We are back in Maine! It's been four years, we were here before we made the jump to the Caribbean and now we are back. One of the appeals of Maine is that it reminds us of our time sailing on Lake Superior. Now, how did we get here:
We left Annapolis on a Monday, stopping first to top off fuel and water. We tried sailing up to the C&D Canal but with little wind we ended up motorsailing. We stopped at the end of the canal for the night and in the morning we caught the current to go through the canal. Once out of the canal we turned to go down the Delaware River to Cape May. We had an uneventful trip motoring down the river fighting the current most of the day. Eventually the tide and current changed and we continued on trying to make Cape May before dark. We made it to the anchorage about 7:00 pm, dropped anchor and had a quick dinner. We were anchored just behind Andy and Charlie on Avalon. We had checked in with our weather advisor about the conditions going to Newport RI and it was a toss-up whether to go now or in the morning. We chose to go. We pulled anchor, motored out the entrance and set our course. The forecast was for a storm around midnight but shouldn't be too bad. With light winds we continued motoring. Around midnight the winds picked up to 20 knots and we set the sails. That was the extent of the storm, however there were a number of storm warnings on the radio so we were in just the right place to avoid them. The winds only lasted for three hours and we were back to motoring. The next night we could see lightning west of us and there were a lot of storm warnings on the radio for the coast of New Jersey into Long Island. Again they missed up. On Thursday at 4:00 pm we dropped anchor in Newport Harbor. We had gone 241 miles in 44 hours, sailing just three of them. Rum drinks were refreshing. The next day we found an excuse to go into town and treated ourselves to ice cream. On Saturday we moved to a mooring and Cori's cousins, Mike and Marietta, came out for a sail. After the sail they took us home for a lobster dinner. Thank you very much Mike and Marietta, it was delicious. After an evening of visiting we were back on the boat for the night.
Sunday, the 26th, we dropped the mooring, pulled up at the fuel dock and topped off the fuel and water. Instead of staying another night we decided to leave and headed off for Martha's Vineyard. Our friends Lee and Cheryl had told us they expected us to stop by. We sailed to the lower end of the Vineyard and picked up a mooring at Menemsha. Anchoring would have been questionable with a lee shore and questionable holding. In the morning we sailed up and around the island to Edgartown using our spinnaker. Last time we were here we anchored out of the harbor and dinghied in. This time we were able to use Lee's mooring. We had a great time, we spent time with Lee and Cheryl, some time sightseeing in Edgartown and saw a bit of the island on their electric bicycles. Electric bicycles are awesome! Our last night Cori's cousin Pamela and her son Zack, treated us to dinner. Thank you Pamela, it was great catching up.
Sunday, the 2nd, we dropped the mooring and moved over to the Elizabeth Islands to Hadley Harbor. This is one of our all time favorite anchorages. Since it was Sunday all of the mooring balls were taken so we anchored until they started to open up, then moved over to one to prepare for the hurricane. At this time it was still off of the Florida coast but the track showed it moving up and hitting our area, just not sure where. We took time to dinghy around and collected clams and mussels. Thursday morning we finished our preparations and waited. This harbor is protected on all sides so we didn't expect it to get too bad. In the afternoon the winds started to pick up and around 4:00 pm we had winds of 30 knots, a lot better then we had expected. The storm had taken a turn to the west and we were on the edge of it. We had a couple of quick rain showers and everything calmed down. It was something of a non-event for us but people in the path of the storm got hit real hard. Once again we were lucky. The next day it was still windy but we were able to get everything back to normal and Friday it was calm again. Cori took the opportunity to explore the area in her kayak and I did a little maintenance on the 3.3 outboard. The carburetor had gotten clogged and needed to be cleaned. Fortunately while in the Raggeds when this happened Jerry from Persephone showed me how to disassemble and clean the carburetor.
On Friday we dropped the mooring and sailed up to Cape Cod Canal. This canal cuts across Cape Cod and saves boats and ships from having to go all of the way around the Cape. We picked up a mooring near the end of the canal and spent the night. In the morning we stared out and rode the current through. The current runs strong and it works better to time it to ride with it then to motor against it. Once through the canal we were going to go up to Plymouth but what wind we had was on the nose. We decided to go to Provincetown instead since we would be able to sail there instead of motoring. We arrived in the afternoon, anchored and then went to shore to see if we could find an ice cream shop. P-town is a very touristy place and it being a Saturday the place was packed. We found our ice cream and wandered around for a while checking out some of the shops. We will be back someday but maybe not on a weekend and after the pandemic has calmed down. In the morning we pulled anchor and headed out for Isle of Shoals, a group of islands off of Portsmouth NH. The winds were forecast to be 10 knots climbing to 20 in the afternoon which would make for an enjoyable sail. Once again the forecast was off. We ended up motoring the entire way, 12 hours and 66 miles. The highlight was seeing a whale, the best sighting yet. The next morning we took the dingy out for a ride but with the pandemic the islands that we are able to go ashore on were marked as closed to visitors. We did get to watch a group of seals and then back to the boat to relax.
The next morning we got a late start hoping that the winds would pick up and we were off. After about an hour of motoring the winds picked up enough that we could fly the spinnaker and we sailed up to the Saco River and picked up one of the cities free moorings for the night. In the morning we headed off for Portland, but again we didn't have enough wind to sail. We are now definitely in Maine, we could tell from the number of lobster pots that we have to be constantly vigilant about and maneuvering around. We motored past the city and dropped anchor just past the mooring field sharing the anchorage with one other boat. Today we dinghied to a boat ramp in a park and walked the park paths to downtown Portland to play tourist. Tomorrow we will continue up the coast with plans to visit some friends.
