>While we have favorites all over Maine, or so my posts would suggest.  Camden, when it comes to “towns”, is right up there.  While the outer harbor is known for the “Camden roll” due to the fairly open exposure to the south and east, there is a nice snug inner harbor with floating docks that is totally protected.   These “harbor floats” are actually more like moorings with a short dock attached and are perfect for jamming many boats into a small space.  For years we have treated ourselves to a few nights in Camden and it’s always a terrific place to be.

One of the most scenic sights you can find, and one that’s so often shown as a great view in Maine is of the inner harbor as seen from the top of Mt. Battie which is a dominant view from the harbor.  Today, as I sit here having my morning coffee, this is my view out of the cockpit of Pandora.   As much as I rave about the views in so many of my posts, this one is right up there.  Perhaps I will call it my “most perfect view in the world, of the week”.  Yea, that’s the ticket.

In Camden there are a number of day schooners that take out tourists for short sails and I can’t resist including a shot of these two a bit closer.

Even main street Camden is picturesque.   It’s busy as the main road in the area, Rt1 comes through town, but it’s very pretty.  For years MB&A bank was headquartered here in Camden and brought a tremendous amount of money to the area.  I believe that the primary reason that the company was here was because the guy who ran it wanted to live here.   Eventually he was shoved out and the bank left town but only after years of investing in Camden leaving a legacy of public support and a beautiful New England village.   Not a bad view of the main drag.

Here is  the view from up on the town green that overlooks the harbor.  Pandora is there too on one of the floats.

This close up shot makes it a bit easier to see her, stern to the mountain.  Nothing to mar the view of Mt. Battie.

In town there is a pretty little foot bridge crossing the brook that spills into the harbor and one of the local hotels has covered it with hanging baskets.  It’s very lush.

It seems that we tend to run into the same boats port after port.  This trawler, Oasis, in particular has caught my eye.  They spent a few days on the town dock in Rockland while we were there and here they are again.  The boat is a liveaboard for a middle aged couple.  They have a single crew member who clearly works hard to earn his keep.  Oasis is home ported in Kodiak Alaska.  They are a long way from home.  What a great looking boat.  I’d love to learn more about it.

Many power yachts and ships have an underwater bulb that comes out from the bow and is designed to make the boat slip through the water more efficiently.  On Oasis, they painted an interesting logo on it.  I wonder what the connection is.  I expect that it means something to them.  Perhaps code for something.  I expect that it would be obvious if we knew who they were.  Hmm….

Here’s another view from Pandora.  Hard to beat this.  A lovely schooner and a classic New England church steeple in the morning light.   We will be here in Camden for a few more days.  Hoping to take a long weekend so I had better get lots of work done today.

It’s sunny, not a cloud in the sky and a nice cool breeze.  What a great day it is here. No wonder the the local chamber of commerce calls this area “The Jewel of the Coast”. I’ll let you check it out and will leave it at that for now.

>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.

>It’s Friday afternoon and we just finished a 15+ mile, fairly sloppy with big seas of up to 6′ and not quite enough wind, sail from Booth Bay Harbor to Allen Island, the summer home of the Wyeth family.  That’s the Andrew and Betsy side of the family.  Just off shore from Port Clyde, the islands Allen and Brenner enclose a lovely thoroughfare complete with a few moorings.    While we have been coming here for many years, I am still in awe of how beautiful this place is.  While there are many impressive places in Maine, or elsewhere for that matter, it’s rare to see as refined a display of what can be accomplished when you have both money and taste.

To see the many buildings that make up the “village” that is the Wyeth compound, it’s very clear that every detail was planned out by someone with an acute sense of what they were trying to accomplish.   The look of the place is totally Maine, and like a living Wyeth painting. Speaking of Andrew Wyeth and his work, check out the “official site”.  Very nice.

I had a nice talk with one of the caretakers, just to be sure that it was OK for me to be using one of their moorings, and he confirmed that the nice lady in the white slacks is Betsy herself.  He said that she enjoys watching the sailboats as they ride on her mooring.  That makes me happy.  On our last visit, Brenda was thilled to share waves with Betsy.  Today she was pretty sure that Betsy and her companion were watching her knit aboard Pandora.   That sounds about right to me.

I was told that there are some 100 sheep on Allen Island, I tried, in a very subtle way of course, to get a tour of the barn.  However, in the very nicest way, that the Wyeth’s appreciate it if there is no landing on shore.  That makes sense to me.

We are visiting here with our friends Miles and Loreen who live aboard their Aerodyne 47 yacht Ariel for about 10 months a year. They do the whole snow bird thing, with summers in Maine and winters in the Bahamas.  They have not been her before and are as thrilled with the place as we are.   Ariel is a spectacular cruising boat and while she is only four feet longer, the difference is just amazing.  Much larger and far more elaborate, Ariel is in a class that is so much more substantial than Pandora that it’s hard to believe that they are so close in length.  Built of composite materials,  Ariel doesn’t weigh a lot more than Pandora but is probably twice as large.  It’s safe to say that you could purchase two plus Pandora’s for the cost of an Aerodyne 47.   She was designed with a lot of go fast features including an interior built by a company that does private jet aircraft interiors.  They are super light and quite luxurious.  Their granite counter tops look solid but are actually very thin and laminated to a honeycomb structure.

Ariel is about the only boat that I have seen since purchasing Pandora that I could honestly say, I’d rather own.  What a boat.  Or should I say, what a yacht.  Actually, according to Miles, the definition of a yacht is “any boat that’s bigger than yours”.   I’ll buy that and that would make Ariel a yacht for sure.

For the artist that has everything, how about a Mini Cooper on your island.  And, it’s red, of course.  It’s a fairly small island and a small car to match.  I wonder if the dealer makes island calls to fix what breaks.

>I awoke earlier than usual at a few minutes after 5:00.  The sun had not yet peaked up over the horizon and it was still cool enough out in the cockpit to make a sweater a good idea.   Armed with a cup of coffee, I have been enjoying the solitude and peaceful harbor here in Booth Bay.   It’s Thursday and I have been putting in full days of work in what is a very busy harbor.  All day long there is a constant coming and going by the whale watching and day boats headed out for Monhegan Island and others giving harbor tours.  The winds, even in this very protected part of the harbor, really picked up yesterday and added to the excitement on the mooring in the afternoon.  When the whale boats head out and back into the harbor they come within what seems like feet of us.  It’s a bit daunting, I have to say.

While I was working yesterday, Brenda headed out with a friend to visit a local botanical garden so she was out for the day.  Reports are that it is a great place to visit.   I would expect that she will do a post on her visit.  The photos sure looked great.  Brenda’s site is www.argoknot.com  

While the folks back in the New York area are sweltering in the heat, here in Maine it’s a much more reasonable temperature, in the 80s although not as cool overnight as I would prefer.   It’s definitely warmer than normal, it’s a lot more reasonable than back home.

I didn’t particularly want to stay here for 5 days, ut it is convenient with good cell coverage and the opportunity to enjoy the local sites for a quick run ashore to stretch my legs and a change of scenery is very convenient.

The plan is to take an extended weekend and perhaps head out to Metinicus Island, the most remote on the Maine Coast.  Metinicus has a year round population of about 50, just about all hardy fisherman from families that have been there for generations.  Their independence is legendary and willingness to help each other out admirable.

A recent example of the strength of their community was demonstrated  when a small plane, ferrying some island residents to Rockland Airport crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff.  As you can imagine, ditching a small plane into the water is risky and thanks to the fast thinking pilot, he and the two passengers survived.   Within a few minutes of the crash, the crew of a local lobster boat had dragged them all from the water.  The dramatic crash and rescue is described in this article from the the Bangor News.    I can’t imagine how terrifying it would be to see the water coming up that fast.  Not an experience I’d like to have.

Anyway, our hope is that the winds will be convenient to make the run out over the weekend with our freinds Miles and Loreen from Ariel.   For today, the winds are forecasted to be quite strong, up to 25kts from the SW.  That’s pretty heavy and will be made even more fun with the addition of waves up to 6 feet.  Not for me.  Actually, more to the point, not for Brenda at all.  As my son Rob likes to say, to take Brenda out in rough conditions is definate “career limiting move”.  Yes, he speaks the truth.

If the seas subside overnight and the winds hold, it would be a lot of fun to visit Metinicus, a place that I have spoken of often but never visited.  While far away from the mainland it’s an easy day sail from Booth Bay, it’s about 35 miles and worlds away.  This chart shows how remote it really is.

And this detail shot shows how exposed the harbor on the eastern side of the island is and suggests how rough it would get in a nor’easter.  Not a good place for me in the winter.  That’s clearly why the year round residents are so tough. They have to be.

Speaking of sailing and Brenda, with all of the cruising couples that we have met over the last few years while visiting Maine, she has become much more open to doing extensive crusising and while I am fearful of saying it aloud for fear of jinxing it, she has said, several times now, that the “time may be right” for us to head out aboard Pandora for an extended cruise.  Her thought is the winter of 2012/2013.   That’s the first time that we have been able to put a date on our plans.  It’s a big step.

Planning for such a trip does get complicated as it conjers up questions of what to do with our home while we head out for months at a time.  Do we sell now, buy another home before we go?  Where do we want to move to?  It’s tough and a lot to think about.  This summer’s two month trip has proven to be complex enough and in spite of careful planning, we do fear that an important bill will be missed and not paid while we are away.  We also wonder how the gardens will look after two months of hot weather on their own.   For sure, the weeds will be in charge, not to mention the ground hog and deer.  I don’t even want to think about that.

No, better to think about sailing for a few days.  I’ll close with a photo of one of the say schooners on a wharf just off of our stern.  

>My initial impression of Booth Bay Maine when we visited for the first time years ago was that it was a very busy tourist town jammed with T-shirt shops and ice cream, not a particularly appealing image.  However, after years of visiting perhaps I’d still describe it in that way but now I have decided that that’s some of what makes Booth Bay a particularly nice place to visit.  Yes, it’s jammed with tourists and everything that you’d expect, particularly on the weekends but there’s a lot of charm too.  The harbor is busy with boats coming and going including lobster boats, pleasure yachts and the whale watching day boats.  I think that it’s great fun.

Booth bay also has a lot going for it around the harbor including some beautiful B&Bs plus a good size Hannaford Grocery that’s only a short walk out of town.  There’s also a good hardware store and book shop, two places where I always enjoy spending time.

Frankly, I was ready for a visit to town and bit of shore leave after having spent the last 4 days in more remote areas.  Since leaving Cundy’s Harbor we traveled to Snow island, Five Islands Harbor, had a great sail out into the gulf and over to Seal Cove (no seals in evidence there, perhaps the seals had gone to another “Seal Cove” of which there are many).   So, yesterday we decided to head into Booth Bay for a few days.

As we arrived in the harbor I was on the lookout for fellow SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) members showing their colors with the hope of meeting some fellow cruisers.  We were in luck and I immediately headed over to a cute Kadey Krogen trawler power yacht for a visit.  It turned out to be a live-aboard couple that were visiting Maine for the summer.  Another couple was aboard, also from a trawler who  live aboard full time on their 50+ boat.  We had a very nice time comparing notes and will probably get together as a group for a drink this evening.  As the larger boat is on a mooring fairly far out in the harbor, they have even offered us launch service in there dink.  Actually with a huge engine and center console, their tender looked nearly as big as our first boat.  Our little 9′ dink looked like a toy next to theirs.  We will certainly welcome a lift from them tonight.

I nearly always introduce myself to someone in a harbor when we visit, usually within an hour of anchoring or picking up a mooring.  You meet the most interesting folks that way.  It’s fun to compare notes about favorite harbors and to learn more about how they use their boats.  Besides, how else would we get a ride in a tender capable of going 30kts?

Here is a chart of Booth Bay.  If you look closely, you can see a boat icon in the upper right.  That’s where Pandora is moored, just off of the town landing.  We like this part of the harbor as it is so protected although, in the thick of the action.

I am sure that I’ll have more to say about Booth Bay Harbor over the next few days but for now perhaps a few nice photos of the sights before I close.