Rockland to Northeast Harbor
(Mount Desert Island, Maine) 44⁰ 17.765'N:68⁰ 16.854'W
July 31, 2013
A change in the weather for the good together with a change in the marina staff made it easy to cast off the dock lines and point Why Knot eastward again. Yesterday, we were rewarded with excellent weather except for the total lack of wind for sailing. We had many choices of route to include many islands and even a punch offshore to avoid them all. The most direct route was through a number of islands using Fox Island Thorofare and Deer Island Thorofare. These relatively narrow channels weave between some spectacular, rocky islands and small harbors. We saw several seals on the way. A lobsterman told me they steal lobster from the pots.
Just as we entered Fox Island Thorofare, we followed a beautiful wood schooner about a hundred feet in length. They were under full sail even though there was less than four knots of wind at the time. Needless to say, we had to pass them in the channel and we got a view of this old ship as she was meant to be: full press at the mercy of the wind. That was not the last schooner we saw yesterday. Several offer multi-day passages through the islands. What a grand sight on the deep blue waters of Maine. As we approached Deer Island Thorofare, we fouled a lobster float. Not sure how that happened other than possibly sailing between two on a tether. Anyway, the drill was to drop sail and sit down to contemplate the fact that I would soon have to put on a wet suit and go below to remove the float line from the prop. The water is too darn cold for a swim but at least we were mid bay. Just as Bear started below to get the wet suit, we floated clear of the other float and the line. The guess is that we got very lucky that the line did not wrap too much and the weight of the pots pulled it free. I am guessing Neptune gives one pass to every crew. Perhaps that was ours. In any event, we are glad to have been spared the swim.
We rounded the headland to the harbor at 1400 to a view of yet another schooner, The American Eagle, under full sail ghosting along at a blistering 2 knots. Beyond was Somes Sound, a true fjord and the only one in the Lower 48. Our chart plotter indicated that our destination was ahead but we saw no indication of the harbor until we got close. True to the fjord thing, the high rocks almost hid the harbor entrance. We took a mooring well back in the harbor and the view is spectacular. We think this may well be the top harbor, visually, of all we have seen.
This is the turn around harbor unless we sail around the island to do a night in Bar Harbor just to say we did. We are now over 2,300 miles from home but about 4,000 nautical miles by sea. We are as far east and north as we will go. Who knows if we will come this way again?