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The trip across the Gulf of Maine was uneventful with almost no wind at all. Even now, at 10:00 we are motoring into a light breeze but it’s not from a good angle to put the sails up.
As we are headed to Portland we were never more than about 25 miles from shore but that’s still plenty far out to feel isolated and alone.
I have always enjoyed being out of sight of land and can still remember when we sailed out 20 cape cod catboat TAO out of Bridgeport CT. Sometimes we would head out on a hazy day and it was always a thrill for me when we couldn’t see land. I would imagine myself out on the ocean heading for some exotic place.
So, here I am nearly 30 years later writing this while off shore making what must be my 15th or 16th trip to Maine. A lot has changed for us and it’s still a thrill for me.
When I make a run to Maine I am always hopeful that we will see a whale or some other interesting creature and this trip wasn’t to disappoint. While we left the Cape Cod Canal at dusk we were in darkness long before we were over the areas frequented by whales. Besides, most of them tend to congregate east of our intended path.
However, this morning we saw, about a few hundred yards off, what was probably a finback whale. We didn’t get close enough to get a good photo but it was exciting, never the less.
What was even more exciting was a fin that appeared of in the distance, a fin that looked pretty chewed up. Thinking that it was an ocean sunfish, a slow swimming, very docile fish, we headed over for a closer look. With the engine barely ticking over so as to not alarm our quarry, we drifted over to see what we had discovered. As it turns out, we ended up right on top of an enormous shark. You tend to think of sharks as long and sleek but this one had enormous girth and had to have been 15 to 20 feet long. I don’t know what it was but I was mighty happy to be on the bow of Pandora and not in the water. It might have been a basking shark as I did see that it was spotted. This link is to some photos by those clearly quicker on the photo finger. Besides, there aren’t that many shark species that are this large.
I was so stupefied that I wasn’t able to get a shot into the water even though it wasn’t five feet from the bow and I was standing on the bow sprit, literally on top of the monster. So, you will have to settle for a shot of the fin. I can only imagine what sort of creature chews on the fin of a shark that big. I guess it would have to be an even bigger shark. Hmm…
Thinking that I would need my telephoto lens to get a good picture, it was way too close and much too big to get picture with the lens that I had.
The trip wasn’t all excitement though as I was able to enjoy a magnificent sunrise over glassy calm water. As I was on watch from 1:00 to 5:00 I was treated to sights that began with magnificent stars over head and no moon to light up the sky and obscure the view, followed by a gradual lightening in the east and finally treated to this wonderful sight as the sky brightened and the sun finally came to life .
Just as the sky began to brighten to the east.
Finally peaking up over the horizon
Ever higher, the day has begun.
Now we’re cooking with gas!!!
It’s hard to believe that it can be this calm in the ocean.
Motoring across a glass like sea gently breathing as the waves went under us.
We are now less than ten miles from our first waypoint since the canal as we begin to thread our way through the islands to make landfall at the Portland Yacht Club.
Brenda will be on her way too and tonight we will visit our friends to get ready for Monday’s Portland fireworks display. What better way to watch the show than from the deck of a boat?