Camden Maine

After spending more days than we anticipated fog-bound in North East Harbour, we headed out on a cloudy morning with light winds.  We sailed through Eggemoggin Reach on our way to Penobscot Bay.  This area is absolutely full of possible anchorages and it is somewhat frustrating that we have to sail past so many of them!!  The coastline here reminds us both of the west coast, as it is lush and variable in its height.  We can see really high hills in the distance which I assume are the bottom of the Adirondacks?  Please correct me if I am wrong, as we are somewhat limited in our ability to access information on the boat!!  Although the winds were light, they were essentially westerly, so we enjoyed a nice, comfortable motor sail through the reach and out in to west Penobscot Bay.  As we neared the village of Camden, we started to see schooners sailing in the Bay!  What a sight!  Camden has been a ship-building port since before the Civil War, and when we arrived, there were still about 8 schooners plying the waters with tourists, and then docked in the picturesque inner harbour in the evening!

leaving North East Harbour...can you see the lobster pots???

lobstermen hard at work in Eggamoggin Reach

Penobscot Bay 

One of many schooners plying the waters of Penobscot Bay

Unfortunately, just as we were seeing Camden on the horizon, we were tacking through some lobster pots, and our first injury of the trip occurred!!!  I was pulling in a very loose jib sheet when somehow I managed to jam my thumb in to the self-furling lip on the winch, splitting it open and causing profuse bleeding accompanied by EXCRUTIATING pain!!!  I have included a picture of the thumb and the offending winch, but have refrained from exposing the full carnage of the injury, as I fear the more squeamish of my readers would not be able to stand the horror of it!  Needless to say I have officially been off dishes duty for the last few days.....working on stretching that one out as long as possible!!!  (Point of interest: did you know that when you type, you never use your left thumb??!!)

As luck would have it, Camden is a beautiful little harbour loaded with schooner tall ships and other smaller schooners, surrounded by lovely New England homes and a little shopping centre with lots of good restaurants to choose from.  Since I had been freshly injured, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out our first night....swordfish for George and lobster risotto for me....delish!

The town of Camden is known for their schooner-building history, having built and launched numerous 5 masted schooners and the first 6 masted schooner, so they are a real sailing town.  It is also very beautiful, nestled in the Camden Hills, with a waterfall emptying itself in to the top of the harbour, and church steeples peeking through the foliage.  I have included some photos for you, but they really don't do the place justice!!

After Camden, we made for Pemaquid Harbour, sneaking in before the expected winds and rain, and anchored nestled in among the lobster pots!!

Neat house in Pemaquid Harbour

Fort in Pemaquid Harbour

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and COLD!! With a strong north wind, we reefed in the main and headed back out to sea.  As we were exiting Pemaquid Harbour, we decided to put in a second reef, just to be safe!  Sure enough, it was blowing pretty hard outside, but lasted only a couple of hours, gradually dying down as we crossed the Casco Bay until there was hardly any wind as we entered Portland Maine.  We tied up at the Portland Yacht Services and wandered in to town, finding a wonderful little place called The Northpoint for dinner.....felt like we had stepped in to a little Parisian Bistro!  The next day was spent re-provisioning, and the following day we met Mom and Helen and Rene for lunch and a visit!!  Fortunately, the weather was absolutely beautiful the whole time we were in Portland, so it was also good for wandering around the Old Port, having an ice-cream cone at Beales, and finishing off the visit with a walk along the waterfront.  It was so nice to see them, and what a happy coincidence that they were visiting Maine at the same time we were!!

The following day we slipped our lines and headed out in to yet another beautiful day, making our way down the coast, past the Goose Rocks Beach where we did a 'sail-past' for Mom, Helen and Rene  waving good-bye one last time, and then headed down the coast, ultimately leaving Maine in our wake, sailing right past the 18 coastal miles of New Hampshire where we took on a little hitchhiker who did a wonderful job of catching the flies that had decided to hang around before taking off again, and finally in to Massachusetts, heading 3 miles up the Merrimak River to the town of Newburyport. What a ride that was!  The current from the river is about 2 knots, and the ebb tibe is 3-4 knots, so a total of about 5 knots against us, not to mention the waves and rolls at the 'sand bar' entrance to the river!  Fortunately George did a great job driving and lined the boat up beautifully with the mooring ball, so I was able to grab it easily, even in the crazy current!!!  It did die down at slack tide, and then the flood is not nearly as wild, but it was quite an introduction to the town!

 Our original plan was to stay the one night and continue on the next day, as the weather on Sunday was not predicted to be good, however, when we woke on Saturday morning, it looked like there was fog out in the ocean and we were worried that the front had moved faster than anticipated, so we decided to stay and wait it out here.  And what a good decision that was!  As it turned out, the day was lovely and we went in to the town to discover that it is a lovely place!  In 1811 the town suffered a catastrophic fire which destroyed most of the town, so the town council at the time decreed that the new buildings would be made with brick and only be 3 stories high.  As a result a good number of the buildings downtown are made of brick from the ballast of old cargo ships!

Newburyport  also became the base of operations for the Newburyport Privateers who played an important role in capturing and attacking British vessels during the Revolution and the War of 1812.   After the war, many former privateers found it difficult to give up their 'privateering' ways, especially as Newburyport had a custom house where ships from all over the world would come to register their cargo.  The newly minted government of the US created a 'revenue cutter' posse that were designed to be fast enough to capture the pirates eluding the government and it's taxes and thereby enforce the new laws.  Eventually, the revenue cutter department and the rescue ships of the coastline combined to form what is now the US Coastguard.  This union was formed in Newburyport, and last year the town was designated an official Coast Guard City.

We have enjoyed our stay in Newburyport, but must move on.  We hope to sail around Cape Anne on Monday, and start making our way to Cape Cod, a journey of about 3 days for us!!

Finally, I must apologize....I have a number of pictures that I had taken for this instalment of the blog, however our computer is not recognizing the new SD card that is presently in my camera....aargh!!!  So no pictures of Portland, no pictures of our feathered friend who accompanied us on our trip here, and no pictures of Newburyport!!!  So frustrating!  I must now find a camera shop and rectify the problem!