Crew Log for September 15th, 2022
Trip Summary:
Boothbay Harbour to Indiantown Island
Trip Distance of 4 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 704.3 NM
Departed at 1000 hours and arrived at 1130 hours
This was our shortest trip, both in length and time, but HOLY CRAP…WAS IT STRESSFUL!
We had been having several days of high winds with gusts over 30 knots. We learned the day before that our friends on Adanaco lost the use of their engine on route from Maple Juice Cove, around the corner from Rockland. They were fine, but had to drop their anchor, which drug for several hundred feet before setting, just short of a jagged rock outcrop. Towboat US took them into Christmas Cove, where they worked on getting the engine back up and running. Unfortunately, they would be “wind stayed” for a couple of days.
We knew that the earliest we would likely be able to leave Boothbay Harbor was the next day. As much as we enjoyed Boothbay, we wanted to move to a quieter anchorage, close to some hiking trails. Sounds like Indiantown Island. It was close, 4NM, so we could avoid going out into the waters of the Gulf of Maine in a small craft advisory.
The day started out pretty darn good with a soak in the hottub followed by a long hot shower. We move Elizabeth M to the dock and filled the water tanks and had a relaxing breakfast. After that, things started to go downhill in a hurry.
We made our way over to the mouth of the channel up to the Southport swing bridge and radioed for a 9:30 opening, It was already 10:15. The bridge operator said, we had a choice of a 10:30 opening of 9:30 the next day. We were still confused. Finally, “Pete” from the Tugboat Inn Marina chimes in on the radio and tells the bridge we are from Nova Scotia and have our time zones mixed up, which wasn’t actually true, but we did realize our mistake.
We circled at the bottom of the channel, waiting for 10:30, the whole time staring at huge rock ledges, hundreds of lobster pots and winds funneling down through the channel, gusting over 30 knots. We made out just fine in the end, but it has to be the most stressful few minutes we ever experienced.
We picked up a mooring just off of Indiantown Island, which was part of the Land Preserve. They had a nice dinghy dock, well marked trails and a nice little bench where we ate our picnic lunch and watched to make sure the boat didn’t break off the mooring.
It was nice to get out in the woods and stretch our legs and get away from the busy harbor at Boothbay. The wind did eventually die down in the evening and so we had a very quiet night. Except for the loons!
The forecast was for westernly winds the next day which would be perfect for making miles south.
But more about that, next time.
Maine really should be in the Atlantic time zone. Massachusetts, too. Then we could watch Celtics games at a decent hour. What are your plans for the rest of the, ahem, week?