Sheepscot River

Slowly making our way south, still loving Maine. We are anchored just off the Sheepscot River, nestled safely between islands. We've moved a few times as the wind direction changes and are currently in Loves Cove, how romantic. Lots of great gunkholing (taking the dinghy to see the sights).

We anchored off Indiantown Island. The northern section is part of the Boothbay Region Land Trust. There is a great dinghy dock and a mile long hiking trail that loops around the north part of the island.



You can see where Freedom is anchored.



A beautiful wooded trail.








A long 6 mile dinghy ride took us up through Cross River and the Oven Mouth. This area was purported to hide Revolutionary war ships from the British forces.







Finally we headed down the Black River. There are a collection of small islands that are quintessential old time Maine.


This is a manually operated swing bridge.



The other side of the bridge is the Trevett County Post Office and General Store.





Lobsters and lobster rolls for sale here.



See the blue lobsters?



Also the Mill Cove Lobster operations.



We are enjoying this comfortable, cool weather while keeping our eye on all the tropical storms brewing down south.

Drone

Some of the great videos happen because of the drone.

Here is the drone master at work




I try to keep an eye on the drone so we don't crash into anything. Can you see it?

Little Cat Feet

Still one of my favorite poems and so true here in Maine.


The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg








And a Fog-bow (fog rainbow)

Freedom in Somes Sound

Click the link below for a video of us anchored in Somes Sound, Maine.

https://youtu.be/xQgcY9EeEic

Mistake

We headed downeast to Mistake Island. Lots of lobster pots to dodge, in fact so many that it was not as enjoyable a sail as we expected. It should have been a nice downwind sail with our code zero sail and our whisker pole. It was for a short while but we ended up turning the engine on and motor sailing with the mainsail only. We needed the extra power to slalom our way through the traps. Seas really picked up as we got close to Moose Peak lighthouse but we rocked and rolled our way into the cut and headed for our planned anchorage behind Mistake and next to Knight islands. Talk about lobster pots, wow! There were already 4 boats anchored in the area with a ton of lobster pots. Yes, this plan was a mistake but never fear we found a great, well protected spot right off Mud Hole in Wass Island. The next day we dinghied over to Mistake Island.

The cut to come into the Mistake, Knight and Wass Islands




The Moose Peak lighthouse




The trail leading to the lighthouse



Beautiful rocky shore




We picked wild blueberries, blackberries and raspberries for our breakfast granola

Friendship Sloop Race

Click the link below to enjoy a video of the races:

https://youtu.be/8yWlCMBUyKA

Maine Fun

We love Maine, partly because of the great cool evenings....great sleeping weather. We've enjoyed the seafood, the beautiful sailing ships, the camaraderie and the wildlife.

The sunrises are spectacular!



Nice sunsets too!




Yummy lobster.




These Friendship Sloops were racing in Rockland Harbor while we were there.




The Seven Seas Cruising Asociation(SSCA) held their Downeast Gam here in Rockland (no one knows what gam means. Maybe greet and meet?) We attended as members although all are welcome. They had potlucks and special guest speakers. About 40 boats in the harbor for the event and 100 people at the event. Fun was had by all.

SSCA dinghy raft-up. Byob and bring a dish to pass.



Now we are anchored in a beautiful anchorage with a few other boats and wildlife. We hear the call of the Loons at night.

Just love all the seals!




Who me?




Very serene.

Lobstah for Dinnah

Beautiful Maine


It seems like our trip north to Maine took much longer this year. We had longer wait times for a good weather windows to travel north and we had weather forcasts that were uncertain at best.


This is the spot tracker route. All the green number tags are places we stopped and the sailboat is where we are now. You can click the link at the top of the blog to follow along.

Oyster Bay in Long Island sound was beautiful and they had a Clam Bar that had great clams at a reasonable price (for New York).


These little babies nested in the awning above our table. So cute.


We flew my dads memorial flag for the 4th of July while anchored near Greenport, New York.


Our good friends chauffeured us arond Newport, RI and gifted us with some lovely (and very tastey) wine! We always love our Newport stops.

We waited in Onset, Ma much longer than we wanted. There is nothing wrong with the area it was just that we kept planning to leave "tomorrow". Thunderstorms and fog delayed us. We took a short day to head to Hull Bay, an outer bay off Boston,to anchor and wait for our weather window to head to Maine.

At last we had a near perfect forcast to head north to Maine. Winds should have been light NW early, quickly changing to SW and then S. Okay, that didn't happen but we had calm seas and sailed in NW winds 8-20 knots) till sunset when the winds died and the big old full moon rose.


Another beautiful sunset at sea


2 ships that pass in the night. This mega yacht was headed south.


We got our anchor down in time to watch this sailboat race.


Now time for a nap and then we'll hunt down some lobsters for dinner!

Start Spreading the News

It's that time again. We left Cape Henlopen, Delaware and headed to a marina to top off fuel in Cape May, New Jersey. We anchored for a couple hours to wait for an outgoing tide....life is so much easier if you're not fighting current At 2:00 we headed north off the Jersey coast. We had perfect timing. We got to Atlantic Highlands to top up the fuel and were able to head to NYC to take advantage of the current!

Here we are headed towards Manhattan



After passing through all the really high traffic areas we turned a corner to come upon this HUGE barge and tug. We contacted him on the radio early and he requested that we pass in front of him to pass starboard to starboard ( a two whistle pass). Yikes, he was big.




I think these buildings were funded by politicians....wait for it.





Yes, they're crooked.



We always enjoy seeing the hustle and bustle of NYC and love that Freedom was doing 11.5 knots of speed with the current assist!