Day 38 Mount Desert Island
Mount Desert Island was not on the list of must do places for our voyage. But after hearing about it from acquaintances and reading about its history we decided to go take a look. Somes Sound is said to be the only fjord in the United States and nearly bisects the island, running between two mountains.
The entrance to Mount Desert Harbor and Somes Sound requires threading between islands from either the east or the west. The logical route for us would be from the west using what is known in classic New England phrasing as "the Western Way". This route passes over a narrow, shallow bar where the tide rips violently. Careful attention to depth and enough speed to fight the current is required.
In this photo we are sailing up the channel of the Western Way and Somes Sound is beginning to materialize between the mountains:
From the previous anchorage to Somes Sound is about 20 miles. The winds conspired that we would motor about 3/4 of this distance, and the last 1/4 would be possibly the most terrific sailing of this entire voyage. We breezed into Mount Desert Harbor under sail dropping sail at the last minute. Once again we had to thread our way through a field of thousands and thousands of lobster traps, which does become annoying quickly. It's like playing pinball at 8 kts.
We went to the very head of Somes Sound before turning around to anchor at the foot of spectacular cliffs in a little cove adjoining Acadia National Park. We are anchored close to shore in a very deep anchorage with cold, clear water and mountains on both shores. Thus is surely a unique, beautiful place to park the boat.
With anchor down it's time for our usual take-Shelby-to-shore routine. We packed a picnic lunch and sat on a rock to eat with our feet in the water.
After spending most of our time at lonely outpost islands for the last month it is strange to go ashore and be surrounded by people walking the trail and glimpse car tail lights on the opposite shore. The cliff just above our anchorage is a nesting ground for perengrine falcons. We heard lots of screeching in the skies above us, and finally spotted the nests on the rocky face.
After we were well settled in our carefully chosen anchor spot, six other boats came into this little harbor and filled up the empty spots. One of these boats anchored between us and the shore and his buddy boat rafted up to the anchored boat, so now two boats riding on the same anchor just upwind of us. They then departed for happy hour on another boat. About an hour later we noticed the two boats tied together were drifting down on us! Five blasts on the air horn (sailor signal for imminent danger) got the boat owners' attention and they quickly left happy hour to come retrieve their boats, which we were now fending off of our twin bows. Much circus ensued as they got on board their boats, still tied together and cranked up an engine. The engine was belching smoke after being throttled way up with no warm-up trying to pull both boats away from our boat while still dragging their anchor around somewhere underwater. Inevitably they hooked our anchor chain and ended up having to drop their anchor. Eventually they got both boats anchored in a new spot far from us and then came to retrieve their original anchor. We were all very happy about an outcome that involved three undamaged boats. Everyone departed in good humor and all is well.
Sunset arrives early in the shadow of the mountain and the evening is quite cool.
The next morning, August 5th, we break out our jackets and wool socks. Brent and Shelby went on a long paddle board cruise. While Shelby napped onboard, Brent & Lois hiked up the mountain trail to the overlook, crossing paths again with our anchoring buddies.
Up on the mountain we could see well up Somes Sound in one direction, and out to the Cranberry Islands in the other.
The entrance to Mount Desert Harbor and Somes Sound requires threading between islands from either the east or the west. The logical route for us would be from the west using what is known in classic New England phrasing as "the Western Way". This route passes over a narrow, shallow bar where the tide rips violently. Careful attention to depth and enough speed to fight the current is required.
In this photo we are sailing up the channel of the Western Way and Somes Sound is beginning to materialize between the mountains:
From the previous anchorage to Somes Sound is about 20 miles. The winds conspired that we would motor about 3/4 of this distance, and the last 1/4 would be possibly the most terrific sailing of this entire voyage. We breezed into Mount Desert Harbor under sail dropping sail at the last minute. Once again we had to thread our way through a field of thousands and thousands of lobster traps, which does become annoying quickly. It's like playing pinball at 8 kts.
We went to the very head of Somes Sound before turning around to anchor at the foot of spectacular cliffs in a little cove adjoining Acadia National Park. We are anchored close to shore in a very deep anchorage with cold, clear water and mountains on both shores. Thus is surely a unique, beautiful place to park the boat.
With anchor down it's time for our usual take-Shelby-to-shore routine. We packed a picnic lunch and sat on a rock to eat with our feet in the water.
The composition of the beach has changed again. There is some coarse sand, but mostly large boulders and small chunks of granite in many colors.
After we were well settled in our carefully chosen anchor spot, six other boats came into this little harbor and filled up the empty spots. One of these boats anchored between us and the shore and his buddy boat rafted up to the anchored boat, so now two boats riding on the same anchor just upwind of us. They then departed for happy hour on another boat. About an hour later we noticed the two boats tied together were drifting down on us! Five blasts on the air horn (sailor signal for imminent danger) got the boat owners' attention and they quickly left happy hour to come retrieve their boats, which we were now fending off of our twin bows. Much circus ensued as they got on board their boats, still tied together and cranked up an engine. The engine was belching smoke after being throttled way up with no warm-up trying to pull both boats away from our boat while still dragging their anchor around somewhere underwater. Inevitably they hooked our anchor chain and ended up having to drop their anchor. Eventually they got both boats anchored in a new spot far from us and then came to retrieve their original anchor. We were all very happy about an outcome that involved three undamaged boats. Everyone departed in good humor and all is well.
Sunset arrives early in the shadow of the mountain and the evening is quite cool.
The next morning, August 5th, we break out our jackets and wool socks. Brent and Shelby went on a long paddle board cruise. While Shelby napped onboard, Brent & Lois hiked up the mountain trail to the overlook, crossing paths again with our anchoring buddies.
We made several trips to shore taking Shelby for her walks and spent some time just relaxing on the beach. The tide was rapidly going out; our dinghy would befloating one minute and left on the beach the next as water receded. So relaxation meant read one page of my book, go push the dinghy back into the water. Repeat.
More adventures tomorrow!
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