Portland, Maine

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 20 Jul 2013 12:15

43:39.7N 70:14.2W

 

Friday 19th July

 

Another calm warm morning and after a leisurely breakfast we dropped the lines off the buoy and headed off between two of the islands and set sail for Portland.

 

This was a 50 mile trip and as promised the wind quickly filled in and in no time at all we had 15 knots from dead astern and so we set the foresail on a pole and the main sail out on the opposite side, held happily in place by the boom brake. As the wind picked up to 20 knots and more we forged on at speeds between 7 and 8 knots all the way.

 

We saw a fin whale in the middle distance and were a little disappointed and then halfway through the trip a  massive fin whale blew and surfaced immediately behind us having just swum under us! This was very impressive and we watched as it swam majestically off into the distance, diving and surfacing and blowing hard.

 

About 15 miles out of Portland and still some 6 miles offshore, we were joined by a rather confused juvenile robin. This poor bird was heading out to sea presumably looking for land, which was going to be tricky as the next landmass ahead of it was Europe! It circled round and landed on our stern and then several times flew off, again heading out to sea, before circling round and returning. Finally it realised that its best bet lay with staying with us and so it remained on-board, wandering around and being very friendly until we got pretty close to Portland and it was able to smell the land and doubtless feel the intense heat that assailed us as well. At this point it flew off and after heading again out to sea for a few minutes it seemed to realise the error of its ways and turned and flew towards the welcoming shore.

 

The wind increased as we approached the islands guarding the entrance to Portland and we swept past the impressive fortresses and gun emplacements, entering the harbour at a very respectable 9.4 knots!

 

We dropped anchor in almost the same spot as last year (although Eric Clapton was not here this time)  and we settled back and relaxed, and spotted that one of the yachts on the buoys nearby was Nimue. We had not seen Michael and Anne since we were last in Antigua back in March 2012 so it was great to catch up with them again.