Camden, Maine , U.S.A.
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 15 Aug 2011 14:36
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MONDAY 15th AUGUST
2011
Here we are in Camden, a beautifull town in
Maine and once the H.Q of MBNA credit card fame.
At 07.30hrs this morning we had a visit from Brian
Smullen, ( ICC) who has a house here in Camden,
Brian is from Ireland but spends a lot of
his time between London and Camden, We had a great chat and will
meet
him for lunch at the yacht club, He has
offered us his mooring here in the bay as his yacht " Cuilaun" is on the
south
coast of England at present,
Now back to Last Thursday 11th
, We left Maple Juice Cove in sunny conditions and made our way
through
all the Lobster pot bouys down the river and then
east along to Winter Harbor in " Vinalhaven," a large Island ,,,
The overall scenery was spectacular, we passed
through many little Islands and semi sumerged Rock outcrops,
We also had " Lady Bug " ( a Super Amel ) for
company on the trip across, about 36 miles in total,
There was a nice soft 11 knot breeze so we had
a 3 hour sail in ideal conditions,
There was a great collection of Light houses, old
schooners, fishing trawlers, sea birds etc.on our way to
Winter Harbor which we arrived at 16.00hrs,
Aileen and skipper then took a boat ride in the rib ( dingy )
around the corner into seal harbor and explored
this Wooded estuary, the place had many seals ( hence the name )
and a scattering of boats,
We went to " Lady Bug " Miles & Lisa's
boat for a drink before returning to " A Lady " for a stuffed chicken dinner,
A truely beautifull location once again, and
to think we are here as a result of a chance meeting with
our N.B.F 's Tom & Linda Delaney
back in Connecticut. who, unfortunatly they did not make the trip in the
end as a result of a family situation,
Friday 12th ,
We did a tour of winter harbor in the dingy and
then went ashore and had a 2 mile walk before returning to " A Lady
"
and raising the anchor and sailing east to Burnt
Cove in " Swan Island" a distance of 16.5 miles,
Skipper was still mesmerized by all the
lobster pots, the bouy's looked like fields of floating smarties, with all the
different
colours, shapes and sizes,
It was another beautifull day in a sailing
paradise, with clear blue skies, warm weather and flat sea's.
We invited Miles & Linda,
Lynn & Peggy Comfort, John & Candice Frawley, Peter
and Betty Kelly, for a few drinks
on board " A Lady " before going ashore at 18.oohrs
for cocktails and to meet all the other fellow sailors once more,
A good night was had by all, and as always here in
America, bed early ,,,,, Up early and bed early,
Saturday 13th ,
Another beautifull day , so up early and we both
went ashore for a 2 mile walk, trying to keep ourselves in some
sort
of shape, This is a big lobster port as we watched
the trawlers unload their days catches ,
A typical boat ( fishing from 05.00hrs to 17.00hrs
) would land approx. 800 lbs of lobster, thats a lot of lobster and
there
are two varieties, the soft shell lobster and the
hard lobster, the soft one is much better value at half the price
of the other, thats $3.50c per
lb.
Its no wonder people get "lobstered out" by the end
of the summer , but it all good....
We left Burnt Cove at 11.00hrs in the company
of " pastime" ( Pieter and Joanna de Zwart ) and had agreed before
hand
to stop for lunch at " Mc Glathery Island " which
was 3 miles short of our destination at Webb harbor on Deer Island,
Past time is an Ex 44.2,
On the way we got snagged in a flippen submerged
lobster pot line, Gawd , can you believe that ! skipper had to
do a lot of semi submerged body work in freezing
water to cut some of the ropes free, but even at that we still had
lines around the prop. Aileen put the engine
in reverse and walla ! out shot the lines and a couple of chopped up
bouys and we were free, phew , what a
relief, we carried on around the corner and dropped anchor for
lunch, Pieter
& Joanna , (who stood bye while we untangled
ourselves from the pots, ) came over to us on " A Lady " and we
spent an hour or so in this beautifull bay before
heading off again to our destination,
We dropped anchor in Webb Cove, took out our Kite
and flew that toy in 12 knots of breeze,
we also paid a visit to " Isla" a recently and
beautifully restored S&S New York 32, these timber
boats
are wonderfull, but having a timber is like having
a desease, we know, we have " Cruachan " a loch Fyne skiff,
built in Ardrishig , Scotland, in 1896,,,
18.00hrs We all went ashore for a
B.B.Q. a BYO food and drink , except the Lobster and salmon were
supplied
at 14$ pp...... we had a great time in beautifull surroundings , just a few bites
that are still hurting today.........
21.00hrs, it was all over and we returned to the
boats,
Sunday 14th
07.30hrs We hauled a real muddy 30m of anchor
chain which had to be washed as it came on board, all this took
about 30 minutes and then we were on our way,
We stopped around the corner at Stoneington ,
Aileen hopped off the boat and ran up the hill to Mass in the local
church while skipper took the boat out into the
river again and waited untill the second mate returned to be
collected
again at the tiny marina,
We then went west through " The Thorofare" this is
a passage between Vinalhaven and Northhaven, the weather got
very cold and and we had some light rain for a
while, but it set the scene for the rest of the day.
Skipper thought we had a moorings arranged in "
Camden " with the Yacht Club by the New York YC. but not so !
this goes back to Donal Mc Clement's usual
suggestion, which is R.T.F.M.... "read the friggin
manual", if we read the
leaflet given us by the New York YC we would have
seen that we had to arrange our own moorings, ahhh well
we just have to drop anchor again,
Skipper spent the afternoon cleaning the dingy as
it got destroyed during the lobster pot incedent, aileen went to
" Peter pan " in the local Opera house and said it
was a great show,
18.00hrs, We went ashore and joined all the
other sailors and local friends for the final drinks and dinner held
in the Camden Y.C. It was a great night and
eventually we made our way back to the boat via " Lady Bug" where we
dropped
off Miles & Lisa ......
Soooooo, Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper )
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