We’ve had Tourist back in home waters now since June. In some ways it’s like we were never gone and then I think back on all the places that we’ve been since 2009 when we last had Tourist home. We’ve been very fortunate to do what so many others dream …
Aug. 30 – Rockport, ME
Lyman Morse Marine Mooring
“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” –Author Unknown
We’re going to be in Camden all week, but today we decided to ride our bikes over to Rockport. It was only a two-mile ride, but it seemed much longer. The hills around here are a killer. I thinking hiking last week in Acadia was much easier.
Rockport is a small harbor village that was first settled in 1769. Originally, Rockport was a part of Camden, known as Goose River but the towns officially separated in 1891.During the 19th century, the primary industries were shipbuilding, lime production, and ice exportation. Today, Rockport is known for being a cultural and artistic town with a large community of local artists.
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Aug. 29 – Camden, ME
Lyman Morse Marine Mooring
“Mind on a permanent vacation, the ocean is my only medication. This Champagne shore washing over me, it’s a sweet, sweet life living by the salty sea.”—Zac Brown Band
Our destination today was Camden, just across Penobscot Bay from Pulpit Harbor. Camden is a picturesque town in the center of Maine’s mid-coast region, nestled at the foot of Camden Hills on Penobscot Bay. Its slogan is “Where the Mountains Meet the Sea” and is considered by many visitors (us included) to be one of the most beautiful places in New England. Coming into the inner harbor is enchanting…boats of all kinds and sizes, old buildings, action going on everywhere and the beautiful mountains as a backdrop to it all.
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FPB 78-1 Underway Towards Fiji
Breem Head is in our wake, and Cochise is running free, squared away towards the north. We’ve got high pressure …Read More
Aug. 28 – North Haven, ME
Pulpit Harbor – Anchorage
“Changing your perspective changes your experience.” –Author Unknown
We spent extra time this morning enjoying our breakfast on the flybridge. What an amazing way to start the day…the sky was clear, the temperature a little crisp, but not too chilly, the view out standing and the water looked like glass. We love these beautiful slow mornings watching the world come alive.
Like all good things the perfect morning couldn’t last all day and it was time to move on. The weather predictions were for a strong south wind to come in during the night and we wanted an anchorage that offered better protection. So by late morning it was time to move west to a new spot. Our travel day was short, we only moved about 20 miles…we love these short day. There are so many places to explore along the Maine coast.
Our morning
We’re in Pulpit Harbor with a great view of Pulpit Rock at the entrance to the harbor and the Camden hills across Penobscot Bay. After getting settled we went ashore to find a little general store for a few essentials. The store was less than a mile away, but the walk took us awhile. Along the way we found apples, raspberries and blackberries…we ate as many as we could. What a treat. On the way back we picked a pint of blackberries to take back to the boat. They’re the sweetest blackberries I’ve ever eaten. We spent the evening like we started the day…on the flybridge enjoy our meal with a view. It was interesting watching the fog developing over the Camden Hills.
Pulpit Rock
The back of Pulpit Harbor
Some of our finds
The cute general store
Our evening view
Dinner…coconut curry lobster
Northern Arm
Northern Arm extends as two long inlets roughly eleven miles into the Newfoundland Coast from the western edge of Bay d’Espoir. The scenery there, particularly along seven-mile North Bay, is spectacular. We spent four nights in Northern Arm where we saw seals, whales and eagles, made five climbs, and completely ran out of superlatives to…
She Has a Name…
When we purchased Red Head as the kids new home, we decided to keep her name. It’s such a fitting name, after all.Before we picked her up she spent some time in an industrial yard being blasted with something they called “black Betty” or “black beauty”…
Perspective
Nordhavn Exumas Abacos Bahamas trawler Caribbean Pickwick Boat dogs
Memphis Downtown
Sea Turtles of Emerald Isle, NC
The sea turtles of Emerald Isle have fascinated me since we moved to North Carolina. This year there was a record of 51 nests found on EI. Turtle programs are found from Florida to North Carolina. I will begin this post by saying that I don’t have first-hand knowledge of this program. The only Loggerhead […]
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Prince Rupert to Port McNeill – “The long way home” – Part 2
The morning of August 16 we left Shearwater Marina for Codville Lagoon, dropping prawn pots before we anchored. Since it was still early, we dropped the kayaks into the water and paddled to shore. We then hiked 2 km trail to Sagar Lake and its lovely sandy shores.
After picking up our prawn pots (enough for a meal or two) on the way out, we headed down to fish outside Gold Stream Harbor. We’ve anchored there in the past but the forecasted strong westerly winds persuaded us to continue further south after fishing (unproductive) to Fish Egg Inlet. We dropped prawn pots part way in then worked our way to the very back and anchored in the shallow waters of Oyster Bay.
The next morning, August 18, we headed out to fish Addenbroke Island where we had seen lots of guide sport fishing boats the day before. They were there when we arrived and we joined the melee, a blundering 50’ goliath amongst more agile 20’ davids. While Marcia got some good hits on her gear there was no firm bite. We stopped to pull our prawn pots as went back into Fish Egg Inlet to anchor. The first pot had a nice haul of prawns, the second pot felt equally heavy as we pulled it in but its heft came from an octopus in it surrounded by prawn carcasses. We opened the pot and let the octopus ooze its way back into the water.
We were concerned with the third pot as the line was initially snagged on the bottom but we ultimately retrieved it and its load of prawns to the surface. We reset the pots but in a location a distance away from where we returned the octopus. For the night we anchor in a cove south of a passage called “The Narrows”.
After the excitement of the day before, when we pull pots we aren’t sure what to expect. The first two pots had a good number of prawns but the third one we pulled up had another octopus. This octopus was a bit smaller than the previous days catch and we quickly returned him to the water. We decided to give this area a rest and did not reset the prawn pots. We first fished Addenbroke where we had two good hooks but Kurt botched the netting at the swim step on the first fish and the line at the hook broke on the second one. We headed off next to Gold Stream to fish the afternoon bite. After a couple of hours trolling (and not seeing any other boats fishing), we conclude
the fish aren’t here. We head to Pruth Bay for the night. As we make our way there, we watch our engine hour gauge roll over another thousand hours of operation to 4,000.
Figuring that Addenbroke Island is “the” place for fishing, we head back there on Saturday, August 20. After several days of no fish caught, Marcia hooks and brings up a nice size coho salmon. We call it a day and head to Green Island to anchor. After the fish is cleaned and fileted, we drop the kayaks and paddle around this delightful anchorage.
We had been monitoring weather for crossing around Cape Caution, one of the few sections of the Inside Passage with prolonged exposure to ocean swells and conditions. We decided that Monday, August 22, looked like good conditions. On August 21, we first fished Addenbroke Island where Marcia caught one more coho salmon then we headed into Fury Cove to join the other boats waiting to cross.
The next morning, August 22, started off nicely but the NW wind did pick up as the day progressed. We put our stabilizing fish in the water to reduce the boat’s rolling motion caused by ocean swell which it did nicely. Our original intent was to stop at Blunden Harbor but when we started to go in, the wind was brisk enough that there were white caps in the anchorage so we continued on. We ended up in Napier Bay on N Broughton Island which was very calm but not particularly scenic on account of past logging activity.
The next day we headed into Drury Inlet and make our way to Jennis Bay Marina. Considerable logging has taken place in the area which offer logging roads on which to walk so we did a 5 mile round trip hike to a vista overlooking Drury Inlet and Jennis Bay. At happy hour we were able to meet the other boaters on the dock, a treat you can’t easily do if your anchored out (especially you are by yourself).
The Broughtons are a compact area so it was a short day to the next anchorage in Burly Bay in MacKenzie Sound. A dramatic cliff stands above the anchorage.
On Thursday, August 25, we worked our way along the inside channels to the cozy and quiet anchorage in Lady Boot Cove (aka “East of Eden Cove”) on Eden Island. It is ony a 1 or 2 boat anchorage and you have no visibility as to whether anyone is in it until you are almost in. We had it to ourselves for the night.
We completed this leg of our journey the next morning when we traveled through the thick fog blanketing Queen Charlotte Strait to Port McNeill arriving late morning on August 26, 23 days after leaving Prince Rupert
