14 August
Much has been written, infinitely more thought and felt, about the daily but often difficult task of saying goodbye. After cruising Downeast from Rockport, MA, then sharing all that Blue Hill had to offer, Kate needed to get back to Richmond. There had been, as you’ve read, 17 days of unforgettable moments aboard Steadfast. It was a long, lonely drive back to Blue Hill from Boston where Kate caught her flight to River City.
There were goodbyes to be said in Blue Hill, too, again not easily done after such a relaxed and remarkable visit. First, though, Steadfast needed to be made ready for the cruise back to Virginia. Re-provisioning, of course, and laundry. Re-filling the water tank. More than that, after all her hours of dutiful service, Ms. Wes deserved to have that old black sludge flushed from her sump and enjoy a fresh couple of quarts of 30 weight and all new filters. And with all those miles under her keel, Steadfast had developed quite an impressive aquaculture along her waterline.
So Steadfast slipped her mooring at Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club at 1052, bound for Center Harbor and the well-respected Brooklin Boat Yard. Matilda the Seal swam out to bid farewell as Blue Hill was left in the wake. It was sunny, 78 degrees and the bay a slick calm, Steadfast heading almost due south to Pond Island Passage, then up into Eggemoggin Reach.
By the time she turned into the Reach, a southerly wind had built to a helpful 10 knots and, with sails set, Ms. Wes got a break and Steadfast joined the many others sailing in both directions. The clear standout was one of the famous Maine Windjammers heading Downeast under full sail.
Eggemoggin Reach is a popular passage for the Windjammers that ply Maine’s waters each summer.
Some of the same seaweed that so often clogged the engine water intake hitched a ride along the way Down East.
Once in Center Harbor, Steadfast lay on the pier at Brooklin Boat Yard which handled the work in a matter of hours the next morning. A steady and occasionally heavy rain held her on the pier an extra day, as if Maine didn”t way to say goodbye to her.
But she did. The next morning, clouds lifted, sun appeared and the cruise back to Hallieford began.
More later but for now, Steadfast, out.
23 August
Ten feet off the stern, there’s the sudden sound of splashing. Concentric circles ripple the slick surface of Center Harbor this early morn, siting the location but not the cause. Then the black head of a cormorant emerges, clutching crosswise in its beak a slender foot-long elver. The bird shakes his head violently, then plunges the elver below the surface. The sequence repeats several times before the cormorant decides breakfast is ready, stretches his neck upward as far as it’ll go and swallow the elver whole in one big gulp.
The bird swims quietly away, gulping occasionally as he goes.
Breakfast on Steadfast is simpler: coffee, cereal, milk and fruit. After the rains of the day and night before, the skiff needs bailing (don’t want to tow all those extra pounds), the cockpit needs to be toweled off to dry in the sun that now brightens the harbor. Eight knots blow out of the nor’west, straight down Eggemoggin Reach. There’s haze in the distance but no fog. A good morning, in other words, to start the next leg on the journey home.
Steadfast clears the pier at 0826 and once out on the Reach, turns to a heading of 305-degrees, making 5+ knots as Ms. Wes churns at 2200 rpm. An hour later, off Bucks Harbor, there are more boats but less wind; in fact, none. Nearing 1100, she turned to port at Green Ledge to head down Penobscot Bay as a pair of porpoise frolicked off the beam. The wind arose, gently out of the south, enough to encourage the sails to unfurl and Steadfast began to tack down the bay close-hauled at 3.5 – 4 knots. As has been the case for much of the Maine visit, the afternoon breeze began to build and by 1350, its 18-knots was churning up a Chesapeake-style 4-foot chop that made spotting lobster buoys increasingly difficult. There was a feeling much like a cormorant who’d tried to swallow more than he could consume in comfort.
So sails were furled, Ms. Wes called into action and Steadfast motored the final 8 miles into the broad harbor that fronts the quaint town of Rockland.
Rockland, ME, is artist colony, summer resort, tourist haven and, oh, yes, lest we forget, a working seaport.
It’s a busy harbor, bustling with lobster boats, ferries, Coast Guard vessels and yachts of all sizes and descriptions. On shore, there’s Hamilton Marine and the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Museum, two of many good reasons to visit. But of more importance, being there put Steadfast 25 NM closer to home.
Steadfast out.
25 August
It’s a classic image: a fleet of sloops sailing into the morning sun. And that was the view from cockpit as Steadfast headed past the breakwater leaving Rockland Harbor.
But as often is the case, the image belies the reality. Lobster boats churned up the water as they headed to work. The big ferries that run to the islands add to the challenge. And as lovely and comforting as the sunlight may be, the sparkles on that light chop make it all but impossible to spot the lobster pots that litter the water between the harbor and Owls Head point.
Lobster pots are hard to pick-out heading into the glare of the early morning sun out of Rockland, ME.
The tension soon melted, however, when the heading shifted to 175 for the run down Muscle Ridge Channel. Ms. Wes took a break and Steadfast glided down the channel, wing-and-wing, at a relaxing three-knots. Rolling back the Bimini made it all the more enjoyable.
Deciding where to point the camera is nearly as much of a challenge as piloting the channel.
It was just early afternoon when the approach to Tenants Harbor opened to starboard. With so much sailing time left in the day, thought was given to pushing on, perhaps to Boothbay. But porpoise emerged off the starboard beam as if to say, “come this way,” and it was settled: Tenants Harbor it’d be.
An easy 15-mile day, made complete with a walk up the road to the Happy Clam, dining al fresco on THE BEST whole belly fried clams ev-ah. Wicked!
Steadfast out.
26 August: Dream Catcher
“Yeah, VERY familiar with the Chesapeake. I used to live in Gloucester!”
This statement was delivered with great emphasis by the bearded, bespectacled gentleman at the helm of the inflatable dinghy, his right hand firmly grasping Steadfast’s rail. It followed his inquiry as to “whereabouts IS Hallieford, anyway? It sounds familiar” and, of course, it was, given his years in neighboring Gloucester, Virginia.
The port of call “Hallieford, VA” on the transom prompts frequent questions anywhere north of Cape May but none have been so timely. Introductions were made and it evolved that Joe and his wife would start tomorrow on their way back to Jamestown, RI, where they keep their 36-foot Cape Dory cutter. Their Dream Catcher and Steadfast, it turned out, both planned to stop next in Boothbay Harbor.
The teenager who became author-actor Sterling Hayden spent a couple of years on rocky Tumbler Island in Boothbay Harbor.
Beautiful Boothbay Harbor, by the way, was a boyhood home of the sailor-actor-author Sterling Hayden (the last of his four dozen roles was as the police captain killed by Michael Corleone in “The Godfather”). Hayden’s mother and step-father rented a house on tiny Tumbler Island on the outer harbor. No doubt, the home that graces the granite now is a bit of an upgrade from what was there in the Thirties.
On the way east to Blue Hill, Steadfast cautiously stayed well off shore. But Joe planned to “go inside” through a passage among some of Maine’s gazillion islands. It made sense – fewer miles, more to see – so when Dream Catcher cast off at 0715 the next morning, Steadfast was not far behind.
Fog threatened to make it a tense passage past Mosquito Island but the fog moved more to the ocean side, giving way to blue skies, bright sun and a clear view ahead. No wind but, given the day ahead, that was okay.
From wide open Penobscot Bay, Steadfast turned to round Mosquito Island and into the rock lined, relatively narrow and much shallower passage. Lovely Port Clyde went past off to starboard. A turn left to 247-degrees toward Griffin Ledges, then 260 for Seal Ledges, on to Eastern (not “Easter”) Egg Island and across Muscongus Bay. By then, Dream Catcher’s longer legs put her well beyond sight but there was plenty of other company, both eastbound and west. Together with the dramatic scenery and frequent course changes, the 27.4 miles went by much more quickly than would have been the case off-shore. And it opened up similar possibilities for the rest of the trip.
Boothbay was not just a convenient destination. Jim Crawford had “signed on” for a couple of days and would come aboard there the next morning. After fueling up to ready for the next leg to Portland, Steadfast motored to the town side of the harbor and found an open mooring. Looking up, there was Dream Catcher.
“How’d it go?” Joe yelled from the rail. “Beautiful, ain’t it?”
Indeed. Another beautiful and rich day on the Maine coast.
Steadfast out.
28 August
This much we know for sure: people like to eat lobster. That being the case, many other people fish for lobster, hence the truly impressive number of brightly colored floats bobbing on the surface of the water along the Maine coast. (Or not. Some stay below the surface, but that’s another story.) Lobsters, it seems, huddle together where the water is 80 – 100 feet deep, or a bit more or maybe not quite so much; or so the people who fish for them seem to believe. There seems no evidence as to what hours lobsters keep or how late they sleep in the morning but to this we can attest: those who fish for lobsters start early. In every harbor from Sandwich to Blue Hill (and probably beyond), their big Cummins, Detroits and John Deeres rumble to life each morning no later than 0500 and the boats are on their way.
Lobster fishermen get an early start at the Rockport Town Pier.
In Rockport, MA, the town wharf includes a spot where all the local lobstermen can unload their catch at the end of the day. Of particular interest to those who sleep late in the morning, that spot also is used to load boats with gear at the start of the day. Were either of those aboard Steadfast prone to sleeping-in, this would’ve been an issue since her transom was about a boat length away from the busy wharf.
Rockport was the third and final harbor Steadfast made with Jim aboard as crew. He signed on in Boothbay where the dawn was cool and damp, with thick clouds overhead and a forecast for showers, all of which seemed to say it wouldn’t be the best day to try for Portland. But by golly, Jim and Mary drove up to the pier and the sun came out! Go figga.
Long gone forebears once lived on Jewell Island at the mouth of Casco Bay.
The light southerly wasn’t much but enough to make the main useful, making 5-plus knots with Ms. Wes loafing along at 2000 RPM. After turning Cape Small, Jim thought he might’ve seen a whale swim close to the surface about a quarter mile to starboard but couldn’t be sure. Steadfast again snaked through some snug passages and, with the Genoa open and drawing, too, motor-sailed past Jewell Island (notable as the seventeenth century home of one of the King family descendants; thanks for the info, Charlie.) that now is an undeveloped state park.
Steadfast was moored in Portland by 1700, in time for cap’n and crew to enjoy a fantastic Italian dinner ashore.
Another clear, sunny day followed but again, no wind. Still, the day was stunning and the escort could not be better. Just after rounding Old Anthony Rock, the sky was filled with the roar of a B-25 accompanied by five WWII vintage fighters. It was learned later that this was a wing of the Texas Air Force headed to Kennebunkport to salute President G. H. W. Bush. By coincidence, Steadfast and crew clicked off the last of 27 miles at Kennebunkport later this day–a lovely town, by the way–but did not have a chance to visit with George and Barbara.
Jim takes a relaxed turn at the helm using his Sperry for hands-free steering.
Porpoise definitely were spotted on the leg to Kennebunkport and eyes were alert for more sightings on day three. Instead, at mid-morning, about 5 miles north of Boon Island, a Minke whale swam through the swells just 60 feet ahead of Steadfast’s bow. This event elicited a response from the skipper along the lines of “Golly gee!” but with somewhat more energy.
Other than the whales–more were sighted along the way, too–there was little traffic, just wide open ocean. The Isles of Shoals were three miles off to starboard at lunchtime but, until Cape Ann emerged on the horizon, that was it.
Rockport Harbor was made in time to attend the day’s meeting of the 1630 Club, followed by (another) excellent seafood dinner at Roy Moore’s Fish Shack.
The next morning, there was breakfast at the Red Skiff–gotta do it–Jim loaded his gear in a rental car, good-byes were said and he headed back to Blue Hill. It’s reported that his return trip took less than three days. Steadfast, on the other hand, continues pushing southward.
More later.
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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