Portland, Maine - While my guitar gently weeps.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 2 Aug 2012 04:00

43:39.75N 70:14.23W

 

 

Mon, Tues & Wed – 30th, 31st July & 1st August

 

Beautiful day for the birthday boy, who was so impressed and touched by all the cards which had been secretly sent to Boston Harbor Shipyard and smuggled on board with the help of the perfect marina manager, Pat.   Rob was less impressed at the option of healthy walks without the chance of alcoholic celebration on a dry island amongst religious retreat-ees!

 

We had woken to discover all our neighbours bar two, had slunk off over the horizon, so we went ashore for an energetic yomp across the headlands.   But after visiting the retreat's reception and discovering that these tiny islands represent the poison ivy centre of the universe, where is grows in many different disguises to anything as tall as a 6' shrub on the island of Appledore, we developed a mincing gait avoiding anything growing except grass.   (Incidentally the infamous Capt John Smith, who we hear about everywhere we go on the East Coast, actually imported poison ivy as a new and attractive plant from the colonies to England -  luckily it obviously didn't thrive!)   Added to this there was the other hazard of nesting gulls:   July is chick raising time and there are as many as 3000 gulls on these islands, specifically Herring and Black Backed Gulls with wing spans of up to 5.5ft and beaks which looked to be a good 3"!   The bird guide book told us that they are especially aggressive in the morning, evening and after the chicks have hatched - great!    Apparently if you hold a stick aloft they will attack the highest point, rather than your head.   But find a stick on treeless islands.....

 

So we walked around Star Island with the very large buildings of the ex-hotel, now a religious retreat and had a quick coffee settled in rocking chairs on their elevated porch - while Rob decided that he was never likely to come and enjoy the prayer meetings there!   But it was a beautiful island with quirky monuments, gravestones (all over the place) including a pets’ graveyard, rock circles, cairns, allotments divided up with bottles (so somewhere someone was drinking!) and everything built in granite or clapboard.

 

We then took the dinghy over to another island, the wonderfully named Smuttynose island, for a further walk, but eventually were beaten back by more gulls – trying to walk on a path beneath gulls standing guard on the walls with completely gormless chicks scurrying around one's feet was just too intimidating!

 

So back to the boat and yet more of the wonderful banana cake courtesy of Maryann, when we were hailed by Saltwhistle III.   We fleetingly met Tony and Rachel in Tortola just as we were about to leave for the US and have heard them on the OCC radio net recently and dipped into their blog as well.   We were delighted to invite them for a drink on board which turned into the rest of the afternoon and evening and made Rob's birthday a whole lot more jollier occasion!   And finally five seals did a patrol around the harbour at dusk.

 

On Monday we set off at 0600 hours north to Portland, Maine to meet up with Il Sogno for a further birthday celebration.   They had so very kindly sailed back West to meet us, and as usual gave us the lowdown on the area, where to anchor and the oh so precious wifi code.   Our sail was the usual motorsail but with a positive tide and some aft wind, with the jib poled out we made reasonable time and were there for early afternoon.   Again it was a case of anchoring behind the mooring field and the best spot just happened to be immediately behind a large, old-fashioned, British flagged motor yacht called Blue Guitar belonging to and with the owner on board, a certain Mr Eric Clapton.   Oddly Eric didn't seem interested in celebrating Rob's belated birthday, in fact, poor chap was being constantly circled by small boats taking photos.

 

Craig and Karene treated us to a delicious supper of salmon and tuna sushi in a mixture (that was the official description!), followed by mussels in a Thai curry broth with vegetables, and then blueberries with lemon curd.  The following day was spent in more gastronomic pursuit - coffee and pastries, chips cooked in duck fat (a local speciality cafe) followed by a mooch round Whole Foods (the world's most fantastic organic supermarket chain - with prices to match) and a huge pizza there.   And tonight Craig is barbecuing Rob his promised steak;  their generosity knows no bounds.   Honestly we cannot work out how these two stay so trim.   In between mealtimes, Karene and I visited the Portland Arts Museum seeing a number of Winslow Homer oil paintings (sadly no water colours), NC and Andrew Wyeths, and even an interesting (ie not the ghastly usual chocolate box affair) early Renoir.   Rob and Craig meanwhile checked out a microbrewery…..