Need advice for cruising the coast of Maine.

[jefjo]

one more of Ogunquit

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by brownoarsman

My project actually ended up lasting another year, but we leave this coming weekend from Annapolis - and I just reread this thread and can't wait to put these fog tips to the test!

Unless you plan to visit Boston, once you leave the Cape Cod Canal, if the weather is decent I’d head in a straight line for Penobscot Bay and plan to first anchor in Rockland. There’s a Hamilton Marine and downtown area within easy walking distance from shore so it’s a good place to resupply. If you really want to visit Boothbay and Portland, etc. you can hit them on the way back south.

Then, sail across Penobscot Bay and through the Fox Islands Thorofare which separates North Haven and Vinalhaven. Anchor near or in Perry Creek and dinghy to North Haven town dock and take a walk to Pulpit Harbor to check it out because you’ll probably want to visit there at some point as well. If you’re anchored near Perry Creek you can also head south in your dinghy at high tide and explore Winter Harbor and Seal Cove, which are also great anchorages. If you go to the end of Winter Harbor you’ll find a reversing rapids that leads to a large pond-like area almost in the center of Vinalhaven. Sort of a fun place to explore.

From there you can head east to Stonington or come up north to Castine or Bucks Harbor. Castine is at the mouth of a small river so there’s a current. I’d anchor either in Smith Cove or better yet in the large protected area behind Nautilus Island and put up with the longer dinghy ride to Castine town dock. Bucks Harbor in South Brooksville, where my boat is (green center cockpit at eastern end of harbor, come say hi!) has fuel and water and pump out and a very short walk to a nice little general store with a bakery (olive focaccia) and excellent meats. Hidden around back of the Bucks Harbor Market is one of my favorite restaurants. In July and August it’s wise to make a reservation but you can just walk in until then.

From Bucks, you can head up Eggemoggin Reach and stop to visit Woodenboat School in Brooklin.

From there, you can head out to Burntcoat Harbor on Swan’s Island or further east to the Mount Desert Island area. From Northeast or Southwest Harbors on MDI you can take a bus to Acadia National Park or all the way to Bar Harbor where you can rent a bike and use it to explore the parks carriage trails. Afternoon popovers and lemonade or tea at the Jordan Pond House is a great destination by bicycle.

By now you’re going to have seen dozens of harbors and towns and intriguing places to visit that I haven’t mentioned here, so you can take it from there. [emoji4]

Sail out to near Mount Desert Rock and see the whales. Watch for where big whale watch boats out of Bar Harbor are and get near them because they will be near the whales. Afterwards, grab a mooring in Frenchboro on Long Island where almost everybody’s last name is Lunt. They sell and cook lobsters right on their dock. Or if it’s going to be a calm night, anchor off the fine sand beach on Marshall Island.

Plan to attend the Stonington Lobster boat races (July 8 this year I think). Best watched from your boat or dinghy. It’s almost as much fun watching the audience lining the racecourse in their lobster boats as it is to watch the race itself! Budweiser and all his friends will be in attendance and if it’s a hot day you’ll likely see some ladies in bikinis who should probably have chosen another clothing option...

Have a great summer!

[brownoarsman]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

Unless you plan to visit Boston, once you leave the Cape Cod Canal, if the weather is decent I’d head in a straight line for Penobscot Bay and plan to first anchor in Rockland. There’s a Hamilton Marine and downtown area within easy walking distance from shore so it’s a good place to resupply. If you really want to visit Boothbay and Portland, etc. you can hit them on the way back south.

That's the plan! We'll probably spend a night (or two) in Provincetown, and then set up a course off Monhegan and make a decision when we get there about where to first anchor in Maine. Looking forward to enjoying Penobscot, and then, as you said, hitting Portland and Boston on the way back south for a little big city feel.

Thanks for all your other tips as well! This will be my first time in Penobscot with a boat (though with family in Portland and Lubec, not my first time in Maine), so very much appreciate the guidance. The boat for this trip will be a Telstar 28, and we're excited to do a little multihull outreach while we're there

If we see you in Bucks Harbor, I'll definitely swing by! We should be well in-need of a pump-out by then, but I'll take care of that first

[sesmith]

It's mostly been covered by others, but one neat spot we visited when we were at Mt Desert last year was Somes Sound. It's a beautiful trip up into the Sound and a great spot to anchor overnight. As others stated, if you feel the need to do bar harbor, take the free bus and skip the trip up there by boat. We found that Bar Harbor didn't really cater to the cruising boat (unless it was a ship).

Concerning fog. We don't have radar on our boat, but the fog didn't stop us. Do get yourself a good radar reflector, though, so others can see you. We also have ais (receive only) , but found that really helpful as most boats (other than the lobster boats) broadcast ais positions. The lobster boats know what they're doing, so just make sure they can see you on their radar by having a reflector. Our fog horn got used, as well.

A wet suit is handy, if you find yourself under your boat untangling a lobster pot line from the prop. Mine was worth every penny I paid for it :-)

Penobscot Bay is a great cruising destination. Have fun!

[brownoarsman]

Originally Posted by sesmith

It's mostly been covered by others, but one neat spot we visited when we were at Mt Desert last year was Somes Sound. [SNIP]

Thanks! We do have a radar reflector installed. On my Bahamas cruise, I didn't install one and rapidly found out what a bad decision that was when I was crossing the shipping lanes on the way from Marathon to Chub Cay. A squall blew up, blacked everything out, and when it cleared I was very close to the stern of a cargo ship .... which was spotlighting their wake probably looking for wreckage. The new boat is much better found!

Also packed a wetsuit - I used to surf New Hampshire regularly (less sharky than Cape Cod), and know that the water north is even colder! Thanks for the tip on Somes Bay!

[jtsailjt]

Lobsterman do know what they’re doing but after they’ve hauled over 100 traps with many more to go before the end of their workday, sometimes they aren’t as conscientious about cross checking their radar as they probably should be. Also, they are always going in circles as they haul in a trap so tough to get a good look at what’s ahead, when “ahead” is constantly changing.

Without a radar it’s an especially good idea to offset slightly from a course between 2 obvious waypoints such as navigation buoys.

Also, if you’re in the fog without radar you’ll probably want to slow down quite a lot, and if you’re going to be going slow anyway, maybe you can sail rather than motor? Usually there’s not much wind in thick fog, but if there’s even 5 knots so you can sail, it’s amazing how well you can hear what’s around you long before there’s any danger of collision so your sense of hearing can be very valuable if your boat isn’t making any noise.

[doug1957]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

Also, if you’re in the fog without radar you’ll probably want to slow down quite a lot, and if you’re going to be going slow anyway, maybe you can sail rather than motor? Usually there’s not much wind in thick fog, but if there’s even 5 knots so you can sail, it’s amazing how well you can hear what’s around you long before there’s any danger of collision so your sense of hearing can be very valuable if your boat isn’t making any noise.

Good points. I haven't had any near misses with lobster boats in the fog, but they do want you to stay out of their way. The good thing is that you can hear them well before you see them even with your engine on, particularly as you go further down east. It seems mufflers are in short supply there.

[brownoarsman]

Ahhhh! Another trip to Maine fouled! We made it up to Martha's Vineyard and had a pleasant time there, but family commitments and some boat damage necessitated a sail back south to Annapolis. I'll either have to finally pull the trigger on an F-24 Mk1 or charter up there if I'm ever to sail Maine, apparently! Thanks for all the advice, I'll reference it again if I ever get there ...

[JoeRobertJr]

We just completed a one-week bareboat charter out of Rockland on a 36’ sloop. This was our first time to Maine. From that perspective, here are my observations:

The Good:
- The landscape was beautiful, and the number of islands could have kept up happily exploring for weeks, at least. In one week, I barely scratched the surface of what the bay has to offer.
- Anchoring in the White Islands was cool, because the landscape changed so dramatically with the tide. We were nestled between two gravel bars that disappeared completely at high tide.
- Laundry Cove on the north end of Isle Au Haut proved to be a great location to whether a small storm with south-easterly winds. Due to the storm, we had to give up our plans to walk around McGlatherly Island with the wild sheep. Maybe next time.
- Perry Creek just around the corner from North Haven proved to be our most memorable anchorage with a midnight display of fish circling the boat being corralled by seals. These feeding frenzies where highlighted with underwater bio-luminescent clouds and streaks. We ended up there only because Brown’s had no available mooring balls. Our best cruising memories always come from the unplanned parts of the trip.

The Challenges:
- Our previous charter was in the muddy-bottomed Chesapeake Bay, where our anchor stuck first time every time. The generally rocky bottom in Penobscot took a little more work to set.
- Dodging lobster pots all the time got old.
- Verizon cell coverage was sparser than I was expecting. Even in Fox Thoroughfare in the town of North Haven, we had nothing. Personally, I like being cut off for awhile, but the wife was going through social media withdrawal.

[jtsailjt]

The bottom in Penobscot Bay and surrounding areas is not “generally rocky” at all. It’s mostly very thick, gooey mud. I’ve been sailing and anchoring and scuba diving in this area for decades and can count the times I’ve had trouble anchoring on the fingers of one hand. Once when scuba diving I found my anchor lodged amongst a pile of granite blocks. Once I had trouble because of thick kelp out by Frenchboro. In Matinicus Harbor anchoring isn’t allowed because the current scrubs the bottom clean. Those are the only three I can think of right now. . I’ve never anchored in Laundry Cove so can’t comment on the bottom there, but I did anchor in Isle Au Haut Harbor right where it gets narrow and had no problems despite the current reversing there twice a day. I can understand why the bottom would be scrubbed clean in a narrow area like this as 10’ tides rush in and out where you say you were by White Island. Perry Creek is definitely muddy bottom. Maybe you somehow found areas without a muddy bottom but my experience here tells me that’s a pretty difficult thing to do. If you don’t believe me, ask my poor washdown pump that has to wash all that thick muck out of the chain every time we pick up the anchor. Also, since there are so many islands with so many coves it’s easy to find a place to anchor that’s in the lee of land, no matter which way the wind is blowing. But 90% of summer nights the wind dies down to nothing by sundown so you could anchor almost anywhere and sleep well.

[jtsailjt]

The bottom in Penobscot Bay and surrounding areas is not “generally rocky” at all. It’s mostly very thick, gooey mud. I’ve been sailing and anchoring and scuba diving in this area for decades and can count the times I’ve had trouble anchoring on the fingers of one hand. Once when scuba diving I found my anchor lodged amongst a pile of granite blocks. Once I had trouble because of thick kelp out by Frenchboro. In Matinicus Harbor anchoring isn’t allowed because the current scrubs the bottom clean. Those are the only three I can think of right now. . I’ve never anchored in Laundry Cove so can’t comment on the bottom there, but I did anchor in Isle Au Haut Harbor right where it gets narrow and had no problems despite the current reversing there twice a day. I can understand why the bottom would be scrubbed clean in a narrow area like this as 10’ tides rush in and out where you say you were by White Island. Perry Creek is definitely muddy bottom. Maybe you somehow found areas without a muddy bottom but my experience here tells me that’s a pretty difficult thing to do. If you don’t believe me, ask my poor washdown pump that has to wash all that thick muck out of the chain every time we pick up the anchor. Also, since there are so many islands with so many coves it’s easy to find a place to anchor that’s in the lee of land, no matter which way the wind is blowing. But 90% of summer nights the wind dies down to nothing by sundown so you could anchor almost anywhere and sleep well.

[CaptTom]

I have to agree that most anchorages typically have mud bottoms. You can't just pick a spot in the lee of an island though. You also have to consider tides and currents, so coves or inlets are best. A guide book like Taft's, or Active Captain, will point you to the best anchorages. Along the coast, they've pretty much all been discovered. Inland, up the rivers, you might be able to scout out a new one by looking at the charts, but things are not always the way they appear on the chart in less-traveled areas.

Also, lobsters like rocky bottoms. If a cove is full of buoys, not only will they foul your anchor line and running gear as you swing, but it may also be a sign the bottom is rocky. As a general rule, the more mud, the fewer lobster traps.

Not much you can do about the buoys underway, except maintain a 100% full-time helm watch. Autopilots are pretty useless in many areas.

[sailor_ed]

Sorry to say but the last sheep on McGlatherys died many years ago. Unless someone has decided to ferry some new ones out!

[JoeRobertJr]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

The bottom in Penobscot Bay and surrounding areas is not “generally rocky” at all.

Yeah, I will concede that "generally rocky" was a poor choice of words. My first two anchorages, White Island and Brimstone Island, were rocky. Laundry Cove and Perry Creek were definitely hard-to-clean-the-chain mud. I am glad the more experienced jtsailjt and CaptTom clarified that for others researching Penobscot Bay.

[JoeRobertJr]

Originally Posted by sailor_ed

Sorry to say but the last sheep on McGlatherys died many years ago. Unless someone has decided to ferry some new ones out!

Interesting! I had been looking forward to seeing the sheep. It was the McGlatherly Island description on CoastalBoating.net that mentioned the sheep, though I cannot tell how out of date that listing is.
McGlathery Island and Stonington