>After a few days of sailing where we explored Muscongus Bay, Pandora is now in Rockland. While it’s not the most scenic place to be, there are lots of places to go in town and there is a large grocery a short way out of town. As our car is here, that does make it appealing as Brenda can catch up on errands without having to walk and lug. I guess that most any place looks great just after sun-up. How peaceful.
As we left Allen Island, home of the Wyeth’s on Saturday we headed into Port Clyde with our friends Miles and Laureen and enjoyed lunch on the dock at the general store. The store, with wide pine boards on the floor, a lunch counter and deck with picnic tables, looks like it’s right out of the 40s. Port Clyde is primarily a fishing village and is loaded with lobster boats. We stopped and “borrowed” a mooring for a few hours while we headed ashore.
Along the way we spotted the mail boat, that gives tours of the area. It’s very pretty and is a boat that I would love to go out on at some point. Run by the Monhegan Boat Company, this seems to me like the way to go out to Monhegan for the day. Their Laura B is a real classic. Built by the Navy in 1943, she saw action carrying supplies and troops in the South Pacific and has been in Maine since 1946. I shot this photo as she steamed by on one of her trips. She is in great shape and clearly has a caring owner.
The boat also does an evening lighthouse tour that goes to some of the very scenic lights in the area. This one marks the entrance to Port Clyde. It’s now automated and is part of a private home.
Brenda and I hope to spend a day on Monhegan Island via Laura B in the next few weeks. There aren’t many opportunities to so on a classic like this so I don’t want to miss it.
After lunch we headed up to Hog Island, about 15 miles from Port Clyde. For a day sail, Muscongus Bay is a real treat, if a bit of a challenge from a navigation standpoint. With lots of unmarked ledges, you have to really watch the charts. The winds were fabulous and barreling between ledges and small islands at 7+kts was a bit of a nail biter. This gives a good feel for all of the “hard stuff” that we passed. Quite scenic.
In case you didn’t know, if you double click on the chart, or photo for that matter, you can “bigify” it.
After a brief visit at Hog Island, now a summer camp for boys it would seem, we headed, with a nice breeze for a while, over to Rockland. Oh, I guess that I should put in a photo of some flowers from Hog. Nice butterfly.
I do like lighthouses and seem to take the same photos each year. Here’s two along the way up toward Rockland.
And the Owl’s Head Light just out on the point near Rockland. Quite a view from there. If you look closely, you can see that it’s a very popular spot.
Along the way we spotted a number of Friendship Sloops headed home after a rendezvous in Rockland. What a sight seeing them sail by with their big mainsails way out. A very elegant sight.
Here’s an idea. How about closing this post with a shot of a lobster boat tending traps while flying a big American Flag. And, it’s not even the 4th of July. I’ll bet that this guy drives a Ford F150. No Toyota trucks for this patriot.
