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Date: 05 Aug 2012 03:11:21
Title: Snow Island, Quahog bay, Maine
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43:48.69N 69:54.49W

 

 

Thurs, Fri & Sat – 2nd, 3rd & 4th August

 

Presumably in the morning Il Sogno left for their dash back south to meet up with friends - it was difficult to tell as we could barely see more than a boat length away in the fog.   Weirdly the decks were bone dry.   I set off for a quick dash into town to find some new wellies (one pair in transit following the soles falling off my posh Dubarrys, and the rubber ones soles became lethally glassy following the hot lay up in the Caribbean), so of course the fog miraculously cleared leaving me overdressed in the humid sun.   Visited the other chandlery I had noticed on the sea front to discover that it deals with off-shore oil vessels, not your average yacht!   So settled for a pair from Hamilton Marine, by far the cheapest I have seen at $54 - yes it does seem an awful lot for a fisherman's pair of ankle boots, but they are loads more comfortable than the yachtie ones at $85!

 

We were then going to take a taxi into the mall with Tony and Rachael from Saltwhistle III, but laundry malfunctions postponed this till the next day.   So we returned to town to find a hardware store (eventually decided it was just too far in the heat having walked much of the distance) and had a general meander around the shops, spotting an extra-wide wheelchair rider on the way.....!   A few drinks with Tony and Rachel on our return until the descending fog made it too cold to stay on deck and went home for an early night.

 

Caught a taxi into the Maine Mall next morning - Tony in the front seat, exposed to the taxi driver's rants.   Rob and I did some winter clothes shopping, and Rob then found a tool nirvana in Sears.   Tony and Rachel were off to buy an iPad, although they had heard our tales of woe, they were confident that their Travelex debit card would circumvent the ridiculous AT&T computerised requirements.   And inevitably it didn't, resulting in an automatic refund by cheque for $75 (for the Green Dot card they had bought under AT&T's direction) to be sent somewhere at some time within the mall!   They also ended up with a 2.5 hour debacle which was satisfactorily concluded after a break for lunch.   The solution was to buy another type of pre-paid debit card - we'll find out the make and put it up in the yachting resources section of the website should anyone else get into this situation....(This includes any Ipad owners hoping to use AT & T when they get to the USA)   And they were given items in lieu of the lack of refund.   It was agreed that the staff did stick at it and tried to solve the problem.

 

Back in town, I went off to find a haircut.   The Vietnamese woman who cut it had two long discussions about how I wanted it and then proceeded to tell me how she was cutting it, and that it would be much better this way..... well, actually not really, but at least it’s less irritating and will grow out!

 

Friday morning I did a quick shop at Whole Foods to see us through the next few days of sailing where we don't expect to find any grocery stores, or very limited supplies.   In fact I am beginning to think that we are getting to the stage of eating up the food stores on board before we lay up - and we still have quite a lot of lurking tins stored in the bilge from the Med.   Then we up-anchored and started the weave through lobster pot buoys out to sea.

 

From now on we will be heading generally in an easterly direction as Maine curves around to the Canadian seaboard, but all the rivers, bays and headlands run in a north-east/south-west direction.   So passages take the form of getting to the sea heading east and then ducking up a convenient bay or around an island to avoid the prevailing southerly winds and swell, ie quite time-consuming for the amount of progress made eastwards.   And all the activity takes place within lobster fishing areas; you have to get into water of at least 85m when they finally stop laying the damn things.

 

Not being too sure how much time slaloming through the buoys would add to the voyage we erred on the safe side and only travelled 18 miles up the Quahog Bay (much more of a river really) to Snow Island (owned by the late, great Dodge Morgan.   A man who made his millions in radar and then was the first American, but the 4th person to sail non-stop around the world), arriving mid-afternoon.   As the biggest yacht (with a forward looking echo sounder not enjoying the murky depths) we didn't press in too far into the anchorage, particularly as we had arrived at just after high tide.   It seemed a wide and very pretty bay - and it still was 4 hours later, but a lot smaller as all the rocks and islands became more and more extensive as the tide ebbed and fell dramatically.   And it is strange to be out of Portland harbour with all the wakes and stern-slapping we have been experiencing, to end up here in such completely still and near silent waters.

 

There was a lot of swimming going on and Active Captain does say that the waters up the head of the bays are much warmer, so I took the plunge (well a slow sidle down the swimming ladder) and gave Serafina's waterline a good clean.   The water wasn't that clear but the barnacles are definitely winning the battle and covering the bottom of poor Serafina as we get to the end of our sailing season.

 

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