Maple Juice Cove

 Location:  Maple Juice Cove, Maine (1-Oct-12)

Camden Sunrise

We arrived in Maple Juice Cove yesterday afternoon.  It is a small cove on the west side of the George River, just north of Port Clyde.  Very picturesque and a good place to wait out the southwest wind which is blowing 20-25 knots today.  We spent the weekend in Camden, Maine, an artistic town on the west side of Penobscot Bay.  There were a lot of things going on in Camden over the weekend, an independent film festival, an art fair and the fall library book sale.  Of course, we went to the book sale and picked up a few books and also tested out some of the breakfast places.  Our friends from Boothbay Harbor, Brian and Kathy, came up Saturday night and stayed out on the boat with us.  We wandered around town, went to Reny’s (a Maine Department store, hard to describe but they have a little bit of everything), had a beer and a bowl of chowder and then went out to the boat.  We decided to have dinner on board so Brian cooked a gourmet meal of salad and pan-fried cod.  For those of you who are tired of the sunset pictures, here is a sunrise picture looking out over Camden Harbor. 

The last post was sent from the Southwest Harbor library where we spent the day catching up on e-mails and other electronica type stuff, plus laundry and some re-provisioning. We picked up a mooring in the harbor and spent a few days there.Southwest Harbor borders Acadia National Park.There is a free bus service that will drive you around the island and drop you off at various campgrounds, picnic areas, hiking areas, etc. so we rode the bus to Echo Lake and then hiked back to town.We saw a few deer on the walk down the hill.

Acadia Deer

Southwest Harbor has some very pretty gardens and the trees are just starting to change color.



SW Harbor Autumn

SW Harbor Flower Garden



 

 

Watching from the boat, we saw a lot of other activity in the harbor.  A landing craft was continuously coming into port and loading catering trucks and other vehicles and transporting them out to Cranberry Island.  When we went alongside to get water, the harbormaster told us that a very expensive wedding was being prepared on the island, with caterers, etc. all coming from New York City.  Apparently one of the daughters of the dad sponsoring this wedding had gotten married out there a couple of years ago and that wedding cost over a million dollars so dad was doing it again for the next daughter.  Quite a production and interesting to see.  We also watched two whale watching vessels from the Boston area come up to get hauled out at the Hinckley Yard.  One of these was the same vessel that was out whale watching when Heather took the video of the humpback whales close of our boat.  You can see the vessel waiting in the harbor while the other one is up on the lift.

Whale Watching Boat in the travel lift

Boston Whale Watching Boat in SW Harbor

We have been doing a lot of hiking/walking lately and not just to the Napa Auto Parts Store and Home Depot.  Between Roque Island and SW Harbor, we stopped in Sorrento and walked around town before moving to Flanders Bay to anchor up for the night.  In SW Harbor, we did the Acadia hike.  From there we moved and anchored near Holbrook Island, across the river from Castine and hiked around town.  Dave used to live in Castine when his kids were little, so we walked by the old homestead, wandered thru the Maine Maritime Academy Campus and ate mussels down at the waterfront.  Here is a picture of the house they lived in. 


Castine Home

From Castine, we went to Warren Island State Park, where we packed our lunch and hiked around the island.  They had free visitor moorings and nobody was around except us and one sail boat so we spent the night there and then moved to Winter Harbor on the east side Vinalhaven Island the next morning.  The Fox Island Thoroughfare runs between Northhaven and Vinalhaven Islands.  This is a picture of the lighthouse on the east side of the thoroughfare.



Fox Island Thoroughfare Lighthose

 

We anchored in Winter Harbor and took the dinghy exploring.  Tidal ranges here are 10 feet in most areas, which means you can access places using the dinghy at high tide that are inaccessible by boat at low water.  We went over to Seal Bay, landed the dinghy and hiked around in the woods, then went out the north side of Seal Bay and back down into Winter Harbor. 


B with the dinghy in Winter Harbor

The wind really picked up during the night, so the next morning we moved to Pulpit Harbor on Northhaven Island.  You can see the wind shear by the cloud formations in this picture.  It also looks like there is a "weather window" in the cloud formation.



Clouds, Winter Harbor

 

We stayed in Pulpit Harbor about a month ago.  This time there were a lot fewer boats anchored up although a windjammer (schooner) did come in an anchor next to us.  On Tuesday afternoon, we took the dinghy ashore to walk the ½ mile to the grocery store.  We followed our iphone google map instructions to get to the store and ended up walking a 7-mile loop without finding it.  We tried again the next day, and sure enough, following the directions provided in the cruising guide, we found the store right where they said it would be.  We bought a six-pack of beer and some chips, and wandered back to the boat for a well-deserved happy hour.



Schooner, Pulpit Harbor

On Thursday, we moved across the bay from Pulpit Harbor to Camden and spent Thursday afternoon and Friday re-provisioning and doing chores (laundry) and minor maintenance so that we could relax and enjoy Saturday.  Tomorrow we are headed to Robin Hood Cove and then on to Portland, Maine.