Tenants Harbour to Pulpit Harbour - Penobscot Bay, Maine
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 12 Jul 2010 15:01
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44:09.26N, 68:53.08W
We stayed two nights on a buoy at Tenants as day
two turned foul with thick fog and rain making it a miserable sort of Sunday.
When the wind dropped and the tide took over we started to drift
close to our next door neighbour, an unattended yacht on the adjacent
buoy. At one stage Phil had to push the boat away with the boat hook, but it
just came back again, so we took up as much as possible on the mooring we were
on to gain a few extra feet clearance and ensure a good night's
sleep.
  Our close neighbour
Leaving Tenants
Harbour
Lobstering is huge in this harbour with thousands
of pots strewn across the entrance and amongst the moorings. Ashore
various establishments have the big glass tanks with 100's of live lobsters
treading over each other to hopefully avoid having a finger of doom pointed in
their direction, with their claws all safely secured with heavy duty
elastic bands. These are real lobsters unlike the 'namby pamby' crawfish
things further south which have no vicious claws to attack
you with. Most would be taking an extremely hot bath in the
coming days! Between the high and low water mark (range about 9 ft)
thousands of bright red lobster carcasses were being picked over by the
seagulls, all that was left from the previous day's menu. You don't come to
Maine and not have lobster unless you are a veggie, although according to
gourmet chef Rick Stein, British lobsters are still the very best -
hooray!!
We walked ashore making our customary call to
Homeland Security as we were now in Maine. Our recent offshore hop from Cape
Cod meant that we had leapfrogged (perhaps that should read
leapfogged) the state of New Hampshire in the process. We then walked the lanes
surrounding the harbour enjoying the glimpses through the
mist.
On Monday morning we navigated our way through the
pots and headed for Pulpit Harbour on North Haven about 20 miles to
the north. It sits in the middle of Penobscot Bay and is a cruisers delight
with narrow channels and little bays and harbours to explore. The sunsets
here are meant to be just brilliant. Out on the water we could see some
windjammers with all sail set which made for a very traditional
scene.
In our pilot book Pulpit Harbour has 5 stars
meaning it's a 'must-see' location. By early afternoon with the fog having all
but disappeared we entered the approach channel which was mercifully free of
darned pots. Guarding the entrance is Pulpit Rock with what is reputed to be a
150 year old Ospreys nest on top. The nest is 150 years old of course not the
Ospreys using it. But they will be descendants of the original Ospreys
that's for sure. Hope they clean it out every once in a while!
We dinghied ashore after lunch and walked the
pine tree and wild flower lined roads surrounding the bay
being 'escorted' by numerous flying insects that seldom get to
spend so much time around people as most are in cars or on bicycles. (That's the
people - not the insects).
  The dinghy dock in Pulpit
Harbour harbour The
small simple Methodist church
There is a small grass landing strip near
the harbour where we'd already seen two light aircraft take off from.
Their ascent was frightening steep with engines screaming at full
throttle and we understood why when we looked at the barely
quarter mile long grass strip which crossed a local road before terminating
in a forest of 100 foot high pine trees offering any
anxious passengers an immediate cure for constipation before
even boarding the aircraft.
  Drivers wouldn't want to ignore
this.......... ...when pilots
only have this much to take off on!
By late afternoon we headed back
onboard ready to enjoy our 'special' sunset but the fog had rolled back in
by then although we did have the pleasure of having the 82 ft windjammer
Nathaniel Bowditch anchored close by. Built in 1922 it took
special class honours in the 1923 Bermuda race. There are many of these historic
craft plying their chartering trade in Penobscot - we hope to see most of them
whilst we are here.
  The Nathaniel
Bowditch View
of Pulpit Harbour just before the fog descended
Awaking this morning we couldn't even see the shore
around the edge of the harbour. The Nathaniel Bowditch had already
raised anchor and left along with many others. A bit of thick fog doesn't bother
the locals although it becomes a little confusing with fogbound boats all
radioing their position status at regular intervals whilst underway in the
bay. Today we head for Camden as the laundry is piling up again and we can now
see the shoreline to navigate safely out of the harbour.
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