Sleep in until 8:00. Less rain and wind than I expected overnight. Breakfast with hot chocolate. Overcast and gusty. Heavy rain arrives at 9:00. 9:45 a cold south wind arrives, put on the wool sweater. Hot tea, reading, a nap. Rain gone and light wind after 12:00, then strong gusts at 3:00. Evening comes with more rain.
Wake in the company of schooners, including LAZY JACK, just after 6:00. Tuck away the sleeping gear and strike the boom tent. I walk up to one cafe to find a line already formed, waiting much too long as each customer seemed to have very specific instructions for frothed this, whipped that, not too much cinnamon but certainly more nutmeg and much sure you steam the milk just right for a nice layer of microfoam.
I surrender and walk down the street to the deli where I get a blueberry muffin and iced tea. Then I grab a second iced tea to go. No rush to leave this morning, I'm an not going far.
Sitting on the waterfront enjoying my iced tea, I hear a woman's voice saying "you won't remember me but......" I look up, smile and stand up to give her a hug. It is Sarah, the artist who made a wonderful painting of SPARTINA in Oriental, NC during the Spring sail in North Carolina. It is a small world. She lives in Maine and was visiting Camden with her family when she recognized my with my long-billed hat. It is a treat to see her.
I walk to the harbor master's office and pay $58 for my night at the dock, then walk back to the deli to get a sandwich to go. Cast off 10:15 with a wave from Ruby on the SWIFT.
We wend our way out of the inner harbor and then through the mooring fields on the outer harbor. Light overcast and no wind on West Penobscot Bay, I motor at idle speed.
Wind ruffles the water now and then, not enough to make it work raising sailing. The deli roast beef sandwich makes for a nice lunch.
12:10 approaching the ferry dock on Isleboro, I can see the ferry across the water leaving Lincolnville. Round the north end of Warren Island, motor past the $25 per night Warren Island State Park mooring buoys and drop anchor in about eight feet of water at 12:20. This should be a good place to wait out the weather.
I wake to see Matto rowing TRIM out of the anchorage. He is off to Rockland to haul out. I can see Bobby is up and stowing gear on LAGNIAPPE, getting ready to head west to Portland.
6:05 cast off from the mooring and it is a gentle drift over to LAGNIAPPE. I tell Bobby it was good to see him, hope to see him in the fall on Chesapeake Bay.
6:50 out on Fox Island Thorofare, 3.3. Sailing into the wind with an opposing tide, it is a pleasant series of tacks with North Haven to starboard and Vinalhaven to port. 7:10 tacking west at 4.1, just a beautiful morning with clear blue skies.
8:00 light wind leaving the thorofare, making 1.9. 8:45 passing the rocks known as Fox Ears in light wind, motor sailing. 9:15, better wind and sailing past Fiddler Ledge, turn to the northwest with no particular destination in mind.
9:30 choppy and confused water as the flood tide rushes over the shallows around Drunkard Ledge.
10:00 motor sailing north. 10:15 turn northeast to stay clear of the shipping channel as the tanker NEW ENGLAND heads south on Penobscot Bay.
10:50 enough wind to sail. 11:40 rounding Robinson Rock and cutting below Mark Island. Wind comes and goes, motor sailing.
1:10 I find both the wind and a destination - Camden. Making 2.6 into the harbor known as the home of the windjammer fleet. We sail through the mooring field in the outer harbor at 2.6, boats of all shapes and sizes spread out of the water.
Round up to bring down the main and the jib, I follow the channel around Eaton Point into the Megunticook River and the inner harbor. I stop at the fuel dock but there are already a couple of boats waiting in line. I ask a guy on the dock if there is somewhere I can tie up for the night. "With a little wooden boat, you can get away with just about anything here," then he points out the harbor master's offie across the water.
I motor over there to an open dock. I'm crouched down wrapping a dock line around a cleat when I hear my name shouted across the harbor. I don't even need to look up, I know exactly who it is. I call back as loudly as I can, "Ruby!!!" She is a good friend and a shipmate from the Schooner Virginia, now working the season on the Windjammer SWIFT. It is good to see her.
At the harbor master's office they tell me to move over to the next dock and I'm good there for the night. I head up to a restaurant to get some iced tea and cool down. A walk along the waterfront, then dinner. Late evening I meet Ruby and a shipmate friend of hers at Cuzzy's for some pool and a beer. Then back to SPARTINA for the night.
A breezy morning, I raise anchor and motor up to the top of Waterman Cove for better protection. Mid-morning texts begin arriving from Matto and Bobby. They are both on their way to Perry Cove, Bobby coming down from up north and Matto coming up from Seal Cove on the east side of Vinalhaven.
10:45 I see them coming down the Thorofare. I sail to Perry Cove under mizzen and jib, we all head in together. Matto grabs a morning for TRIM, SPARTINA ties us to his port and Bobby's LAGNIAPPE ties up on the starboard side. And the fun begins.
It's a sunny afternoon gathering, I don't think I have ever seen three Pathfinders together like this. Between the three boats, we've got plenty of food, a few different kinds of beer and even a bottle of spirits of some sort. We catch up on our lives, talk about our cruises. We compare boats - Matto's was built by my friend Seth about the same time I was building SPARTINA. Bobby's was professionally built. They are all the same, yet slight variations here and there. And they have all been well-sailed. We talk a lot about sailing gear, sharing ideas and past experiences. And we talk about our appreciation of John Welsford, after all it is his design that brings us together in this little creek in Maine.
It is just a wonderful afternoon with great friends and great boats. Matto breaks out his drone for some aerials. As evening comes, we cast off and separate for the night.
Up at 5:30, calm with a broken overcast. I listen to the sound of the rushing tide. No rush to go anywhere, and my phone app show rain coming. Stay under the boom tent and relax.
Cool air comes at 8:00. 8:30 a light rain arrives with a cup of hot chocolate. 9:15 rain moves on.
9:40 anchor up, under power. Motor over to Matt's boat to say it was nice to meet him and wish him a good trip home.
10:00 sails up outside of the anchorage, a light mist falling. Motor sailing with just a hint of a breeze. 10:20 enough wind to sail, making 1.0 against the flood tide.
Soon making 0.7, blue skies sliding up from the south. I am content with a slow drift through the small islands and ledges.
12:30 clear skies and sunny, but no wind approaching Calderwood Island. 12:40 a little wind and sailing down the Little Thorofare with Simpson's Island to port and North Haven to starboard. Making 1.7. Past Simpson's Island find some wind, 3.3 on Fox Island Thorofare heading towards Iron Point.
Sail by Perry Cove, our planned meeting place for tomorrow, and then turn to the town dock in North Haven. I usually find it full of boats but today there is plenty of room for SPARTINA.
I take a walk through the village. There are some high-end inns and resorts here, but the waterfront is still seems to be a place out of time.
At the community center, which has a little cafe, I am told that ice tea is not available. The young woman at the counter says "we have hot coffee, iced-coffee and hot tea, but no iced tea."
"So you have ice," I say, "and you have hot tea," trying to channel a kinder version of Jack Nicholson's character in the breakfast scene of Five Easy Pieces. "What if I buy a cup of hot tea, and you let me get a cup of ice?" This strikes the woman as a funny idea, but she says ok. I ask her if she has heard of the movie Five Easy Pieces, but she is a couple generations too young for that. I sit at a table near the window and enjoy my iced tea.
Cast off from North Haven at 4:00, dark clouds headed our way. Afternoon wind is building and I use mizzen and jib to sail around Iron Point and turn up into Waterman Cove.
Anchor down 4:30. Skies are getting darker. My weather app has a warning for a coming storm. More clouds. Thunder. Light rain. Then the storm quite suddenly dissipates, the skies clear.
Quick breakfast at Traci's Diner. Back at the docks, a charter fishing captain tells me I might be waiting for wind. "I've checked with the crew, there were no complaints." As I'm casting off, he realizes I am the only one on board. The captain laughs, says he now understands why no-one complained.
Sails up 7:15 in the mooring fields with a "Good morning!" from a lobsterman motoring by. Cool, light northwest wind and not a cloud in the sky. Making 1.2 and then 2.0 against the flood tide.
7:40 leaving the Passagassawakeag River, 2.6. 7:55 jibe around Steel's Ledge just outside the red markers. 8:50 less wind, 0.2, and motor sailing. 9:55 hints of wind near Turtle Head at the north end of Islesboro. 10:05 sailing at 2.6.
10:50 off Dice Head, 1.7 approaching slack high tide. 11:10 see the tanbark sails of the windjammer ANGELIQUE coming out of Castine Harbor, and remembering when I pass that same ship a couple years ago in a fog so thick that I could not see them until they were 50 yards away. Wind stirring off Holbrooke Harbor, making 1.8 on a starboard tack.
11:55 more wind. 12:20 on a port tack, 4.0. Come about at 1:10, 3.6. 1:35 making 4.1.
A long steady run from just off Islesboro's Sabbath Day Harbor to just below Head of the Cape, wonderful sailing on a beautiful day.
2:00 Western Island to starboard, Navionics showing rocks and shoals reaching out farther than I expected, keeping neighboring Pond Island off the bow.
2:05 reach Pond Island with light wind, feel like we're crawling over the shallows. 2:30 on a starboard tack across a tide line, the ebb flowing north to south but seems to be wrapping around the two islands. Confused waters sailing south, keeping the Black Ledges to port.
3:00 off Beach Island. 3:15 tack. 3:25 tack. 3:40 tack. 3:50 tack. One last tack at 4:00. 4:10 main and jib down, under power through the channel and past the rocks into the Barred Islands anchorage. 4:25 anchor down.
Eating dinner, a man motors over in a dingy from a larger sailboat in the anchorage. "Is it Steve?" he asks. "Yes," I tell him. He introduces himself, Matt Murphy, editor of Wooden Boat Magazine. He tells me he is a friend of John Welsford's and recognized SPARTINA coming down the channel. We have an enjoyable discussion about the Pathfinder design and sailing Maine. He invites me to visit the Wooden Boat School if find myself in that area. I thank him for coming by, tell him I look forward to visiting the school.
I begin hearing from a couple of other Pathfinder sailors, Matto on TRIM and Bobby on LAGNIAPPE. We're spread out around East Penobscot Bay, looking for a place to get together. Perry Cove seems like the place.
