>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?
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.