Day 24- Maine

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We have arrived in Maine!


We left Gloucester Massachusetts at 6am with good memories; it will definitely be on our list of places to visit again.   We settled in for a casual motor north on a very calm ocean. It was one of those so calm days that the water looks metallic and the sky blends in so perfectly that it's hard to tell where the horizon is.

By midmorning we had two whale sightings- one a right whale just barely off our bow- followed by a seal coming by to check us out.  Then a small bird took a seat on the dinghy and rode with us for a while.
We were 4 miles off shore at the time, and she looked grateful to have a place to sit down & rest. For bonus points I shared a cracker with her, and she hopped into the cabin, first onto the table, then on the ship's wheel. After noticing Shelby she decided to go back to the dinghy.

Around noon we passed through Isle of Shoals, which is a cluster of rocky outcropping several miles off shore and perhaps the most southerly feature of the Maine coastline. There are five small islands. One of them is (no kidding!) named Smutty Nose Island.
Our guide book says that in pre-colonial days there was a local law that no one could bring pigs, goats or women onto the islands. That only lasted for 100 yrs or so till some rebel brought home a goat.

We made our way into York harbor, which we also passed through last year. The entrance is a rather narrow winding channel and last year the current was very, very strong going around the turns. Today we must have timed the tides just right, because it wasn't nearly as dramatic.

We celebrated our arrival in Maine with dinner on the deck of a water front restaurant with Shelby under our table charming all the servers into bringing her bowls of ice water & biscuits. Later as the evening turned dark we enjoyed reading while listening to live mandolin tunes from the boat moored next to us.

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