Swan's Island, Maine "44:08.37N 68:26.69W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 10 Jul 2011 00:40
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Those of you reading this who have been paying
close attention will recall that we were to leave Boston in a hurry early on
Wednesday morning to catch tide and wind. Well, we did, and after the wind
filled in late morning we had a fabulous sail in bright sunshine on a broad
reach and a calm sea for the rest of the day using our cruising chute now tamed
with our new snuffer (a large sock and bucket which is used to dowse
[snuff] the sail with a short-handed crew). The wind freshened in the evening
and we made great progress at 6-8kts. But a fierce thunderstorm developed to the
north of us as it got dark and knocked out our southeasterly wind. We had to
motor from 2300hrs through to 1400hrs the next day in a flat calm (weather
forecast wrong again) - very frustrating, to say the least. We got so fed up
that we abandoned our destination of Bar Harbor and came here to Swan's Island
instead - and what a wonderful place it is.
The island is named after James Swan, an eighteenth
century Scot who had the most extraordinary history - too long to relate
here so if you want to know more and can be bothered you'll have to Google him.
It is very like the west of Scotland -conifers and granite and lots of biting
flies of various sizes - and very beautiful. Most of the Maine coast has been
ground almost flat by glaciers so there are no real hills, but a myriad of small
islands (3000 at least). And there are at a
conservative estimate, 3 000 000 lobsterpots for only 1m people.
Here is the entrance to Burnt Coat Harbor. Note the
lobsterpot buoys which the fishermen seem to place in greater density in
anything that could be called a fairway.
 And here is the harbour. There is only one industry
here - lobstering. No agriculture and no fishing. Just lobstering. Vulcan Spirit
in the background.
 And here is the brand new library built for a
population of just over 300 people. We're closing ours in the UK; in the USA
they're building them, even in very remote spots like this. I wonder who's
got it right? Swan's Island also has a rarity in America - a Tea Room. Run by an
ex-English (she's a US citizen now) lady and her friend. It's new too, and
great, and doing great business. I even arranged for Alison to get a much needed
bath here for $10 - her first for over a year.
And here is the other half of the crew making an
absolute pig of herself with a giant lobster roll
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