CAMDEN TO EGGEMOGGIN REACH, MAINE, 44:14.60N 68:33.40W
Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Fri 17 Aug 2018 15:22
1.8 We awoke to Fog in Winter Harbor, we took our dinghy up the creek to explore, and found places where granite had been quarried and loaded onto barges. At noon we raised our anchor and went past the Deer island Thoroughfare Lighthouse, one of about 75 lighthouses in Maine, although many have been sold off as private homes, or house local museums. We stopped in Stonington for a few provisions, could not buy lobsters, although it is the Lobster capital of Maine, most of the lobsters are transported elsewhere. We left the rolly anchorage with hundreds of lobster boats arriving and leaving, and crept through more fog and thousands of lobster pot buoys to anchor only 15 miles away in Deer Island. We caught a yellow buoy, but managed to leave it unscathed a hundred yards away from where we snagged it. These buoys, with their lobster traps and often 50 metres of line, are worth about $150 each to the lobster-men, who have about 800 of them each. sometimes, as we approach a grey and white buoy, it becomes a seagull, and flies away!
The next day, after exploring the rocky coastline, we motored 10 miles to anchor at Swan’s Island, where we again explored the coastline in our dinghy.
3.8 We raised our anchor and ran into an unmarked rock, luckily with our lifting centreboard we were soon away from it, and headed 8.5 miles to Eggemoggin Reach. We have mmmhad problems with our phone systems, sometimes David’s worked and sometimes ours did, but we did get a message from Allison and Mark that they had managed to arrange for David and Roland to crew on the wonderful classic, ‘Black Watch’ in the Eggemoggin Reach regatta. Our friends and neighbours from NZ, Louise and Steven, in their beautiful new schooner, ‘Wolfhound’ had arrived from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and fired off their cannon, before coming across to ‘Restless’ for dinner.
4.8 our phones let us down again, and we were unable to connect with Olivia to wish her a happy birthday. We awoke to find a breeze had sprung up, with ideal racing conditions for the fleet of 100 beautiful classic yachts that had arrived during the previous day. The race committee chairman at the Skippers meeting, warned that “the lobstermen of Maine have worked out that all the Lobsters in the World are living in the waters of the race-course” so everyone should keep a close watch for the lobster-pot-buoys. Fair Warning! Louise and Steven took Allison and Consie out in their schooner to watch the start of the race, which set off into fog, and it was a fast and exciting race. Louise and Steven fired their cannon again on Black Watch’s return, second across the line. They actually won when it turned out the first boat had missed some of the marks.
There followed drinks and BBQ dinner ashore for several hundred, the meals just being served before heavy rain arrived, which did not stop the prize-giving and dancing until 11pm. The next morning we awoke to sunshine and sleepy sailors getting breakfast before setting off home. We said au revoir to new friends and old, and set off south, as David was returning to Scotland.
