44.17.131N   068.18.867W

Southwest Harbour   9.2 miles logged

Thursday morning we hoisted sails and left the harbour and headed for Mount Desert Island. In the fairway the fishermen had sprung a surprise for the Wilkie’s.

We had got used to the lobster buoys and unlike home they always seemed to use weighted ropes so the lines hang vertically which is essential when you have to thread your way through the buoys often only 15ft apart. We knew and had already seen that in some places they use a second float on a pennant that may be up to 30ft long but in theory the buoys have the same “unique” colour so you can identify which ones are joined.

Leaving Frenchboro we were sailing well down wind and had just stopped the engine and as we threaded our way through the floats I was suddenly aware of our speed decreasing and as I looked astern we could see that we were towing a yellow float! This of course happened in 20 knots of wind; the most we have seen for weeks so we dropped the sails and hanging over the side realised that the line with a white float was caught around the prop. Luckily by gybing the boat around with a bit of genoa and catching a line with a boathook it eventually freed itself!

We continued to head north past Great Gott Island which was settled by the Gott family in  the 1800  ( I might be related via Mum’s side of the family! ). Leaving Great Cranberry Island to starboard we entered Mount Desert and headed for South West Harbour where we picked up a CCA mooring in a quiet spot just north of the harbour itself.

Here we recognised a Morris yacht who we had spoken to in the Bahamas and chatting to Doug he invited us for a drink in his lovely “summer” house overlooking the anchorage.

Friday we caught the Acadia National Park free bus up to the supermarket ( last visited provisioning “Escapade” a few years ago ) and topped up stores and after lunch we headed for Little Cranberry Island where we had a rendezvous with new friends who were just finishing a charter holiday.

We ended up in a lovely restaurant with the Blatchs and the Kellets so it was a RCC/CCA event- great food at an amazingly busy restaurant built on piles over the harbour- I imagine it can seat about 150 people which must be more than the population of the island!

Back to Moonbeam for drinks afterwards and hear the Kellets’ stories of cruising on Moonbeam in the 1980’s!

What should have been a lovely quiet night was shattered about 03.30 when a lobster boat returned and they all seem to have unsilenced dry exhaust stacks so afterwards there always seemed to be one we could hear for the next few hours!