Windjammers

One of the common sights along the coast of Maine is the windjammer. These are historic vessels which were once fishing schooners, coasting freighters, oyster dredgers, and pilot schooners. Today, about 20 windjammers carry paying passengers. At Swans Island, we had a couple of windjammers spend the night at anchor with us. The one pictured close by Ariel is the Nathaniel Bowditch. Designed by William Hand, the Schooner Nathaniel Bowditch was built in 1922 in East Boothbay, Maine, as a private racing yacht. In 1923, she entered the Bermuda Cup under her original name, Ladona. She won the race in 1927. Her second owner renamed her Jane Dore after his daughter.

In 1942, she was commissioned by the US Coast Guard and assigned to an offshore patrol to search for German submarines off New York Harbor. During this time, she received two citations from the Commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier, US Coast Guard, for seaworthiness in poor weather.
After the war, she got into the fishing industry as a commercial dragger out of Stonington, CT.
This schooner has a captain and a crew of five. They looked to have about 20 guests on board, spending almost all of their time on deck. Belowdecks are the sleeping accommodations and the heads. The meals were served up on the main deck.

It was very interesting watching them come into the anchorage. They sailed in, turned into the wind to slow the boat, and at the right moment let the anchor go. We enjoyed watching the guests get involved in activities on board, jumping in for a swim, or climbing the rigging.

Cruising Maine

We are now in our cruising region, namely Penobscot Bay and the Mount Desert Island area. We are making very short daily trips to our new locations, which we are doing under leisurely sail with light generally southwest winds. This gives us plenty of time to explore and still move on to a new site. This morning, we went hiking on Isle au Haut (pictures from the trail) before sailing to our current location in Burnt Cove Harbor on Swans Island. Isle au Haut has a large area, which is actually part of Acadia National Park. It is remote, so it gets very few visitors. We hiked the Duck Pond trail and had it all to ourselves.

This part of Maine is broken up by hundreds of islands and inlets. The shores are generally bold with smooth granite and a very distinct tidal zone in the 10 - 13 foot range. The islands are blanketed with spruce trees interspersed with fields of grass. The anchorages vary from busy working harbors to uninhabited coves. The weather is also varied. It can be bright and sunny with distant mountains as a backdrop, or completely fogged in when our world shrinks to just about the size of Ariel.

Weather Not Spoiling Our Time Here

The jet stream has been in a more winter-like position since mid-July. The effect in New England has been a series of cold fronts and low-pressure systems with very few sunny days. There has been a threat of rain and thunderstorms most days. We have been fortunate and have only experienced one thunderstorm, which was while we were anchored at Block Island. We have had plenty of rain, but with very little wind. It has altered our plans. We had originally planned two nights at Boothbay Harbor, but extended it to four, waiting for better weather to travel. It has not dampened our enthusiasm for Maine. We had only experienced fog on one day, and we decided to travel anyway, partly because we hoped it would lift before we reached our destination, the busy Rockland harbor, and also to build experience in case we got caught unexpectedly. We relied heavily on the radar and the chart plotter. It remained a thick fog and did not clear before we arrived. We knew we were approaching a mooring area from the radar display, and as luck would have it, we found an empty mooring right away and took it, not worrying about who owned it. As it turned out, it belonged to a bareboat charter company that was more than happy to rent it to us.

We visited the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland. It is neither a lighthouse nor near a lighthouse, so we were intrigued. It proved to be extremely interesting and maybe not well named. It did have a lot of lighthouse artifacts, but also a good history of the US Lighthouse Service and a lot about lighthouse keepers. The museum also had a lot about the US Coast Guard, particularly about lightships and buoy tenders, and a good section on the US Lifesaving Service. They had a nice selection of buoys and fog horns from different eras.

Over the past few months, we have kept saying we were going to Maine for the lobster and blueberries. Well, we are keeping our word, maybe not so much lobster, although we have done that, but we are definitely enjoying the blueberries as well as other fresh fruit and vegetables from the farm stands.

Whale Watching

Our plan was to sail directly from Provincetown to Penobscot Bay, but we decided to move up the coast with day trips, with the threat of storms, particularly thunderstorms, daily. We hoped to see some whales as we crossed Cape Cod Bay, heading from Provincetown to Cape Ann. It wasn't long before we had our first sighting, and our good fortune continued throughout the day. Later in the day, we came upon a pod that seemed to be spending a lot of time near the surface. We stopped and drifted to take pictures. It is unlawful to approach within 500 yards of whales, so we stayed well off and tried to get pictures with a telephoto lens. This was proving difficult as our drifting boat bopped on the waves. We suddenly realized that the whales had changed direction and were heading directly at us, approaching the port side and swimming on or near the surface. A bit or a lot of panic set in, but we decided it was best to let them avoid us, and so we continued to drift. They approached quickly and, at the very last second, slid under Ariel, resurfacing just on the other side. We were breathing a sigh of relief when we heard a loud noise behind us. We hadn't noticed, but one had paused just off our stern, no more than six feet away, and the noise was a rush of air from the blowhole. They continued on their way, as did we. It was a wonderful and unexpected experience. Unfortunately, we did not get any close-up pictures as we had a telephoto lens on the camera. These were Humpback whales.

The humpback whale is a baleen whale and a rorqual whale that sings amazing songs. It performs complex and cooperative feeding techniques. The humpback has a bulky head with bumpy protuberances (tubercles), each with a bristle. Humpbacks are the acrobats of the ocean, breaching and slapping the water. They live in pods and have 2 blowholes. The name humpback describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive.

Sharing Cuttyhunk With Wind Chaser

Brain and Jan joined us for a visit to Cuttyhunk. This wasn't a planned stop for them, so we were so happy they changed their plans so we could show it off. They also like to walk, and Cuttyhunk is a great place to do so. It was very crowded in the mooring field, so we anchored in the outer harbor, which worked out well. As soon as the anchors were safely set, we went into the town docks and began to explore the island. We ended with ice cream on the pier and made plans for breakfast the next morning. If on Cuttyhunk, be sure to have breakfast at the Cuttyhunk Fishing Club, now a Bed and Breakfast. It is outdoor dining looking across the water toward Martha's Vineyard. It is reached by walking across a lawn area next to the coast. The menu is extensive, the portions large, and the food fabulous. After a hearty breakfast, we did some more walking and island exploring. We had plans to leave at noon, so we said goodbye at the town dock, and we were soon on our way. Our next stop was Onset Bay, which is just next to the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. Onset is a wonderful small Cape Cod town. It is a picture-perfect bay looking in all directions. The people were friendly, with so many on vacation or at their summer homes. We stayed two nights, and it is a place we will return to.

On the way to the Cuttyhunk Fishing Club

Onset Bay