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HEADING FOR SW HARBOR
Time to leave NE Harbor and
head to our final destination on this East Coast Adventure and that is back to
SW Harbor. J&F are nearing the end of their trip also. They still have their
rental car so they can get back to the airport so Larry and I will take the boat
on its last voyage to SW Harbor and F&J will drive the rental car and meet us
there. They will spend one last night on the boat and head out the next morning
to the airport.
Again it was a beautiful day and this time we were lucky because F&J were taking pictures of Knotty Dog heading out of Bar Harbor from the shore line. They even got shots as we arrived at SW Harbor. That was great for us as we are usually the ones taking the pictures and it’s always of the shore as we come and go. This time we watched the shores with a different viewpoint. This would be our last trip on the East Coast. It was sad in a way but it has been a great journey, an amazing journey.
Hinckley Boat Yard Once we got settled in at SW Harbor we decided to search out the Hinckley Boat Yard. It’s not particularly easy to find or well marked but we found it after stopping and asking a few locals along the way. Wow, what an amazing place Hinckley Boat Yard is. We first stopped in at the front office and asked if it would be OK to browse around the yard and the unfriendly receptionist merely said “No, we don’t allow that”. So,…..we browsed around anyway. How ridiculous, no one seemed to care anyway. How could they turn away four die hard admirers?
So we walked through several of their warehouses and got to see many of the boats that we have been admiring on the water the last few months in the flesh, so to speak, during their infancy. It’s quite a production they have here and I like the fact that all these Hinckley’s have to pass muster and prove themselves worthy in the local winter’s rough seas. Our dock master at our marina confirmed that. He said the Hinckley’s are the last boats to come out of the water at the docks in the winter because they have to pass extensive sea trials in bad weather and seas. Now that’s something to think about when deciding your next boat purchase.
LAST EVENING WITH FRIENDS We spent our last evening with our friends, and yep put one more lobster dinner under our belt. This time Joe cooked and grilled four big ones on the barby. Before the boat arrived at SW Harbor, Fran and Joe had made a quick trip to the nearby lobster pound and got four plump lobsters for us. How fitting an end to their visit, just sitting on the back of the boat, watching another beautiful Maine evening approach, grilling lobsters and enjoying a good glass of wine. Everyone one on the docks seemed to be enjoying the nice afternoon and evening too as they all gathered on the docks chatting with other at cocktail hour.
The owner of the 72 Nordhavn,
“Mighty Mouse”, (I love that name) on the next dock over, was providing extra
entertainment this afternoon by flying his model sea plane all over the harbor
and showing off perfect landings on the glass like water near the docks. It was
a maneuver he perfected and repeated over and over. Ziggy was running up and
down the docks trying to “get” this strange metal bird that made way too much
noise for a regular bird. He had no luck catching the thing but he provided
some good laughs for everybody. This evening was a fitting send off for our
friends. In the morning we rode with F&J
to the airport where they turned their car in and we got a van that would be our
mode of transportation to take us across the country back to Santa Barbara. We
said our goodbyes at the departure zone. We always appreciate goods friends
that take the time out from their busy schedules to come spend part of our
journey with us. It isn’t always easy to get to catch up or leave from some of
the remote places we are and something can be quite an expense. So we
appreciate the effort to come spend time with us and share the scenery. It
develops a special bond between us that is never forgotten and when we are gone
for months on end on these long lonely journeys it means so much to us to have
this time together. We will miss F&J and their never wavering good cheer,
positive spirit and good company.
FALL IS IN THE AIR After our F&J were gone, fall seemed to come almost immediately. The air became noticeably cool and crisp and the mornings are becoming sharply cold. For the first time we are turning the heaters on in the boat to knock off the chill so we can wake up comfortably warm and enjoy our morning coffee fix. The skies are clear, free of fog and rain clouds. The sun light has a golden glow to it and the shadows are long. The sun casts a wonderful yellow gold glow to everything. The boats and buildings look as if they are veiled under a soft golden spotlight. A gentle wind is in the air all the time now, rustling the leaves in the trees, waving the flags on the boats, flapping the halyards and creating ripples across the water. The sounds are quieter, less traffic, and chatter of people on the docks and the skies are empty of migrating birds as they have suddenly left. The leaves too are changing as their colors and suddenly are beginning to turn. Some are turning a slight yellow, not noticeable unless you were searching for it and some brazen early birds are not as shy and they are already punching out the landscape with a bright red.
DOCKS ARE GETTING EMPTY The docks are becoming empty except for the local boats with hailing ports of SW Harbor, Bass Harbor and other local bays. The Nordhavn 72, “Mighty Mouse”, is surprisingly still here. He has the unlikely hailing port of Los Angeles so surely has plans to head out and today one of the last transients, a Selene, from Alabama, left. We’re some of the last of the cruisers here. Most everyone left Labor Day including “Zipolote”. Labor Day is always THE official “end of the season” on the northern East Coast no matter what the weather may seem. The young Norwegian looking couple that runs the marina said most everyone has left by now but they say really the best weather month is September. They said by the end of September they all will be gone though except for the work boats and the Hinckley’s as they will be waiting to prove themselves worthy in their winter sea trials. A couple boats around us have locals living in them. One couple live in their converted fishing boat and he runs the small local “island ferry” boat called “Sequine”. Another hardy couple, living in the motor yacht to the side of us, well, he runs a big rusty barge but once the season’s work is done, they too will head out. The beautiful Hinckley charter fleet is still in the water. The lobster boats will probably stay in the water all winter. You begin to wonder about everyone here. Where do they go? Do they stay? What happens to these boats? What happens at the docks?
TIME TO GO OR WE MIGHT TURN INTO A PUMPKIN We know it’s time for us to move or go before we turn into a pumpkin. We watch the news and Katrina went to the left so won’t effect us. Now another hurricane is heading up the coast but looks like it will go to the right but it’s not strong enough to worry us. We’re flying Jim, a captain, up from Florida to take the boat down to Florida with crew. It’s still a little early to take the boat that far south so soon because of the hurricanes but Jim will be careful and duck in if needed. He has lots of experience, way beyond us and we trust him. He used to run commercial boats up in the Bering sea tracking Russian submarines for the government and another part of his career was running research vessels in the Panama area for the Smithsonian Institute in uncharted waters. We have no worries about Jim taking care of the boat. He’ll be here Monday. His plane is scheduled to arrive about five. He says they will take off the next morning and get as far south as they can before the weather gets rough from the remnants of the current hurricane which is heading north. I will stock the galley with the food that he has requested so they don’t have to waste time doing that. It will be simple foods, nothing difficult to prepare, just soups, salad, sandwich stuff and lots and lots of coffee. They will run the boat hard and long and there won’t be time to prepare any fancy meals and if the weather is rough they want something easy to fix.
EXHAUSTED We have been exhaustingly busy all week going through every nook and cranny of the boat and taking off anything we don’t need or never used on the boat. We threw away lots, or if it was of value, left it by the dumpster for whoever might want any of it and packed the rest to take home. It’s amazing how much “stuff” you accumulate thinking you will need it and never use. I tried to cook everything I possibly could that was left in the freezer. We had planned another month or so of cruising as we had planned to leave the boat ourselves in Newport Rhode Island and I had provisioned for that. The galley has been emanating wonderful smells of pies, roasts, soups and the BBQ has been busy cooking steaks, flank steaks, chicken, you name it, we’ve been cooking and eating, cooking and eating. The rest is going to stay on the boat until it gets to Florida. Jim can take home whatever he wants, but being a bachelor, I’m not sure if he’ll want it. Larry will fly to Florida when the boat gets there and give away, eat or dispose of the rest (anything that no one wants).
ONE LAST CHANCE TO EXPLORE THE AREA BY CAR We have rented a car and before we loaded it we took little afternoon drives to see the area. One day we decided to take a whole day and drive to Swan Island and see Stonington. I had wanted to stop there with the boat but we didn’t have time. The day we went, the weather of course turned so lousy. It was raining, dark and grey the whole day and if it wasn’t raining it was foggy. I’m glad we went though, even though I couldn’t get good shots of the absolutely beautiful areas we saw.
STONINGTON
Stonington is a superb beautiful town. It’s very remote on the southernmost tip of Deer Island and you get the feel it hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years. To get there we had to head north on the only connecting bridge to the main land off Desert Island. Still heading further north to Ellsworth and then East through Blue Hill and then back south down through the Wooden Boat School country. We then crossed the extension bridge that we went under in the boat as we cruised down Eggemoggin Reach and then we headed south all the way to the tip of Deer Isle. The scenery, once we reached Deer Isle was spectacular. No question about it even on this dark dank day.
WOODEN BOAT SCHOOL Pictures
CENTER HARBOR
On our way back we took the southern route, a little longer and out of the way so we could see some of those places along Eggemoggin Reach that we could only read about as we saw them from the water on our way to Desert Island. One was Center Harbor and it indeed is “filled with some of the most beautiful boats you will see in one place all at anchor.” We stopped many times along the way to take pictures of some of the simplest of sights that to me were just so beautiful. It was a great drive.
SWAN ISLAND photos
WATCHING OTHER BOATS HEAD SOUTH ALONG THE SHORE LINE
Other days, we took short little drives to break up the hard work. Sometimes it would be to see the shore line up close and watch other boats heading south or to explore the worthy lighthouses.
OUR PLANS Well after several days of hard work we have the car pretty well loaded and the boat is ready for Jim. Our plan now after Jim heads south with Knotty Dog is to drive across country back to Santa Barbara. We didn’t want Ziggy to have to go through the stress of another cross country flight. He’s too big to ride in the cabin with us and would have to go in the luggage compartment again. He came to Florida that way but he looked like a Zombie when he got off the plane. He’s too much of a pal to do that to him again. So what the heck, we’ll see some more of the country, this time, at the speed of lighting compared to the slow 10 knots that we have been doing for the last several months. We’ll stop and see what we want as we go.
The first stop will be Quebec, Canada, and I think Larry has a desire to stop in his home town, Crestin, Iowa and then all bets are that we will then head home as fast as we can. As a friend of mine says, once the cow is pointed home, he’s on fast track. I’m anxious to get home and see our friends, the house and my garden and get back to a normal life for awhile. We’ll get our photos organized and finish up the log and put it on the web and then start figuring out our next adventure. We will have to decide whether to sell the boat and see the world, or will it be to tackle the Caribbean again, or will it be putting Knotty Dog on a freighter and ship her to Vancouver to explore the Pacific Northwest and Alaska again?
At this point we don’t know and we’ll see how we feel. We’re actually kind of tired. Though we love every minute traveling on the Knotty Dog, going to a different port and place, day after day, month after month, can be very exhausting. We’ve truly had a wonderful adventure and even though I’m exhausted there’s a strong pull that just makes me want to turn the boat around and head south doing it all over again. It a strange hypnotic draw or desire. I feel much like what a migrating bird must feel like, a desire to head south now and go with the rest of the boats. It’s like something in my blood. It’s sort of a lonely feeling not following the rest of the boats and birds. But, it’s definitely time to go, the farm stands are loading up with pumpkins, the leaves are turning, there’s a chill in the air and California is calling.
We have been so comfortable here in SW Harbor. A really cute young couple runs the docks. They have a little blockbuster of a two year old boy who is growing up in the dock office and his play ground is literally on the docks. He’s getting great experience even though he’s very young. They are a stunning family each with a head of pure blond locks which makes them look like they are from Sweden. She has an English or New Zealand accent and they can’t be very old. The little boy is happy as a clam even though there aren’t any children to play with. He talks to all the adults and follows his dad around on the docks with his tricycle. He’s got all his play toys scattered everywhere around the dock office and everyone just steps around it all. I’m sure he’ll be running the place in a few years as he watches and follows his dad everywhere.
Yesterday the sun came out and it warmed the docks for a couple hours so he was running around the dock office stark naked. No one minded or even thought it was unusual. He is cute as a bug. He’s got the most wonderful blond Shirley Temple locks, longer than they should be, just like his dad. The mother has the most beautiful white blond hair that, when she unpins it and shakes it out, it falls to the base of her back and is stunning. Every night at the end of their work day which can be when ever the last boat has arrived, the three of them head down the dock and get on a beautiful blue hulled Hinckley sailboat. They are just such a cute family and so interesting and even though very young take their job seriously. They run the marina very efficiently and professionally. What a nice family.
MIGHTY MOUSE AND HIS SEAPLANE “Mighty Mouse” (the 72 Nordhavn) is still at the dock. We haven’t met them but assume it’s the owner that flies the model sea plane in the harbor most afternoons around cocktail hour. He and a friend or crew member, carry the plane, which must have a 3 or 4 foot wing span, down to the end of the dock and buzz it around the harbor and docks for about an hour. Its great entertainment as it swoops and dives and does free falls and several perfect landings on the water. It drives Ziggy nuts though and he runs from one end of the dock to the other, chasing and barking at it. We have to literally grab him and pick him up, his legs still running in mid air beneath him and settle him back down on the boat but every chance he gets, he escapes again out another door that we forgot was open and starts the chaise all over again. Yesterday a huge crowd, some men’s club I guess, had a big lobster boil on the upper dock parking lot yesterday. Their signature color was purple. They all had purple plastic drinking glasses, some had purple motorcycles, and they had a big purple touring bus. They were having a great time drinking and hooting it up and boiling those lobsters. Wonder what club that was? West Marine is close by which is very handy, and there is a great embroidery shop is across from them that will do a quick turn around on embroidered hats, shirts, bags, jackets and even customized fender covers. We had a few bags and hats made up.
FEELING A LITTLE GUILTY There are a couple restaurants, one next to West Marine. Sometimes we go there when I’m tired of cooking. We can sit on their outside patio with Zig but the weather is getting a little cold now so we have to bundle up. It has a great view of the harbor though and the food’s not bad. There is another restaurant by the docks which is a cabaret dinner theatre which we don’t know much about. We didn’t really check everything out here as we were so busy and tired getting the boat cleaned out and things packed in the car for our cross country trip. In fact, I felt very guilty that we didn’t have cocktails with another Nordhavn that came in but I was so totally exhausted and I just wasn’t up for it. I know we probably offended them by not accepting their invitations but I hope they understand. If they are reading this, I hope you understand. We explained that we weren’t up to it but we could tell that they might have been offended as they hurriedly scuffed by our boat each day after that. Every morning we’d take a nice walk to the village of SW Harbor. That was the one break we had from getting ready to leave and well Ziggy demands a morning walk. It’s good for all of us so we did it. I love the little village of SW Harbor.
SW HARBOR VILLAGE It’s small and quaint and very pleasant. They have a wonderful bakery called Top Notch. They have the most delicious melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls, plus other delicious homemade breads. We have to be careful of that place and try not to enjoy it too much.
NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS I love the little market next door with its old worn wooden floors and old fashioned counter. I like to look at the lovely fruits and vegetables displayed in their old turn of the century store front. They have everything you ever would need, nothing more and nothing less, and that was just fine for us. I’d go in daily and get whatever fresh produce I needed for the day. The produce would literally come in from the farms that morning fresh everyday. If it had rained the day before, there were no fresh blueberries because “they can’t pick’em when it’s raining, but they’ll be some tomorrow, ‘cause its clear today”. Sure enough, the next day as promised, the front wooden counter had little old fashion wooden baskets filled with the most beautiful wild blueberries, blackberries and strawberries that you have ever seen and they were the tastiest berries you’ll ever eat. They had a great butcher too with the best cuts of meats and a fresh fish counter with lovely local mussels, salmon, and sea bass. Since I went in daily I could see it all come and go fresh everyday. The vegetables were good too but you didn’t have a wide variety just what was fresh locally grown. There was none of this exotic South American, Mexican, New Zealand, etc. stuff that is flown in, as it’s all “that day” fresh local produce. The market bought gourmet lettuces from a local farm and it was to die for and the tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes and smelled like tomatoes, you know that beautiful fragrance that fresh tomatoes have that is so rare to find these days. I just bought the local stuff because it was the best. They had mouth watering plump corn which was always good and sweet too. Their small wine department was excellent too. They just had a few small isles of dry goods, and a couple freezers with gourmet ice cream and Stouffer’s dinners. Well, it’s a boating community, and this market suited our needs and tastes just fine. You had to drive to get to the bigger grocery stores and that’s where the year round locals would stock up on other items. We would stop in at the Java house for coffee but the best coffee was on the side street at the Mouse Pad. The elementary school was right in the center of the village so as we sat and drank our coffee, you could hear the kids laughing as they played in the playground nearby. We rented some videos one day from a small little hole in the wall store, no bigger than 20 by 20 feet, if that. It was dark and old and in the back was an old lady who worked behind the counter. It looked like she hadn’t come out of there for years, all wrinkled and tough looking, smoking one cigarette after another. The air was filled with thick grey cigarette smoke. We also loved a little cozy outdoor/indoor café that served crunchy-granola-hippy food that was delicious. It was always fresh and healthy and home made. We loved the great smells emanating from the kitchen when they were baking big delicious cookies in their huge gigantic oven. Most of the young kids that worked there and many other places on Desert Island were from Poland, here on a work permit for the summer, and they seemed so innocent, hard working, smart and so very polite which I think are becoming forgotten traits these days. There were several cute stores to poke our noises into that had unique clothing and special artsy gift items. You can tell they have a sophisticated clientele here. There were several other little restaurants that we didn’t really have the time to explore. The village was just about the right size, small and quaint but had everything you’d ever want. We loved it. Just down the road was Beal’s Lobster. It’s another lobster pound and has about the freshest lobster you can get as it comes right off the local lobster boats. Joe and Fran, when they were visiting, found it and bought four big lobsters for their last night here. They had them partially boiled and packed and then Joe brought them back to the boat, split them and finished them on the BBQ, basted in butter. That along with fresh market corn and salad, well….. it was just the best dinner in town and right on the back of the boat as we watched the boats in the harbor and the early autumn sun go down. It was a fine evening.
BASS HARBOR AND BERNARD HARBOR
The last night before we were to get off Knotty Dog, we took a drive to the next harbor south for our last lobster dinner. Wow, was that worth the drive. What a spectacularly beautiful harbor, just filled with lobster boats and interesting docks with all kinds of lobster paraphernalia to wonder through. The lobster pound restaurant was perched right over the harbor and provided a great view as the long shadows of the late after evening approached.
Bass Harbor photos
TIME TO GO Jim and crew were to arrive today so we closed Knotty Dog up and headed up to Bar Harbor to a wonderful Bed and Breakfast that allowed dogs. We checked in and just enjoyed the luxury of the wonderful inn and not having to do anything but allow ourselves to be waited on for a change. We had a big room, a nice big fluffy down filled bed, a large sitting area, a big bath tub to soak in, and a wonderful picture perfect view of Bar Harbor that we cruised through a few weeks ago. No more cooking on the boat. Now it’s going to be the luxury of just going out to restaurants and being waited on. Aaahhh! Well, Jim was supposed to get in on the late afternoon flight, with just enough time for Larry to pick them up and drive them to SW Harbor to Knotty Dog so they get a good nights rest and leave early the next morning. I stayed at the inn as Larry went to the airport to meet them as the car was packed full with only enough room for the three of them. An hour went by, then two hours, and finally I got a call from Larry. They never showed up at the airport. Larry talked to the captain on the little plane and he said two men got on the plane in Boston and then got off before the plane took off. Larry had to drive back to the boat in SW Harbor to get his cell phone that he had forgotten so he could call Jim and see what the deal was. He called Jim and he said they missed the flight and they were on their way by rental car from Boston and would be there at 11:00 PM. Well, we’ve got to say we had
this same thing happen to us in Panama with Jim and I think the problem is he’s
afraid of flying and small planes are the worst for him. He missed the flight
from Panama to Bocas Del Toro too. Well, we understand, so Larry came back to
the inn while they drove the several hour drive up here. We had dinner and then
went back to the inn to wait for them to get up to Maine. It was a long night
when they finally got here. Larry met them at the airport in Bar Harbor so they
could turn their rental car in there and then Larry drove them to SW Harbor and
refamiliarized them with Knotty Dog.
KNOTTY DOG LEAVING WITHOUT US Next day though, the guys were on their way. They gave us a call as they were heading out SW Harbor and back down the rugged coast line that we had traveled the last few months. It was strange to be leaving Knotty Dog in someone else's hands. I wanted to know all their stops and where they were each day. So as we traveled across country by car we also kept in contact with Knotty Dog and marked on the map her progress.
SO LONG MAINE WE’LL COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY Hey, so long Maine. So long to all those friends that were so gracious and hospitable all along the way. So long to new friends too that we met in so many different places. You can’t say the New Englanders aren’t hospitable. It may take along time to get to know them but once you do they are some of the best people you will ever want to meet.
EPILOGUE After arriving in Florida in late September, Hurricane WILMA came thru Ft Lauderdale in late November. Knotty dog survived with littel damage. Click to read the Wilma story.
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SW
HARBOR MARINA
