An anchor chain rattles in predawn darkness as a large sloops leaves the anchorage. Wake at dawn to glassy calm water. The sound of birds and diesel engines. Not a breath of wind.
6:50 heading to Pemaquid Point, a lobster pot float shows a flood tide. Grey and cool. 7:45 sun breaks through the overcast, feels good.
8:15 Pemaquid Head. 8:40 crossing the mouth of John's Bay, Thrumcap Island to starboard.
9:15 see waves breaking on two low-lying granite rocks, a marker at the north end warns of shallows. Marked on the charts as The Hypocrites, I smile as I jot the The Hypocrites down in my notebook. And I wonder who came up with that name.
Just beyond The Hypocrites is Fisherman Island. I thought it would have have some protection from the swell so I could rest and wait for the wind. It does not, at least on the east side. On the west side is Ram Island, with the two islands making for an excellent little harbor. In fact it has a mooring marked "Guest." I tie up at the mooring, take a nap. A small lobster boat comes through, just one young waterman aboard. He hauls his traps just 20 feet from SPARTINA, doesn't look up, just does his work and moves on.
A group of women who seemed to have stayed at the house on Ram Island come down and dinghy to a sailboat tied up at a second mooring. They are heading back into Booth Bay Harbor. I hear a loud splash behind me. Looking to the stern I see a large area of disturbed water. "A whale breached!" shouts a woman on the sloop. A few minutes later we see the dark shape of the whale surface and then gently slide beneath the water.
10:40 a little wind. Sails up and cast off from the mooring. Making just 1.8, glad to be sailing. 11:20 Squirrel Island to starboard. 11:55 passing between Cape Island and two smaller islands just off the cape. One has a lighthouse, the other bare. I make note in my log, wondering if they were named by the same person who named The Hypocrites. They are called The Cuckolds.
12:15 crossing the mouth of Sheepscot Bay. 12:55, wind improving and we pass the waves break on The Black Rocks. I turn to the cut between Lamb and Salters Islands. I had hoped for an anchorage at the north end of Salters Island, but all I see are swells breaking over shallow rocks.
I round the north end of Salters Island, turn toward Stage Island. Looking to starboard there is a white sandy beach and a handful of small power boats moored in a lovely, calm cove. Anchor down 2:00 just inside Kennebec Point.
20.93 NM
No comments:
Post a Comment