|
|
|
This is the final segment of the Maine 2005 cruise. This last portion covers the Sunday night, September 4th, anchorage at Benjamin River, Monday, September 5 th at Bucks Harbor, Tuesday, September 6th at Pickering Island, Wednesday, September 7th at Perry Creek and the return to Rockland Harbor on Thursday September 8th.
We had arrived at Benjamin River almost at dark and did not have time to check out the local scenery. We each spent the morning in our own diversions, rowing, walking, getting gas, checking out the boats or just dozing for a while. The mosquitoes were really bad for the first time on the trip so everyone had hunkered down behind their netting early the night before. There was Coquina - a Herreshoff 18 ft Cat-Ketch daysailer cruising around the harbor and the skipper/owner rafted up for a gam. He had built the boat as a commitment to the Wooden Boat Magazine and he had started it in January and finished it under the pressures of a deadline. It was the boat used on cover page on the November issue of Wooden Boat Magazine. It was done to perfection and sailed extremely well. None of us took any good still pictures of the boat but I have some nice video of it. Eggemoggin Reach, with the Wooden Boat School, Center Harbor, Benjamin River and Bucks Harbor along it's Northeastern shore has to be the most concentrated area of beautiful boats I have every seen. The magnificent Maine scenery pales by comparison to the beauty and craftsmanship of the boats under sail in this stretch of water on a holiday weekend. There are more boat pictures to follow and I had to eliminate a number of them as the won't all fit on this web site. Enjoy
Picture by Rick Langer Tod, Doug and Abbey at Benjamin River discussing plans for the day with a classic 60 ft wooden boat in the background.
Picture by Tod Mills A tour of the harbor is in order to sample the beautiful boats.
Picture by Tod
Picture by Tod Mills
Picture by Tod This is an original wooden gaff rigged pilot house cutter in beautiful shape.
Picture by Tod Mills Enough lets leave the harbor and go sailing.
Picture by Tod Mills Oh No! Those beautiful boats are out sailing too. :-) We love this kind of cruising. Beautiful boats, clear water, sunny skies 10 kts of winds - AHHHHHHHHH If you look close you can see Bluebird across the reach just to the left of the bow of the Cat boat.
Picture by Tod Mills Believe it or not but this little cat boat caught up with Tod and he was working hard to hold her off!
Picture by Abbey Gura This is a private Island just across the reach from Bucks Harbor.
Picture by Abbey Gura Tod sailing into the northern entrance to Bucks Harbor. If you recall from the chart Bucks harbor gets most of it's protection from an Island that sits in the middle of the Harbor. We did not actually anchor in Bucks Harbor as it was a mite crowded. We continue up the coast another 1/2 mile and anchored in Orcutt Harbor. Orcutt is not well protected from the predominant winds but the forecast was benign and any breeze there was would help keep the mosquitoes away.
Picture by Rick Langer Another shot of Tod sailing outside of Bucks Harbor.
Picture by Abbey Gura This has to be the biggest sailboat I have seen out cruising in person. The RIB is about 15 ft long.
Picture by Tod Mills Man look at the size of that boom!
Picture by Tod Mills Just more eye candy at Bucks Harbor.
Picture by Tod Mills A sister ship - the N'Sea 27.
Picture by Tod Mills The sisters together :-)
Picture by Tod Mills
Picture by Abbey Gura Rick Langer in Bluebird is the taxi for the early morning run from Orcutt Harbor to Bucks Harbor. We are on the hunt for the fixins for a Maine shore dinner. The plan is to buy some fresh lobsters and veggies and cook them at our next stop - Pickering island.
Picture by Abbey Gura Ahhhh, sweet success. We bought 14 lbs of live lobsters fresh off the dock for $3.50 /lb. Do you think this is enough for 4 hungry men? The bad news is we couldn't find much in the way of fresh vegetables as everyone was closing down for the season. We did manage to buy some squash. Due to Rick's skill at haggling in market place we only had to pay $7.00/lb for summer squash. I sure hope it lives up to it's price.
The solid purple line is the path that Seas the Day took in another glorious sail in a 10 12 kt breeze. The dotted purple track is the path that Rick and Abbey took to find the source of these $7 a lb summer squash (Rick has trouble giving his away at home). Actually there is the home a famous minimalist just around Cape Rosier. Rick is familiar with his writings and wanted to stop and see the place. The Green line is the route to Seal Bay for the next day. It will pick up on another chart later on.
Picture by Tod Mills Man, I wish you could have seen Rick trying to wrestle that monster into that small pot. We weren't sure who was going to win until Rick got the mechanical advantage.
Picture by Abbey Gura What a feed! The $7 /lb squash are sliced up and on the plate to starboard.
Picture by Abbey Gura. Here we are breaking up the raft at Pickering Island the next day.
This is the rest of the route to Seal Bay. The winds for this leg were the strongest of the trip and built from 5 - 7 kts in the morning to a robust 12 - 15 kts by the end of the day. The winds were out of the South East and so wasn't the current. A difficult day for an M15 towing a Dory through the waves. All of us but Tod ended up motoring the last few miles.
Picture by Tod Mills The second part of the S curve working our way back to the end of Seal Bay. A terrific hurricane hole, but then they don't get hurricanes in Maine very often.
Picture by Tod Mills Another late night arrival but Abbey's lantern works well so we stay up late and drink box wine of a plastic mug, shoot the breeze and watch the milky way drift by overhead. The stars are magnificent out in the Maine Islands. (you do have to turn the lantern off to see them.)
Picture by Rick Langer A nice warm morning in Maine. - Say look at that cool T shirt that Doug is wearing :-)
Picture by Rick Langer Tod decided to work off at least one of the lobsters he ate at Pickering Is. You can see the very end of Seal Bay in the background.
Picture by Tod Mills Still in Seal Bay - the water very close to that rock is 60 ft deep.
Part of the Chart required to get to Perry creek. We are closing the loop here and starting to retrace part of the route through the Fox Island Thorofare.
The rest of the Chart to Pickering Island. You can see Rockland Harbor on the the far left and Perry Creek on the far right.
Picture by Tod Mills Goose Rocks Light in Fox Island Thorofare.
Picture by Tod Mills
Picture by Tod Mills The nautical mode of getting up in the world.
Picture by Tod Mills The last raft up in Perry Creek.
Picture by Tod Mills Perry Creek scenery.
Picture by Rick Langer The flood current in Fox Island Thorofare runs in both directions and meets here. This is the point in the Fox Island Thorofare where there is no current. The water just goes up and down. Cool huh!
Picture by Rick Langer The Sugar loaf rocks near the West end of Fox Is. Thorofare on the way back to Rockland Harbor. The winds were decent to start with at 8 - 10 kts but steadily dropped so that by the time we reached the other side of West Penobscot Bay we were almost becalmed.
Picture by Rick Langer The Monument at the West entrance to Fox Is. Thorofare.
Picture by Rick Langer Back at Rockland Harbor. I could go on and on about what a great trip but I guess I will just stop and say good-by - join us on the next cruise. Thanks - Doug Kelch - "Seas the Day" |
