Seal Cove to Castine

Woke up this morning and went on deck to one of those beautiful crisp clear days which you only get outside the tropics.  The sky is a clear, clear blue, there is a faint breeze blowing and at this time in the morning there is a slight chill in the air but its warming up quickly in the bright morning sun.  We are moored off a small village/town at the top of Penobscot bay called Castine.  Castine sits at the mouth of the Bagaduce River.  There is a small waterfront with a number of wooden jetties running out from the buildings set on a sloping foreshore.  Across the river estuary are wooded hills forming numerous small coves and headlands.  It is very peaceful and quiet apart from the everyday town sounds, seagulls cries and the water lapping around the boat.  Every hour the town church bell rings out to let us know that the hour has changed.

We moved here yesterday after leaving Vinyl Haven island.  We had spent the last five days poking around various bays in Vinal Haven and basically trying to stay away from other people and any towns.  Its been really enjoyable and we have managed to get some schooling done - up to Lesson 10!  The way we do school is that Nic is teaching Calley and Scott is teaching Sam.  Nic and Calley disappear into the main cabin or go on deck and Scott and Sam sit in the salon at the dining table.  For Sam there seems to be a lot of work.  We have managed to compress the teaching part of a lesson into 4 or 5 hours but then he has to do work on his own which for him takes a few more hours.  Not sure if he is slow or I am giving him too much work.  For Calley the lesson is about the same time but then she has nowhere near the amount of homework as Sam.

Seal Cove at low tide

Our last couple of nights were spent at Seal Cove on the West side of Vinal Haven.  On the last day we went ashore to the beaches exposed at low tide.  The tide ranges about 3m here so apart from presenting navigation challenges it also changes dramatically between low and high tide.  The exposed beaches were a mixture of soft sand and mud so not exactly tropical island beaches but buried in the mud partly exposed we found mussels.  We dug up a bag full and returned to the boat to cook them up for dinner - always tastes better when you have gathered them yourself.

The Final product

The mussel hunters

Its lucky we found the mussels because the fishing is not happening at the moment.  At the start of the trip North, Sam was having some luck and was catching some small fish but since we have been up here he has not caught anything.  Cannot be the equipment as we have four rods and every conceivable lure onboard so suppose the operator needs to refine his skills.  We have also tried trawling a couple of times when we have been moving without any luck.  Am sure its only a matter of time.

We relocated from Seal Cove to Castine on Tuesday (28th Aug).  The weather in the morning was overcast and showery and we received a forecast for deteriorating weather.  With that, it was decided to move to Castine to moor near a town so that if the weather was bad there would be options.  We set off with little wind and so started motoring up the bay.  Almost as soon as we set off the fog closed in.  Maine is renowned for its fog and we had been dreading trying to sail in it.  The fog here descends quickly and is extremely thick.  It can hang around even if there is some wind.  To top it off it, was also raining and the noise the rain made on the bimini (cover over the cockpit) made it hard to hear anything.  Luckily we have radar onboard and this was the first real test of the equipment which worked extremely well highlighting a couple of lobster boats early.  Unfortunately it could not identify the lobster pots ad we managed to run over one.  There was a cavitating sound from the prop and then bits of plastic were spat out the back.  Luckily no damage was done.  Since we have been here we have heard two distress radio calls to the Coast Guard about boats with lobster pot rigging tangled up in their propellors making them disabled and drifting close to shore.

The fog lifted after about an hour and we continued to motor into Castine and pick up a mooring off the town.  The river flows past the waterfront with a fair current and so all the cruising guides recommend mooring rather than anchoring however there are some gorgeous protected bays across the estuary.  Castine is a beautiful little place.  Its supposedly one of the oldest continually inhabited towns in the US having been founded in the 1600’s by a Frenchman.  Thereafter is it had a similar history to a number of towns around here with the French and British fighting over it before the US got independence, even then there was further fighting.  The earthworks from the forts can still be seen around the town.  The main claim to fame these days it seems is as a centre for a state marine training school complete with a huge training vessel called “State of Maine” and a complement of cadets who you can seen on the dockside in ranks or running while singing the way US troops do.

Dulcinea moored at the end of Main Street - Castine

We had picked up a mooring owned by a local boatyard called Eatons and so after securing everything went ashore to the yard.  There is a small quayside and pier and a large wooden boatshed.  The pier and sheds are old, old , old.  Not too sure of actual age but the grey weathered wood looks easily 100 years old.  When we went inside the shed it was stuffed full of boating equipment and paraphenalia from the floor to the rafters.  As we were paying for the mooring, Sam was taking our garbage from the dingy to the bins and enroute he stopped to watch a man stuffing herring into bait bags for lobster pots.  The man was called Ken and he was the owner of the yard.  He was a older guy (I guess around 65) with a happy face and white beard and looked as if he had been around the boatyard and/or the sea all his life.  Before Sam knew it Ken had asked if Sam wanted to go out lobstering with him.  So after a quick bite of lunch we waved off Sam, Ken and a Jack Russell called Dobbin in a lobster boat (which was 75 years old).  It was to be a short trip just around some pots in the river estuary.

Sam with one of his catches

Sam and Ken inspect the haul

Scott, Nic and Calley wandered around part of town and got connected to the internet to catch up on the more mundane tasks.

Needless to say we ate lobster that night.  Sam had a great trip with Ken and he was given four lobster to take home for his efforts.  I have said this before but we are continually amazed at how generous and hospitable the people around here are.  

A few words on the boat.  Dulcinea is really doing well so far although there are a few things that still need to be looked at.  We are thinking of carrying out some more work in Newport when we haul the boat to get the keel looked at.  The main items are some further work tidying up the electrical system, finish servicing the deck rigging gear, check the refrigeration thermostats and look at the the sewage piping with a view to replacing.

We will move from here tomorrow with a view to being in Rockland for Saturday (1st Sept) to pick up Peter and Claire.  This will also be Nic’s birthday  - our first birthday onboard.