Soames Sound, South West Harbor, Maine

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 1 Aug 2013 02:27

44:7.1N 68:8.3W

 

Wednesday 31st July

 

We were up and away by 0630 hours in a valiant attempt to catch some tidal flow along the coast of Maine as we headed west back to Mount Desert Island.  Not sure that we ever received any benefit and the currents along this shoreline remain a total mystery to us and the pilot books.

 

We again had to weave our way through carpets of buoys and made our way south before turning west along the coastline. The wind had picked up a bit this stage but with only 15 miles to cover, we opted to enjoy the wonderful sunshine, the fresh breeze for sailing and the total absence of fog - Hurrah. So we hoisted Flossie again and had the most wonderful sail way offshore, before tacking to head back in and up to Soames Sound.  The wind came and went throughout the morning and so accordingly we indulged James with countless sail changes, ensuring him the most effective set up at all times. This was rewarded by some consistent speeds and again we managed 9+ knots for part of the time.  Equally we did find ourselves sometimes losing ground and reduced to some gentle mackerel fishing (we hooked just the one lone chap and he fell off the hook as we tried to bring him on-board) but Flossie responds so quickly to the lightest of breezes that it was rare indeed to be going slow enough for this!

 

The approach to Soames Sound, by way of North West Harbor was probably the densest carpet of buoys yet, and so we slalomed our way through these at speeds between 6 and 8 knots with all three of us on deck charting our way through the massed ranks of bobbing multi-coloured floats. Finally we emerged unscathed into the sound and made our way to the anchorage where we dropped the sails and dropped the hook. Hovering nearby was an inflatable dinghy and once we had set the anchor and were putting stuff away, the dinghy edged over and the driver hailed us. By a remarkable chance he was the man who had bought our first yacht (a Najad 400 called Serafina) and he lives in London, but he and his family (also in the dinghy) had just flown out to Maine to charter a yacht here for two weeks. They were just taking a look at the Sound when they spotted us heading into the anchorage. He recognised it as a Najad and was stunned on getting closer to see that it was the new Serafina with us on board! He had subsequently sold the yacht back in 2009 to its current owners (who renamed her Mawari) and whom we had met in St Lucia in 2011 heading for New Zealand.

 

I should point out to those unfamiliar with the USA that place names are something of a repeating lottery and that the term ‘harbor’ (sic) sometimes means a small port and sometimes refers to nothing more than an empty bay or pond.