Rockland, Maine

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Fri 10 Aug 2012 13:13

44:06.01N 69:05.66W

 

 

Wednesday & Thursday -  8th & 9th August

 

Well we cannot go any further with report without commenting on the very courteous lobster fishermen based in Port Clyde. We were anchored in the bay, but it was necessary for them to come past us on their way out and back, yet rather than power fast at full speed with all the attendant noise and wash, they all pottered past very carefully and only opened up their engines when well clear of us. And given that this started at 0500 hours, we were very grateful indeed.

 

We got away ourselves around 0800 hours and threaded our way through the fields of buoys towards the open Atlantic again. But this all seemed a bit easy, so we opted to take a more scenic route threading our way using the chart plotter, forward looking sonar and very eagle eyes through the granite rocks and islands (and those pesky brightly coloured buoys)  until we finally approached the big anchorage at Rockland.

 

This is a massive open space and we simply picked a convenient spot just outside the field of mooring buoys and anchored. We had been in touch by phone with a company here who we hope can pop out and fix our heater. OK we are getting flak about wanting the heater fixed, but it is not getting any warmer here and we are still edging north (even though locally it is known as going ‘down east’) and unless I am mistaken, Canada and polar bears lie up here! It seems that our diesel heater is a bit upset that we have not attempted to use it since May 2008 and so an expert has been summoned, but of course cannot come until tomorrow…..

 

So Sarah and I took our dinghy to the public landing dock along with a huge bag of laundry. Sarah eschewed the single machine available dockside and we ended up walking three quarters of a mile on the hottest day for a while, to the nearest laundrymat where they had acres of machines which made the job a good deal quicker. I set off to find the marina where the repair team were located so as to show my face and ensure that they really were going to send someone out in the morning. To add to the misery, our US phone has gone on the blink and of course this turns out to be the only town in the entire country that does not have an AT & T phone shop in the high street. Actually since the arrival of all the big out of town malls, there are very few shops of any description in towns now. Rockland boasts wall to wall art galleries and a museum, a few jewellers, two antique shops and loads of coffee shops. There is a Hamilton Marine which is a budget West Marine chandlery operation, but this branch seems to have cornered the market in untrained staff, which is quite a remarkable achievement in this country. In the meantime I had visited the Samsung phones technical support website and had a ‘live chat’ with Natalie. I detailed our problem and said it was urgent and her reply was to say how sorry she was to hear this. That was it! So I asked if that was the full technical response and this did galvanise her into some action, none of which actually solved anything of course. Turns out that At & T have no coverage in Maine beyond Portland and so we need another phone to cover this state, but this we only found out from one of their competitors.

 

We do feel that we need to mention a bit more about the wonderful wildlife here in Maine. Seals, porpoises, bald eagles, ospreys, guillemots, gannets and eider ducks are all run of the mill and there is some talk of plentiful lobsters…. Not too sure how the lobster farming works, but each fisherman is allowed to set up to 800 traps and given the number of fishermen here, the math(s) is frightening. They have a size limit and throw back any that are too small or females with eggs – so edible size is 7 years plus. But given that the sea bed is almost just one endless cage, we fail to understand how these animals even begin to breed or develop. We were told by one British boat (no names Moonbeam) that it is simply farming by another name as they put food in the cages and in march the lobsters to eat it all up. The small ones are thrown back and simply march into the next cage and eat that set of bait and continue to be thrown back until they hit the magic size and are brought ashore. So it must be something of a fairground ride for them as they eat, get hauled to the surface and then free dive back down for another go. Turns out that there is some science involved and we know a lot more about lobsters now than we did a week ago, and so I may explain a bit more about this another day!

 

Wednesday started rather earlier than we had hoped as another thick fog had descended on the area and so all the boats on the move were sounding their fog horns from 0400 hours onwards. Sarah went ashore to visit an art museum and gallery or five and I stayed on-board to meet and greet the engineer. Nick from Journey’s End Marina arrived around midday to determine that the fault lay in the timing switch, but as the Swedes who built the boat had elected to modify the connector in their own inimitable style, he needed to get a new part from Rhode Island. The hope is that this will arrive tomorrow morning.

 

Sarah:  I had a good look round Farnsworth Museum which majors on the Wyeth family, grandfather NC (of Treasure Island illustration fame), father Andrew (Christina’s World) and son Jamie (lots of aggressive gulls) who have had or have various houses around Maine.  Then trawled all the various galleries which are pretty impressive – and some stunning jewellery as well.   The light quality in Maine is one of those places that sets artists drooling and consequently the whole state seems to be one big art gallery – so not necessarily  Rob’s favourite destination!   But I did manage to coax him in for a chocolate and almond Bear’s Paw (what you and I would call a croissant really) fit to compete with those in St Maarten!

 

We met up in the late afternoon and as I came ashore to pick Sarah up, I was invited to attend the party to celebrate the opening of a new boat storage facility (shed) in the Journey’s End boatyard. So we rolled up and having chatted briefly to the only two members of staff we knew, we set about destroying all our pre-rally diet plans (they started today) by tucking into some really great food and drink. We introduced ourselves to Mike who it transpired was a retired wooden boat builder who lives in Port Clyde and after giving us loads of advice about where to go and what to see around the coast of Maine (he also was a professional boat skipper and ran various local boat services) he ended by inviting us to visit his place when we next passed by Port Clyde. Sarah was by now feeling guilty about us enjoying the hospitality at the party and so we returned to Serafina.