as told to Barbara Garland
I missed the rendezvous 2 years ago because of car trouble so I wanted to get back up to Maine. I wasn't a mile away from my house when I realized I had brake problems. I headed back home and spent the day replacing the brakes. Heading back up to Maine early Saturday morning, I met Frank & Sonja on Endurance and Bob & Carol on Time Enough. We left Rockland and headed for Pulpit Harbor on North Haven. Frank promised no fog but we were fogged in one night. That's the bad news. The good news is there is a new grocery store just a quarter mile from the dock in Pulpit Harbor. They ice cream, deli sandwiches and make fresh donuts so I brought back donuts Monday Morning for breakfast.
Monday the fog lifted and we headed to Castine. We picked up moorings at the yacht club and went into town. Showers at the yacht club were great and the town was interesting. Castine is a beautiful little town. We had dinner at Dennetts and learned how to put dollar bills on the ceiling. Bob & Carol brought back pastries for us all on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday we headed down Eggamoggin Reach and were passed by Bo & Gina in their Sharpie - headed in the other direction. They are new members of NE-TS and chatted with us for a while on the radio. We picked up guest moorings at the school run by Wooden Boat Magazine for a visit and then continued on to Blue Hill Bay and Sawyer Cove on Mt Dessert. It was a beautiful peaceful anchorage with mooring balls that we used. Peaceful till 6:30 am when we were "waked" by the fishing boat Raven.
On to Bass Harbor on Wednesday for an ice cream stop. As we headed out the fog rolled in and it was threatening to storm. I turned back and the others followed. We were just about settled and the storm took a turn, the fog lifted and we headed out again - for Frenchboro. The highlight there was a house for sale. It had a beautiful view of the harbor and I later found out it was for sale for $500,000. Frenchboro has a little deli on the dock. Another great place to buy food
From Frenchboro we headed to Isle au Haut, again using a mooring in the harbor, I looked for the boat of author Linda Greenlaw. One of her books, "All Fishermen are Liars" is on the NY Times best seller list. I had read some of her books but couldn't remember her boat's name. As I looked around the harbor there it was - the Mattie Bell. I later found out that she was on a book tour.
And from Frank - About this Linda Greenlaw. I've been hearing Don talk about her for several years. "Who is this woman," I say to myself? Anyway, when we ended up in Isle au Haut, it turns out Linda is pictured with her Mom in home made sign for their gift shop a half mile up the
"road." Well, Don was carrying on about Linda so we shamed him into going for a walk to learn first hand who this woman was. Carol, Bob, Sonja and I sat around speculating on the outcome of Don's walk for the entire time he was gone.
Part of that speculation was-- "if Don gets to Linda's home and is invited to leave a message as to where he could be reached what would Don say?" We quickly figured he would have to say "he'd be monitoring ch 69."
Anyway, it was all a good laugh and a good time.
Friday morning we headed to Vinylhaven for a quick tour. It's a working harbor so we didn't stay, but headed back to Rockland. Because of the high pressure weather system over us all week, the winds were light. We did a lot of motoring but had a great sail back from Vinylhaven to Rockland. We hauled Friday afternoon and went for dinner at The Landing. Breakfast Saturday was at the Brown Bag Restaurant, a great restaurant, and then shopping at Hamilton Marine. I spent more money on shore Friday night and Saturday morning than I did all week.
Tip of the trip - Frank found a LED headlamp in K Mart. It's excellent and has a red light for night vision.