We departed Snow Island with that feeling that we'd like to stay longer, but the crew was ready for a more urban location with hot showers and entertainment ashore. When traveling from one new location to another, it's not unusual to have both a heavy heart and anticipation of things to come at the same time. We have typically planned a remote stop or two, and then an urban stop with facilities, supplies, and entertainment in order to keep things varied.

We had a very relaxing sail to Boothbay. We hoisted sail after we rounded the rocks off Ragged Island. The winds were light, but I knew that they would come soon as I scratched the backstays. Amy did not fully appreciate the power of scratching the backstays, but within 20 minutes of all my scratching and caressing, the Song was skipping along between 5kts and 6kts on a beam reach. Ye' of little faith. We sailed sweetly and kept a weather eye out for whales. We did not see whales on this leg, but we did see porpoises and dolphins. On our final leg into Boothbay, we turned directly downwind and sailed wing & wing up to Squirrel Island before we doused sail and secured all of our rigging. All sails and rigging were handed, gasketed, coiled down, and covered by the time we entered the harbor. We cruised through the sea of moorings there until we spied TBI moorings and grabbed one of those. Rod Collins from Cupecoy had recommended the Tug Boat Inn as a convenient place to moor and this we did - thanks Rod.

Can anyone guess what the first order of business was ashore?

Hot showers of course! This was the first time that we ever got to use pay showers. You got 2 minutes of water per quarter dollar and the coin box was right outside the shower if you needed to extend. The sink and toilet were no charge. There were only two showers so those of us going last sat at the nearby deck bar and had martinis while the others cleaned up - we got this.

Boothbay is honestly a very quaint and cool little town, but it is also "cookie cutter" tourist destination complete with the expected bed & breakfasts, high priced gift shops, ice cream parlors, lobster restaurants, and tour boats. A lot of folks come here by land as well. It's a nice place but I cannot truly love it because it does not offer as much of the things that I particularly seek on such a voyage. We all like to have access to goods and services ashore and we like quaint little coastal towns, but the experience is so much better if you feel as if you're melding into the local scene vs. being a goldfish in a fish bowl. We are often taken for tourists, but we don't consider ourselves true tourists. Because of the mode and mindset with which we travel, we like to think of ourselves as "visiting sailors". We like to see local culture happening, meeting local people, and seeing unique geography.

Hunter claimed to have seen lobster crawling around under the dock in Portland and again here in Boothbay. We were initially sort of skeptical because we envisioned the lobster to be a tasty enigma of the deep waters. However we were very soon proved wrong as we spied little lobsters crawling around on the bottom just as Hunter said. Once we began to look for them, we saw them everywhere. We now see the lobster as less of an enigma and more of an oversized distant cousin to a crawdad, something we can relate to in the South.

Speaking of sea life, Austin has been fishing some and several times seagulls have attempted to rob him of his live bait. In Boothbay, a gull managed to eat Austin's mackerel and get the circle hook caught in its beak. In the process of trying to get it loose, Austin became concerned about the line tangle around the gulls neck and so he cut it loose. I was woken from a nap by the commotion and came on the scene to find the gull trying to fly away with the line and a 3" bobber dangling from his bosom. I grabbed a pair of utility scissors, a towel, and a boat hook and we set out in the Dixie to rescue the errant avian rat. We almost got within range to grab the rig when he took flight and flew clean out of sight with the big orange bobber chasing him from astern. We motored about the bay trying to find him but we never could reacquire the bird. We hope that the circle hook eventually dislodged from his beak and we kept an eye out for a flying bobber for the remainder of our time there.

We put some laundry in the wash and went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. We occasionally checked on the laundry and added more quarters until the clothes were dry. After lunch we returned and found a very nice lady had folded some of our laundry so that she could access the dryer as well. Amy learned that she was from s/v Pandora, a Saga 43 which was moored next to us. Bob & Brenda Osborn later invited us aboard and we shared some nice conversation and wine aboard the Pandora. It turns out that we had some things in common in that she would meet her husband in Maine after he delivered the Pandora from NJ to Maine with the help of others. She had tendencies towards Mal de Mare and this was very similar to our situation. We enjoyed our time aboard and they shared a lot of suggestions regarding cool destinations in Maine. They had been sailing together since high school and cruising in Maine together for 25 years - wow.

We had originally planned to make our next stop at Monhegan Island, but we elected not to pursue this because Amy was not comfortable with the uncertainty of moorings there and unpredictable conditions in the somewhat exposed harbor on this primitive offshore island. So we rekindled our original destination of Damariscove Island with reassurance and local intel from Bob & Brenda. Next stop, Damariscove Island.

Cap'n Monty
s/v Song Of The South
Moored in Booth Bay Harbor, ME