Here is the continuation of the cruise:

From Rockland, we went to Warren Island State Park on Islesborough, where we spent a couple of hours hiking in a beautiful wooded setting. The next morning, we powered around the north end of Islesborough to Castine, arriving at 1130 for the start of the Castine to Camden classic yacht race. Perhaps 70 boats were there at the start, from a matched pair of 76-footers to the 12-meter Valiant down to a 28-foot Rozinante day-sailing yawl. A beautiful fleet of old wooden boats. Unfortunately, there was very little wind, and the fog and rain soon set in. We picked up a mooring at Holbrook State Park, where we stayed two days watching it rain. Late on the second day, we dinghied into Castine and walked around the town. It is a very historic town, but tiny.

From Castine, we went to Camden, which is back near Rockland. There we met my physician, Kyle Anderson and his wife Tammy. We took them for a sail and they took us to dinner. Good trade. The next day we did laundry in the morning, then powered over to Pulpit Harbor in North Haven Island. A beautiful place but a crowded anchorage. The next day, we finally got a good breeze and made the most of it. We sailed down to the Fox Islands Thorofare, the passage between North Haven and Vinalhaven Islands. Once through the Fox Islands Thorofare, we sailed northeast up to the Deer Island Thorofare, and through it to a nice anchorage in the middle of three islands. We explored two of the islands, (the other one is private) and spent a quiet night.

Then we powered through a flat calm sea to Burnt Coat Island, where we picked up a mooring and spent the rest of the day watching it rain. By the next afternoon it had cleared a little bit, so we powered up to Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island. We stayed in the Mount Desert area for a week, visiting Somes Sound, Somesville, and Northeast Harbor by boat and Bar Harbor by bus. Mount Desert has a marvelous bus system. All busses are free, and will pick you up anywhere along the road. All seven bus routes meet in the center of Bar Harbor, so you can get from anywhere to anywhere by transferring in Bar Harbor. Many of the stops are in the Acadia National Park and are frequently used by hikers. If you come to Mount Desert, leave your car at the motel and take the bus. It really works.

From Mount Desert, we started heading back, stopping in Blue Hill. We passed, but did not stop at the Kollegewigewok Yacht Club. From Blue Hill, we powered down to, and then sailed slowly through, the Eggemoggin Reach. This 10-mile long body of water runs perpendicular to the prevailing SW wind, and is usually a hull-speed reach either way. Not that day. It is hard to reach hull speed with only a five knot breeze. We spent the night at the end of the Reach in Orcutt Harbor. We awoke the next morning to rain and fog, so we stayed at anchor until 11:00. By then it was looking OK, so we stuck our nose out of the harbor, right into a bank of fog and rain. So we went back to the harbor for a couple of more hours. That afternoon we powered through moderate fog into Rockland harbor.

We spent the day doing laundry and restocking the boat, and then sailed over to a little harbor on Vinalhaven called Long Cove. We spent the night, but a forecast of a coming cold front cut our exploring short and we headed back to Rockland. After the cold front passed, we headed SE for East Boothbay with a forecast of NW 10-20. The reality was WNW 25-30, so we had a wooly old sail across Muscongus Bay to our friends mooring in East Boothbay. We are currently taking a hiatus from the cruise, staying in our friends’ guest bedroom. Now that we are ashore, the weather is beautiful.

To continue the narrative of our cruise to Maine:

From Cape May, we made a gentle 35 mile passage offshore to Atlantic City. After running the inlet, we then kept going up the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway through a winding channel through salt marshes to an anchorage in three feet of water behind an island off Beach Haven, NJ. The next morning, when we went to get the anchors up, we found that we were actually in 2.7 feet of water, and amuck. So I got up the anchors with the dinghy, and we sludged our way back to the channel. We spent most of the day transiting Barnegat Bay, where my father used to sail. It is very much like the stretch of the Indian River between Melbourne and Cocoa. Good, protected sailing. It seems like NJ has made a deal with the Federal Government that if NJ puts in good, high bridges, then the Feds will dredge a good deep waterway. NJ has kept its part of the deal, as all the bridges have 60 feet or more of clearance, but the Feds have yet to dredge the waterway. I think that you could carry six feet of draft up the waterway with caution and a rising tide, but it would be worrisome.

We anchored that afternoon in an anchorage that was suggested by Skipper Bob’s Anchoring Guide to the Intracoastal Waterway, near the head of the Metedeconk River. We dinghied in to the end of a creek and walked two blocks to a large shopping mall, which had a West Marine and everything. We reprovisioned and headed home.

After a front passed through, we went out into the ocean and sailed 25 miles north to Sandy Hook, NJ, the entrance to NY Harbor. The anchorage there has washed away, so we spent the night on a very expensive mooring at the Atlantic Highlands YC. The haze/smog is very bad. Even though the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was only ten miles away, we couldn’t see it at all. (It is larger than the Golden Gate Bridge). The next morning, we passed under the Bridge (220 foot clearance) and then through Manhattan to Long Island Sound, anchoring in Manhasset Bay. I phoned Bruce Kirby, the designer of the boat, and he agreed to meet us the next day at the Noroton CT YC. We powered across Long Island Sound the next afternoon, and met with Bruce. Even though he designed the boat and owns one, he has not seen very many of them. While tying up to wait for Bruce, Julie dropped her glasses overboard in 11 feet of very turbid water. I got into my wet suit and luckily was able to find them on the bottom in Melbourne Harbor conditions. The trick that I used to find them was to tie a weight onto a light line and drop it to the bottom as near where the glasses dropped as we could get it. I then followed the line down and felt around the weight. I felt over a lot of bottom, but on the fourth dive, found the glasses about a foot from the weight.

The forecast for the next day was for thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we left early to make as much progress as we could before we had to seek shelter. But the thunderstorms never materialized, so we picked up Sandy VanZandt’s mooring in the Mystic River that evening, seventy miles away. We had dinner with Sandy, Sidney, Art Paine (brother of naval architect Chuck) and his wife Kerry, feasting on Mystic Pizza, from the same pizza shop featured in the movie of that name. We stayed in Noank (the town on the river where the mooring is) for the next three days, waiting for mail. We used the time profitably, working on the boat and seeing the Mystic Seaport Museum. The topsail schooner "Amistad" (from the movie) was there when we were, so we saw her go out by us several times.

This is a good time for a digression. The thing that is really different from our last cruise up here in 1990 to now is the electronics. While the GPS is nice and convenient and the cheap Japanese radar is reassuring, the big difference is in communication. From almost anywhere we have been, including our coastwise passages, we have been able to make cell phone calls and to connect to the internet. This gives us the ability to access the local weather radars to see what is really coming to get us, rather than what the Weather Service says is coming. Just being connected is such a convenience. We are in a new town. Where is a restaurant? Where is an auto parts place? Enquiring minds want to know.

We sailed from Noank to Point Judith, RI, where Grant & Debbie spent so much time on their cruise, and we found out why they stayed there. As you follow the river upstream from the inlet, it opens out into several bays, almost all of which are good anchoring. We spent the weekend of the Fourth of July there in the first quiet anchorage that we had seen in weeks. On the seventh, we sailed across to Cuttyhunk, MA, the first of the islands that form the south shore of Buzzard’s Bay. On the way, we learned a little about fog, and got to appreciate the radar. The fog was patchy. Sometimes, we would have a mile of visibility, and saw what the radar was showing us. At other times, we had 110 feet of visibility, and were totally dependent on the radar. It cleared up as we approached Cuttyhunk, which had cleared out after the Fourth. We found a spot to anchor, and dinghied ashore for a look around the little town and an excellent pizza.

From Cuttyhunk, we went to Mattapoisett Harbor, and the next day through the Cape Cod Canal to Duxbury, which shares a harbor with Plymouth. Tom and Shiela Phipps live there, and we knew Tom well from when he lived and raced in Melbourne. From Duxbury, we sailed across Massachusetts Bay to Gloucester, where I spent summers as a boy. The town has benefited from the commercial success of eastern Massachusetts (led by the high-tech industries along Route 128) and is quite pleasant. We anchored right in the old working harbor, in a crowded anchorage right next to a sistership of John Wayne’s 100 foot powerboat Wild Goose. We did a lot of touring of the town, and I rode around Cape Ann on my bicycle.

From Gloucester, we passed inside Cape Ann through the Annisquam Canal, then outside to Portsmouth NH, where Julie’s cousin lives. We spent four days on a mooring in Pepperell Cove, which was very rolly, since the boats all lay parallel to the Piscataqua River, and the wakes from the power boats and commercial traffic are continuous from daylight until about 11:00. The third night there, after returning from a visit to Portsmouth, we found the wind blowing 25 – 30 from the ocean, and a three-foot chop in the Cove. We had soup for supper that night while hanging on to anything in sight. It finally died down about 11:00, and went glassy calm by midnight.

From Portsmouth, we sailed up the coast past Cape Porpoise, where we could have stopped if the weather looked bad, around Cape Elizabeth to Jewell Island, about 5 miles from Portland, ME. Jewell is a beautiful island, with miles of trails through the woods, all maintained by the Maine Island Trail Association (MITA). Among the beautiful foliage are the ruins of WW I and WW II artillery spotting towers and gun emplacements, placed there to guard Portland Harbor, which was of considerable military significance, being the closest US port to the European Theater of Operations. We spent a day exploring Jewell, and then powered 15 miles to The Basin, off the New Meadows River. Our friends Chuck and Susan Mainville live there, and we have been hiking and sightseeing with them for a few days. We then powered a few miles over to Great Island Boat Works, where Don and Bevo Meginley have a slip on a float. We took a slip next to them for several days and visited with them and toured the area. While we were there, a bunch of really nasty weather went through, but we were snug in the little cove.

On July 25th, we left there to get another lesson in navigation through fog. The only real problem with fog in Maine these days is that lobster pots don’t show on the radar. The appear out of the next wave and you have got to dodge them. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are three or four miles offshore and in 120 feet of water. If there is a lobster ledge out there, there will be a minefield of traps covering it. We groped through the fog to a little cove near Boothbay, where friends Patsy and Andre Arrouet have a house. They are out west at the moment, but left their car for us to use to take to Owl’s Head, to see the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum’s annual Air and Car show. The OHTM is a fascinating place that I first saw in 1985. Owl’s Head is near Camden, ME, which is the summer home for all the rich folks who winter in Palm Beach. They all have their toys, and years ago, they decided to build a hangar out at the local airport to keep their toys in. They also hired a mechanic to work on them, and charged admission to let people in to see the toys. (Sort of like Houser’s zoo in the ‘70’s.) Like Houser’s zoo, which grew to be the Brevard County Zoo, this has grown to be a really respectable museum, with many old planes and old automobiles. This show had everything from a replica Curtis "Headless Pusher" to a Farman biplane from the same era to a fly-in by an Air Force V-22 Osprey.

The next day we left, and are now anchored in the harbor at Rockland, ME. This is the southeastern corner of Penobscot Bay, which will be our cruising ground for the next few weeks.

See you in the fall. Hasty and Julie

Hi, Folks: Just an update on where we are.

We left Deltaville on June 13th, headed for Reedville on the Great Wicomico River. When we got there late in the afternoon, we found a beautiful little town that had originally been built on the menhaden fishing industry. Lately it has become a retirement town, with all of the little Victorian cottages restored and an interesting fishing museum (which unfortunately was not open at that time.

The next day, we sailed to Solomons, MD, which has transitioned from a fishing village to a major yachting center. We were just getting into the dinghy for a walk around town when the skipper of a boat near us hailed us and told us that bad weather was approaching. Sure enough, within an hour we had a significant thunderstorm, and were very glad that we had not been caught out in it. Late that night, a line of thunderstorms came through, bringing in a cold front. But we were in a snug anchorage with two hooks set – no worries!

The next day, we went into town for breakfast, then sailed across the Chesapeake to Oxford, MD, where we hung out for a day, seeing the quaint little town and talking to folks that we had met on our earlier cruises. On the 17th we sailed across the Chesapeake to Annapolis, where we spent a couple of days exploring the town and working on the boat. The second day was Wednesday, and it is always a treat to be on a mooring in Annapolis harbor, just off the US Naval Academy, watching the finish of the sailboat races that they always have on Wednesdays. Only this time, they finished in the middle of a thunderstorm, with some boats just barely under control. I need to explain that the finish of the race involves tacking through the anchored fleet, sometimes missing the anchored boats by a few feet. Add to this gusts of over 30 knots, and it can get real exciting!

Annapolis just about finished up our explorations of the Chesapeake, as in the next two days, we went up to the northern end of the Bay, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and down the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ. In Cape May, we start the Southern New England phase of the cruise.

Hi,everyone:

So far, it has been a wonderful cruise. My intention for several years has been to get four old friends together and make a real ocean passage, staying offshore until we got used to it, and just enjoying each other’s company. It worked remarkably well. We had myself, Harry Stapor, and Jerry Kowalski, each of whom have had around 50 years of experience sailing cruising sailboats. And then we had Grant Ball, who has had over 30 years of sailing cruising sailboats, plus 30 years in the Coast Guard, plus 10 years as professional captain of large motor yachts. We all went to school on him.

We had intended to leave on Monday, June 2nd, but one of the crew had a kidney stone and I really hadn’t finished screwing the boat together, so we ended up leaving on Thursday, June 5th, at 9:00 in the morning. By 5:00 that afternoon, we were offshore of Port Canaveral, and turned Northeast, headed for a point 60 miles east of Cape Hatteras. All that night we romped along with the wind abeam. As the breeze picked up, it began to feel like Mr. Toad’s wild ride, so we shortened sail, but with the push from the Gulfstream, we were still making over 9 knots over the bottom.

Friday morning, it got light, as we reached the transition zone from the southeast trades to the prevailing westerlies. We motored through a flat calm all day, finally turning it off when the westerlies filled in the next morning. From there on, with the wind off of the land, the seas remained calm, and there was enough wind to maintain a good speed.

On Monday afternoon we came into a flat calm Chesapeake bay and motored the remaining 30 miles to Deltaville, VA. We went out to dinner that night, and the next day, borrowed Jack Bibb’s car and drove up to his house on the Rappahannock River. Julie drove up from Melbourne and met us at Jack’s place and we all had dinner together. Then Harry, Jerry and Grant took Julie’s car home to Melbourne, while Julie and I took Jack’s car back to the boat at Deltaville.

We have been here ever since, restowing the boat and resting up from the six months of effort that it has taken to get us this far. Tomorrow we plan to head up the Chesapeake.

My best to you all,

Hasty