44.11.800N   068.35.740W

Thursday we left the peaceful Orcutt Harbour and headed back down the Reach with a bit of light wind sailing and round to Billings Cove on Deer Isle.

This was to be the start of a very sociable couple of days as we were now ready for the CCA “Gam” at Billings Cove, ashore in the lovely garden of the Roy’s house, tucked into the trees on the shore ( 18 miles ).

Friday morning a knock on the hull and it was Bob Drew (RCC) who has now sold his “Knight Hawk” which I had been aboard at Loch Aline and Ardfern! Ashore the rum keg was opened at 11.30 and while lunch was slightly delayed ( the caterer had got the day wrong! ) there was plenty of chat.

Two brothers in a power boat were very excited to see “Moonbeam” as they had sailed on her often with Bill Rothschild including the Bermuda Race. A very pleasant few hours which also brought offers of dock space in South Carolina and Florida should we decide to head south via the Intra Coastal Waterway.

Several of the yachts were heading up to Canada and as the forecast was for fog in the morning we decided to head west through Deer Isle Thorofare past the lobster port of Stonington and to Isleboro in Penobscot Bay.   25 miles logged.

Here we headed into Gilkey Harbour for the Seven Seas Cruising Association “Down East Gam” to which we had been invited! We anchored just as it was going dark at 20.30- just ahead of Terry and Debbie in “Wings” whom we had not seen since the Bahamas!

Luckily, another lovely morning and we headed ashore with the crews of about 50 other yachts for a “potluck” lunch in yet another lovely garden belonging to a cruiser!

Here everybody brings a part of a main course or sweet to contribute to a big buffet and there is a BBQ for cooking meat. It was an impressive spread.

Another enjoyable few hours meeting many interesting people including the 92/85 year old couple with their Halberg 42 and a couple who have lived on their 32ft sloop for the last 13 years!

We were the only Brits and as usual the enjoyable target for folk declaring their Scottish ancestry- some of it obvious with a yacht called “Abbotsford”!

Late afternoon we moved anchorage to the more sheltered Cradle Cove where we were joined by 2 Maine Schooners that do skippered charter.