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| Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse |
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| Halfway Light |
We were fogged in @ Biddeford Pool, an extra day because the fog didn't lift till sunset, which is a little after 8 PM around here. So much for red sky @ nite, a sailors delight-the night before, we enjoyed one of the most stunning sunsets yet. This spring & last fall, when we were traveling the intercostal waterway along the Atlantic south of here, we would run (not literally) into Crab pots, and we knew that we would find the most pots in 20-40 feet of water. Now, can't say the same about lobster pots, we have seen them in 8 feet of water & 250 feet of water. Those lobsters walk along the bottom of the ocean & must not mind the water temperature. Another item we find interesting is that we spotted a seal in 100+ feet of water, at least 2.5 miles away from land-here I thought they liked to hang out on islands & coastlines.
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| a sample of a field of Lobster Pots, very colorful |
Currently, we are cruising the part of Maine called Casco Bay. The shoreline of Maine is divided into 6 sections: Southern Coast, Casco Bay, Midcoast, Penobscot, Mt Desert (pronounced Dessert) & Down East. We have been told the best cruising is in Penobscot & Mt Desert but we are enjoying Casco Bay so far.
We anchored in a bay, off a long finger; the shoreline is very fingerlike with many islands scattered amongst the outstretching fingers. Picture the glaciers coming in and dragging through the land. The island we anchored off is Snow Island, luckily we didn't see a trace of the white stuff. What we did see were beautiful rocks and trees of many varieties except Palm Trees. The pine trees smell wonderful especially the cedar trees. We only had 3 boats sharing our space. We kayaked all the nooks & crannies during low tide. Timing is everything, currently low tide is in the afternoons, which makes it tough to go ashore. With 10 foot tides, locations look totally different from low tide to high. We are not comfortable with leaving our kayak or dinghy somewhere yet, because the challenge of the rise & fall of the water. One of the anchored boats was a Nordhaven from Oriental, NC. We stopped to talk to them and found out that they keep their boat & reside in River Dunes, which was one of our favorite stops going south.
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| Do you like Doug's new haircut? |
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| Osprey Nest |
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| Bald Eagle |
Next day, we cruised a whopping 10 miles to another recommended protected, pretty cove called The Basin. Our experienced boating friends have given us so many great recommendations, we hate to miss any of them and its nice not to have to rush. We explored this cove by dinghy, again at low tide so we did not go ashore. We were told there was a trail to take into the interior of the island but we couldn't find it. Tonight we only have 2 boats anchored with us. We saw 2 Bald Eagles & an osprey interacting. We hear that the Eagles sit patiently & wait until the Osprey catches something & then the Eagle chases the Osprey & steals his food.
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| Sequin Lighthouse |
Five Islands was our next destination, which is located in the Midcoast section. In route we saw a seal & dolphins. The seals are very elusive; they never stay up long enough or get close enough for us to get a pic. The dolphins are different from the ones we saw in the southern region. These dolphins (maybe they are porpoises?) are smaller, with smaller fins & are not as playful. They have not ridden in our wake or even come close. Is it because the water is colder or are they a different breed?
The Five Islands area is very picturesque. There is a small, tight harbor surrounded by-guess what?-Five Islands. All of the islands have houses on them except for one, and all of the islands are small with room for only 1-3 houses. We picked up a rental mooring, amongst the lobster pots. We actually drifted over a lobster pot while on the mooring. Luckily it didn't get caught in our stabilizers.
We took our dinghy into shore to stretch our legs & have lunch @ the highly recommended Five Island Lobster Co. Five Island Lobster is a take out restaurant consisting of 3 separate small buildings situated right on the lobster wharf where the lobster boats come in & unload their daily catch. One building cooks the whole lobster, oysters & clams, the second building makes sandwiches & the famous lobster roll and the third building sells homemade ice cream. We sampled food from each building. We learned that during July & August, lobsters shed their hard shell and if they are caught during this time, they are called Soft Shell lobsters and are supposed to be smaller, so a bit less meat but sweeter. We tried a Soft Shell lobster for $7.95/lb (hard shell was $8.95/lb) and a lobster roll for $16.00, which we thought was quite pricey. We were hoping once in Maine with this abundance of lobster, the price would go down, but actually the price has gone up. We bought a lobster roll in Block Island, RI for $12.00. All was delicious and fun. We sat @ a picnic table on the wharf and watched all the action. We also met a special family: Sarah, who is a lobsterman (or is it lobsterwoman?) following in her Dad's footsteps. Sarah is also a part-time jeweler, making these awesome necklaces from the sand dollars that she finds on her lobster cages. She dyes them which makes the unique pattern on each of them pop and then protects them with resin-they are just beautiful. We also met Sarah's husband, who is a Maine DNR officer and her 2 beautiful teenage daughters. It was a pleasure meeting them.
We anchored in a bay, off a long finger; the shoreline is very fingerlike with many islands scattered amongst the outstretching fingers. Picture the glaciers coming in and dragging through the land. The island we anchored off is Snow Island, luckily we didn't see a trace of the white stuff. What we did see were beautiful rocks and trees of many varieties except Palm Trees. The pine trees smell wonderful especially the cedar trees. We only had 3 boats sharing our space. We kayaked all the nooks & crannies during low tide. Timing is everything, currently low tide is in the afternoons, which makes it tough to go ashore. With 10 foot tides, locations look totally different from low tide to high. We are not comfortable with leaving our kayak or dinghy somewhere yet, because the challenge of the rise & fall of the water. One of the anchored boats was a Nordhaven from Oriental, NC. We stopped to talk to them and found out that they keep their boat & reside in River Dunes, which was one of our favorite stops going south. 
The Five Islands area is very picturesque. There is a small, tight harbor surrounded by-guess what?-Five Islands. All of the islands have houses on them except for one, and all of the islands are small with room for only 1-3 houses. We picked up a rental mooring, amongst the lobster pots. We actually drifted over a lobster pot while on the mooring. Luckily it didn't get caught in our stabilizers. 
We took our dinghy into shore to stretch our legs & have lunch @ the highly recommended Five Island Lobster Co. Five Island Lobster is a take out restaurant consisting of 3 separate small buildings situated right on the lobster wharf where the lobster boats come in & unload their daily catch. One building cooks the whole lobster, oysters & clams, the second building makes sandwiches & the famous lobster roll and the third building sells homemade ice cream. We sampled food from each building. We learned that during July & August, lobsters shed their hard shell and if they are caught during this time, they are called Soft Shell lobsters and are supposed to be smaller, so a bit less meat but sweeter. We tried a Soft Shell lobster for $7.95/lb (hard shell was $8.95/lb) and a lobster roll for $16.00, which we thought was quite pricey. We were hoping once in Maine with this abundance of lobster, the price would go down, but actually the price has gone up. We bought a lobster roll in Block Island, RI for $12.00. All was delicious and fun. We sat @ a picnic table on the wharf and watched all the action. We also met a special family: Sarah, who is a lobsterman (or is it lobsterwoman?) following in her Dad's footsteps. Sarah is also a part-time jeweler, making these awesome necklaces from the sand dollars that she finds on her lobster cages. She dyes them which makes the unique pattern on each of them pop and then protects them with resin-they are just beautiful. We also met Sarah's husband, who is a Maine DNR officer and her 2 beautiful teenage daughters. It was a pleasure meeting them. 
