>My initial impression of Booth Bay Maine when we visited for the first time years ago was that it was a very busy tourist town jammed with T-shirt shops and ice cream, not a particularly appealing image.  However, after years of visiting perhaps I’d still describe it in that way but now I have decided that that’s some of what makes Booth Bay a particularly nice place to visit.  Yes, it’s jammed with tourists and everything that you’d expect, particularly on the weekends but there’s a lot of charm too.  The harbor is busy with boats coming and going including lobster boats, pleasure yachts and the whale watching day boats.  I think that it’s great fun.

Booth bay also has a lot going for it around the harbor including some beautiful B&Bs plus a good size Hannaford Grocery that’s only a short walk out of town.  There’s also a good hardware store and book shop, two places where I always enjoy spending time.

Frankly, I was ready for a visit to town and bit of shore leave after having spent the last 4 days in more remote areas.  Since leaving Cundy’s Harbor we traveled to Snow island, Five Islands Harbor, had a great sail out into the gulf and over to Seal Cove (no seals in evidence there, perhaps the seals had gone to another “Seal Cove” of which there are many).   So, yesterday we decided to head into Booth Bay for a few days.

As we arrived in the harbor I was on the lookout for fellow SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) members showing their colors with the hope of meeting some fellow cruisers.  We were in luck and I immediately headed over to a cute Kadey Krogen trawler power yacht for a visit.  It turned out to be a live-aboard couple that were visiting Maine for the summer.  Another couple was aboard, also from a trawler who  live aboard full time on their 50+ boat.  We had a very nice time comparing notes and will probably get together as a group for a drink this evening.  As the larger boat is on a mooring fairly far out in the harbor, they have even offered us launch service in there dink.  Actually with a huge engine and center console, their tender looked nearly as big as our first boat.  Our little 9′ dink looked like a toy next to theirs.  We will certainly welcome a lift from them tonight.

I nearly always introduce myself to someone in a harbor when we visit, usually within an hour of anchoring or picking up a mooring.  You meet the most interesting folks that way.  It’s fun to compare notes about favorite harbors and to learn more about how they use their boats.  Besides, how else would we get a ride in a tender capable of going 30kts?

Here is a chart of Booth Bay.  If you look closely, you can see a boat icon in the upper right.  That’s where Pandora is moored, just off of the town landing.  We like this part of the harbor as it is so protected although, in the thick of the action.

I am sure that I’ll have more to say about Booth Bay Harbor over the next few days but for now perhaps a few nice photos of the sights before I close.

>Yesterday, after much deliberation we decided against going to Bath.  The description in the guidebooks are alarming, suggesting that the currents headed out on the ebb can be very strong, especially when the tide is against the wind, so we decided against heading up.   The wind filled in from the south, shifting to the typical prevailing soutwest by early afternoon.  While we first headed nearly toward Portland, as the wind shifted to SW we were able to head right down the coast and had a wonderful sail. A friend of mine recently introduced me to a neat piece of navigation software that is available for free on the Web, www.opencpn.org.  This is a nifty piece of open source software that will interface with most current navigation systems.  For me, I particularly wanted it so that I could put shots of charts on my blog.  While the process is a bit awkward, I am able to print to a PDF, convert to a .jpg and import like any other photo to my blog.  Well, here goes, a shot of our route yesterday.  The route doesn’t show up as well as I would like as it’s blue.  Perhaps I can figure out how to make the route in red.   So, as a debut on my blog, charts…

One of the major lighthouses on this part of the coast is Segin light, located a few miles out from the mouth of the  Kenebec River that heads up to Bath. You know, the place that we were going, not going, going, etc, is a major landmark for mariners heading east and west along the coast.  The lighthouse is located up high on the island and can be seen for many miles.

Another factor that helped us make the decision was the nice breeze that filled in, allowing us to have a terrific sail over to our destination, Five Islands Harbor.   This quaint archipelago of islands a bit west of Booth Bay and a few miles up the Sheepscot River is a favorite stop for us.

Of particular note, Five Islands Harbor has a yacht club for the use of the families that have homes on the various islands.  As a courtesy to visiting yachtsmen, they keep a number of large moorings in the harbor available for use at no charge.  I have also found that usually someone from the club comes out to welcome you to the harbor.

Yes, I am loving this chart thing so two follow, one of a close up of the harbor and another one showing the back route into Booth Bay Harbor, Towsend Gut.  It’s described in a scary way in the guidebooks, but we have found it to be an easy and fun passage.

Early this morning it was very calm, as is usually the case here in Maine, and I thought that a few shots of the harbor would fill out the picture.

Up above the dock is the Five Islands Lobster Company, a great spot to sit and enjoy the view.  Last night we sinned mightily by having fried onion rings and terrific fish sandwiches and crab cakes.  We had better walik up the hill a few times to burn it off. I almost forgot the nice bottle of wine we used to wash it all down.  Who would have thought that an Argentinian Sauvignon Blanc would pair so well with fried onion rings.   And, on top of that, EVERYTHING tastes better on a boat.  Am I right?

As you’d expect, there is a Five Islands Lobster Company for real.

And a very cute little yellow home on the water. What a view.

Of course, a view of Pandora from shore is always nice.  How original.

As you can see, all of this illustrates that today is getting off to a particularly rough start to Saturday.  I guess I will have another cup of coffee and make the best of it.  

>The sun has risen over the trees here at Snow Island and I am sitting in the cockpit of Pandora checking on e-mail and thinking about the next three days.  The weather is perfect with temperatures in the 60s over night and forecasted highs in the low 80s for today.  The sun is out and we are looking at a three day weekend.  What more can you ask for.

We have been aboard Pandora in Maine for two weeks as of Saturday and have settled into a nice routine.  However, with the occasional few hours off to clear my head, I have worked two full weeks aboard.  There is a big project that I am trying to make headway on before the end of the month and happily it’s coming together.  My hope is that I can take some real time off in August prior to heading back home and to real life and what will certainly be a long winter while I prepare for summer of 2012.  However, I am getting ahead of myself.

While my partner and I are the only two full time employees in our company, we are talking to a sales rep, someone that we have worked with for years in the past, about joining us as well as perhaps taking on a third partner.   These big steps will allow for more growth and perhaps a bit more flexibility for me personally.  For sure, there is a lot going on and having a few days off is very appealing.

While the weather is looking wonderful, we are a bit uncertain about where to go.  One option is to head up the Kennebec River to Bath but after talking with some locals last evening who said that the currents are tremendous, we are not so sure.  The prospect of heading 12 miles up a winding river with currents that can run 8 knots is a bit daunting.  However, if they can get Aegis Cruisers from Bath Iron Works up and down the river, we should be able to make the trip in Pandora.

The guide books say that the flood tide is largely offset by the current headed downstream but that the ebb plus the water running down what is the longest river in Maine, is a sight to behold.

Well, I guess that we will have to make a decision and get on with it.  As there is not much wind in the forecast for the next few days make a trip under power up the river sound appealing given the fact that we are going to motor mostly wherever we go.   However, there is that current.  Tough call.

Brenda is up now so I am going to sign off.  However, no morning post is complete without some serene photos.  This place is so beautiful it hurts.

Did I say that we have an eagle nest about 100 yards from where we are anchored?  It’s very close but it doesn’t seem to bother mother or chick.  Not sure that chick applies as it’s nearly as big as the mother.  It’s got to be dangerous to feed a baby that’s as big as you are. Here chicky, chicky… No, quit it with the pecking.  I hate pecking!!!  Get that blood of of your face. Stop acting like a birdbrain.  Kids…

Interestingly, there is an osprey that doesn’t think very highly of mother and baby and spent much of yesterday buzzing the mother eagle sitting in a tree near the nest.  I am not sure if, sharp pointy beak and talons and all, that I would divebomb an eagle twice my size even if I were an osprey and had the pointy beak and claw thing going for me.

To complete the picture, here’s a shot of my computer out in the cockpit.  Not a bad place to write.

>Yesterday we made a short run under power from The Basin to Snow Island.   As is so often the case with travel in Casco Bay, we headed nearly 5 miles back to the Gulf turned a bit west and went another 5 miles north and up to Snow Island.  While we covered nearly 10 miles we ended up only about 1.5 miles from Cundy’s Harbor where we had started.  However, as is so often the case in Maine, the environment was very different.   Fishing boats were much less in evidence and it was clearly a place dominated by summer folks, or “from away” as the locals would say.  

>Yesterday we decided to leave Cundy’s Harbor to make the short run over to The Basin, a wonderful harbor that’s nearly landlocked just across from Cundy’s Harbor.  As we headed out of the mooring area in Cundy’s for the 1 mile run, a lobster boat named “Life After” hailed us and came up along side Pandora.  At first, I thought that they were going to tell me that I was at risk of tangling with some newly set traps but their mission was very different.

The captain asked if we were “Barbara and Steve’s friends”, the folks that we had been visiting for the last few days.  When I said “yes”, he retorted that “I have some lobsters for you”.   My only reaction to this was a simple “what?”, thinking that I had miss-heard him.   He retorted with an answer of simply, “I want to give you some lobsters.  Do you have a bucket?”.    No more explanation needed for me so I dived into the locker to retrieve a bucket that was buried deeper than I realized.  However before I was able to find mine, they were ready with their own bucket and 4 lobsters which they handed over to us before roaring off to tend their traps.  I yelled an uncertain “thanks” to their stern followed by “let me give you your bucket back” but they simply said, “keep it” and they were gone.

“What was that all about”, Brenda and I wondered aloud as they roared off and were gone.

Later that evening Steve and Barbara came over in their runabout to visit for a drink and the first words out of her mouth were “did you enjoy your lobsters?”.  It seems that she had told her lobstering friend Paul about us and he had agreed to make a gift of lobsters to us, someone whom he had never even met.

I guess to that lobsterman any friend of Barbara and Steve is his friend too.  A small gift perhaps but one that amazed us since we hail from the land of “in God we trust, all others pay cash”.

Maine is indeed a great place to visit.

As I write this in The Basin the sun has just peaked up over the hills and again, what a view or should I say, view”s”.

Even the big boys enjoy visiting this place if only with the “proper help”.   This boat is called “Grumpy”.  I wonder if he is?  I have seen Grumpy in prior years.  Funny name for a boat.

Even a dock looks lovely in the early hours.

While not our “lobster boat” from yesterday, one of the locals tending his traps.

Sometimes you feel like you can walk across the trap buoys there are so many of them.

A lovely little Friendship Sloop, the sort that used to be used for lobstering in this part of Maine years ago, reflected on millpond still waters.

Off to Bath today after work and with the tide for a two or three day visit to the Museum.  Great weather for the next few days.   Time to get to work so signing off now.   Weekend in a few days. Perhaps I will make it a long one.   Hmmm….