August 20 – August 31, 2006

By Julia Lamb

Maine waters are peppered with lobster pots and they seemed to multiply as we headed further north, so thick in some areas that our auto helm was useless as we slalomed back and forth between the colorful, irksome buoys.

I confess, I was manning the helm when Tantara hooked a lobster pot, with a sickening clunkety-clunk sound as the port engine stalled.  We actually had two lobster pots tangled in our propeller and we were stationary in the water as if anchored.

Steve bravely tried to slip into the water to investigate the tangled mess without a wet suit, but quickly realized the danger of this plan.  He called Tow Boat US since we had prepaid for their services and within an hour we were being towed to Rockland, grateful the propeller was undamaged.

Sunday, August 20^th was a rainy, cold day, but we had spied a church on shore through our binoculars that appeared within easy walking distance.  With colorful ponchos and good Wal-Mart walking shoes, we bravely motored our dinghy to shore in the rain.

Warm, friendly people greeted us at Littlefield Memorial Baptist Church where we met our new friends Val and her daughter Abi and Fred and Charlotte.  We enjoyed lunch and fellowship at a Chinese restaurant with them and afterwards Val and Abi spent the rainy afternoon shopping with us and then kindly gave us a ride back to the dock.

Our goal at this point was to catch up with our friends the Deckers on Spoony and to see more of Maine.  We sailed up to Mount Desert Island, where Acadia National Park is located.  We couldn’t get through to the Deckers by cell phone, so we decided to grab a mooring ball in Seal Harbor (see map below).  As we glided into the harbor, we saw little girls jumping around on another catamaran and knew we had found Spoony!

We spent the next few days exploring Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park with the Deckers.  Since we could catch a free shuttle bus to anywhere on the island, we didn’t need to pahk the cah in Bah Hah-bah (sorry, I just couldn’t resist!).

One morning, Jen, Lilly and I took the shuttle bus to Bar Harbor to find a farmers market since we craved fresh produce.  We were sharing a snack and coffee at a café when we received a phone call from Steve and Mark reporting that Rachel had fallen off her bike possibly breaking her right arm.  Steve and Rachel got a ride to the hospital with the island police while I walked the short distance to the hospital.  The x-ray showed no fracture, but the doctor felt it was wise to keep her arm in a splint for a week since it was obviously sprained. 

The sprained wrist didn’t slow Rachel down however, because the following day we joined the Decker family for a hike to Thunder Hole, where the crashing waves have formed a cavity in the rocks that produce a thunderous sound at high tide.  We played at Sand Beach, but only those brave enough took off their shoes to wade in the freezing water.  Steve and Daniel rode their bikes to Thunder Hole, then joined us (with the bikes) for a ride on the bus to Bar Harbor.  Steve rode his bike back to our anchorage in Seal Harbor while the rest of us took the shuttle bus.  On the half-mile walk from the bus stop to the town dock, we foraged for ripe black berries that grew along the beach trail and roadside.

The following morning, we waved a hopefully temporary good-bye to Spoony and caught the bus to the Bubble Pond trailhead to tackle the 1,530 feet Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain in the park.  We crawled up rocky cliffs for several miles till we settled on some granite rocks for a picnic lunch.  Reaching the summit, we could see our harbor where Tantara waited.  We could see Bar Harbor, the Cranberry Islands and miles of coastline around Mount Desert Island.  Some sources claim that the summit of Cadillac Mountain is the place to witness the earliest sunrise in the United States.

Sunday, August 27^th we visited the First Baptist Church in Bar Harbor, ate blueberry pancakes for lunch (or second breakfast), walked the Shore Path around Bar Harbor and visited the whale museum.

We left Seal Harbor near the end of August and anchored in Valley Cove, in Somes Sound, with a stunning backdrop of granite cliffs and a rocky beach for landing our dinghy.  A bald eagle perching on a treetop spied our boat as we entered the cove.

We hiked Flying Mountain (284 ft.) and Mount St. Saveur (679 ft.), listened to the sweet screech of osprey gliding above the cliffs and breathed the fresh aroma of balsam fir forests in the wind.  I whispered a grateful prayer to the Creator of such a perfect place on the earth and asked for an extension to our visit.