14 August we headed north for Boston which took us through the Cape Cod Canal, a short-cut, saving about 200 miles on a trip around the outside of Cape Cod. It was important that we hit the canal at the right state of tide which, using ‘Mr Eldridge’, the local yachtsman’s bible, a kind gift from James Sheed, we managed to do this and achieved over 11 knots (over the ground) motoring through the canal – a Jem speed record!!
Once settled on a mooring just off Boston’s financial district Stephen & Pat Johnston arrived and after a quick wander around Boston and a great seafood dinner, we set off the next day for our trip ‘Down East’ as Maine is referred to. We stopped on the way just round the corner in Marblehead for lunch to catch up again with Nigel & Pilou on Vagu, one thing lead to another and of course we ended up staying there the night!
Stephen was slightly hesitant about a trip onboard Jem muttering that it was bound to be worse than camping, so unfortunately our night on a mooring in Marblehead was very rolly and none of us got much sleep. The next night was even worse in the harbour on the Isle of Shoals in the Gulf of Maine; the wind changed direction during the night so we woke to waves rolling into the harbour, Jem being thrown around as if in a gale and Stephen wondering where the nearest hotel was.
We left New Hampshire behind us and crossed the border into Maine arriving after a cold sail at Jewel Island, which houses various abandoned World War 2 watch towers and bunkers. So lots of exploring was done ashore and we liked it so much that we stayed a couple of days enjoying lovely weather, beautiful sunsets and barbeques.
Although I say the weather was beautiful it was clear and sunny but in fact quite cold. This excuse ensured the girls were rewarded with a quick side trip to Freeport – an outlet town where trousers, thermals and socks where purchased – fortunately the boys found a ‘Sports Bar’ to relax in! Also a delicious Maine lobster lunch was enjoyed by us all.
A few more picturesque anchorages and all too soon it was time to drop off the Johnstons in Portland, a great city, with all the requirements to make us stay a few days. Great museums, restaurants, really good food shops, free internet, a laundry, a cheap marine shop and a cinema all in easy walking distance so we stocked up on Italian food, lots of discounted anti-fouling paint and a bit of culture as well! Portland has good people too – whilst struggling back to the boat lugging cans of paint, groceries etc a passing motorist stopped to check we were OK – Kim, who had pressed into the cruising life by her parents, felt sorry for us so gave us a lift back. It turned out that her guilty parents live in Deltaville where we will be taking the boat out of the water in October so they will be a great source of information. We did note that Eric Clapton, anchored next to us in his rather larger yacht ‘Blue Guitar’ was not so quick to offer a hand!
26 August Reluctantly we tore ourselves away from Portland to meet up with Allison & Bob and their friend Paul who was bringing them to meet us in his stink boat (he does have a yacht as well). Whilst we were anchoring at Falmouth a passing boat hailed us to let us know that there was a ‘Son Illumiere’ show on that evening at errr the power station. So we left Jem at anchor and powered over in Paul’s boat, tuned our radio to the appropriate station and whilst sipping wine watched the sun set and then light show projected onto the blank face of the main part of the building – bit weird so left early.
The next night we spent off Goose Island in Casco Bay and had a delicious bbq provided by Paul in a wonderful spot surrounded by small islands, pine trees and pretty little rocky beaches and very beautiful scenery.
The following day we called at Macmahan Island on our journey further east, on a mission for Mark’s Mum to pass a message to one of her friends; a vicar on a locum on this remote island with what we thought no communication. We found a lovely wooded island with a few yachts and so picked up a mooring and went ashore to find the guy. It was a small place so within 10 minutes of landing we had pretty much met everyone on the island and those who we’d not met had been told of our arrival. Thus we were greeted by everyone as we walked about looking for the vicarage – In fact by the time we caught up with him, we knew where he was having dinner, who he was drinking with beforehand and a full medical history of his crocked back! Having tracked him down we shared a very jolly sun-downer and passed on the message that his family were worried that they were unable to contact him – he raised an eyebrow and looked puzzled as he reach over, picked up the phone and telephoned them – we felt a bit silly!
We pushed on further into the wilds of Maine spending a couple of days at anchor in wonderful isolation at Vinalhaven, having bbqs and using the ice cold sea to chill our drinks, exploring the shore by dinghy trying to avoid getting beached with the largest tides we have since England, about 20ft, spotting seals and generally relaxing.
We were so remote, that mobile phones coverage was a problem, Mark even tried hoisting the phone up the mast in a bag in an attempt to send a text message. However, we found somewhere that Allison & Bob could hire a car to take them back to civilisation so set off in thick fog for Rockland to drop them off. We stayed there a day or two there doing the usual laundry, internet & food shopping but also a night in the lovely 1930’s cinema. (Same old bo**ocks being shown though)
We pushed on further ‘down east’ and got as far as Castine, a sleepy little place and when we wandered around we discovered lots of information about the 1812 war between England and the US that neither of us could remember ever being taught in History – too busy beating up the Frogs – we obviously lost badly, all trace has been removed from our text books no doubt. However, it’s a bit of a shame as it was one of our greatest naval victories, apparently – the American fleet were so intimidated by 4 RN ships turning up that they fled up the river, those that didn’t run aground were scuttled – those were the days!
Having spent three gloriously sunny weeks in Maine it was in Castine that cooler weather was forecast and also a fair wind for our passage south. So we turned around and started our journey back down the coast towards Cape Cod.
Our first day out under full sail we were screamingly along, in yacht terms 8 miles an hour, when suddenly we seemed to stop in the water. Mark trimmed sails and fiddled with things but, although heeled over in a racy sort of way were still not going anywhere – all very strange until Mark looked over the stern and spotted a couple of Lobster pot trailing behind. There are lobster pots EVERYWHERE in Maine and we had been lucky not to have caught one before, there are simply too many to try and avoid all the time, you would never make any progress. We were also lucky that we were sailing and not motoring so the ropes where looped over our prop rather than wound around into a gear box breaking tangle. With much ingenuity using spare anchors, lots of rope, lots of duck tape to strap a knife to the boat hook and much colourful language, we eventually managed to cut ourselves free so that we arrived rather late in Pemaquid to visit Mark’s Uncle Ewan’s friends Bette & Alan Zeller. These are the best sorts of friends to have in a yachting world as they had a mooring outside their house which we tied up to, they then collected us in their dinghy and whizzed us to their lovely house, where we could sit and watch Jem as the sun set enjoy a delicious supper and a fun evening. However at about 9pm the lights went out – we kept offering the Zellers to come aboard where at least we had electricity!! | 