Maine Cruising

August 22, 2023

Maine has been cold and wet for a lot of the summer, but I managed 5 days in Casco Bay and 11 days in Penobscot Bay. Couldn’t escape two all-day rainstorms, but I was tucked in safely on both occasions in Buckle Harbor, a perfect little hole at the north end of Swan’s Island, and on a mooring in Rockland Harbor.

Tardis ran perfectly the whole time, although I lose about a half knot with the dinghy on top and full tanks, making our cruise speed about 10 knots, still plenty to get where we need to go on the short passages that characterize Maine, and to keep moving when the tide is running 4 knots through Goose Rocks Passage.

On the chart, Casco Bay is those long fingers of land carved out by the glaciers just north of Portland. To get to the bays, you have to go into the ocean to round the headlands, and with tide sweeping up and down the coast, it’s always bumpy. But that kind of short passage across open water is what the Olga 28 was designed for, and 45 sporty minutes get you into perfectly protected anchorages between the fingers.

We stopped for one night of dinner and luxury at Dolphin Restaurant and Marina near Harpswell, where promptly at 9 each morning the launch drives out to all the moored boats with blueberry muffins and hot coffee!

The Penobscot Bay cruise went counterclockwise around from Burnt Island up through Fox Islands thoroughfare, through Merchants Row to Swan’s Island, Northeast Harbor for gas and provisions, Brooklin to once again see the classic boats in town for the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, up to Castine, over to Rockland, a night in Tenant’s Harbor, Seal Cove on the Damariscotta River and back to Robinhood. If you’ve ever read an article on Maine Cruising, those are pretty much the classics, and I wanted to hit them one more time since this is probably my last Blueberry Summer.

Rockland was particularly interesting when at 6 am I heard a lot of noise and looked out to see the cruise ship American Independence about 10 yards off my stern, winding her way through the inner harbor channel with feet to spare on either side.

Even in so-so weather, the new AGM batteries behaved like champs, losing very little charge overnight running the fridge and lights. I made hot water when there was any sun at all, and never saw below 82 percent charge.

After 13 years of service, my old Mercury dinghy had leaks at the seams, and I replaced it with a Zodiac rollup. It only cost a couple hundred dollars more than the Merc, behaves like a real little ship, and with all the cool handles and lifting straps, I have no trouble getting it onto the roof.

I didn’t take many pictures, since it’s hard to when driving and navigating, and pretty much all the anchorages are beautiful, but one set of trees and rocks is much the same as the other. Here are a few.