Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 25 Aug 2007 04:04
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44:17.712N 68:16.826W
This is an unbelievably beautiful spot. It's
a very small, very well protected harbor with very few docks (the few
that exist are covered with mega motor yachts with lengths of 100+
feet) and lots of moorings. It's surrounded by hills covered with
evergreens, and in the distance some higher mountains loom. See the
first picture below of Northeast Harbor taken as we hiked up a nearby
trail.
I have never been on a mooring before, so it was a
bit comical when Don motored us up to the mooring ball and sent me up front with
a boat hook to snatch the mooring line out of the water. I scooted
up to the bow yelling over my shoulder, 'I don't know what to do!!'.
Needless to say I missed the line the first time, causing Don to back the
boat up and try again. This wouldn't be all that bad except that boaters
take pleasure in watching other boaters struggle to anchor, dock or pick up a
mooring line while they sit all nice and cozy on their safely anchored, docked
or moored boats watching. I say this like we don't do exactly the same
thing when we are all nice and cozy on our own anchorage, dock or
mooring. We do. Watching others mess up their anchoring, docking or
mooring procedure is high entertainment for boaters, including us. Like
anything else, you just don't want to be the one everyone else is laughing
at. Unfortunately, we probably caused a few giggles when we came
in. Oops.
Northeast Harbor is within a really convenient,
free (key word: free) bus ride of just about anywhere on Mount Desert Island,
including Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. On top of that, it's a
really quaint, one street town (the one street is called Main Street -
surprise!) with an excellent grocery store, restaurants, and key for us boaters,
laundromat. To get to all of these fine places you have to hop in
(carefully) the boater version of a car (the dinghy) and motor over to the
dinghy dock (see the second picture below of the ramp leading down
to one of the dinghy docks - the ramp is necessary here because the tides
are 9-11 ft). All of this is well and good, but when you factor in the
need to ferry two giant bags of laundry and/or 3 boxes of groceries and
1 case of wine as well as two adults, it can get a little dicey. The
other challenge is getting ready to go out to dinner and then crouching in
the dinghy trying not to touch anything or get wet with your 'good' clothes
on (good jeans and something besides a t-shirt). Even more challenging is
the ride home after a good meal and some (sometimes more than some)
wine. At that point, you don't care if you touch anything with your good
clothes on, you just don't want to fall overboard. We've been
here 4 days with no dinghy mishaps. So far, so good.
More about Bar Harbor and Acadia park in another
posting.
Anne
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