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We are so excited to finally be here. Northeast Harbor is on Mount Desert Island (MDI), which for some reason is pronounced as Dessert not Desert, is the place we most wanted to see by boat. We vacationed here 13 years ago with our friends Stacey and Geoff and had not been back since. It was everything we hoped it would be!
To start our adventure, they didn’t have any mooring balls left for our size boat so they put us on a free-floating dock like the one below. They are moored to the bottom, but not stationary. They swing and move around a bit, and rock back and forth with wave or swell action.
The only problem was that there was not another boat on the other side and, obviously, there were no dock hands to help with the lines so we had to figure out how to get the lines on the cleats with no help. It isn’t that big a deal, but we had never done it before so we just had to take our time. Lynnie got to practice her lassoing skills and Rick got to practice backing down on a dock that moved! But we got Rickshaw tied up and got ready to see the sights. Following are some views of the harbor.
It is a picturesque harbor surrounded by MDI … you can just see Rickshaw in the picture above on the right
It is also a fairly busy harbor with ferry boats, cruise boats, lobstermen, dingies and pleasure boats coming and going … the bottom left picture is of the “Mooring Agent” who assigns moorings and floats, as well as collecting the money
A lobsterman and his “sternman” (helper), in this case, probably his girlfriend or his wife
There was also a yacht club function that brought in a number of boats. They put up their flags to show they were all members of the same yacht club
MDI is the home of Acadia National Park, one of the smallest parks in the US but also one of the most visited. It is just a beautiful park with lots to do and see. They have a free, easy bus system that gives you access to any part of the park. We used it on Tuesday to take us to the touristy town of Bar Harbor where we met up with Lynnie’s nephew Sean for lunch. Sean lives in Boston but was in Maine for a conference. He is going to come back to Rickshaw on Friday to cruise with us for a couple of days. Following are some pictures of Bar Harbor.
The village green The pretty harbor
After lunch we took the bus back to Rickshaw and hung out for the afternoon. Rick is fascinated by the lobster boats. They are really colorful.
Lobster pots and their floats
Not exactly sure of this boat’s function but he is carrying ‘live wells’ which a lobsterman floats in the water and keeps live lobsters and/or live fish for bait. It certainly was weighed down
The lobstermen also have floats in the water to store their supplies
We had heard that there was a lobsterman, Mike Kelly, who had a boat in the harbor and would sell us live lobsters. We called him and asked him if he could bring some over. He said he would be by at 7 that evening and sell them to us for $4.25! Sure enough, right at 7, Mike came over to the boat and sold us 4 lobsters. We had 2 for dinner and 2 are for lobster salad.
Fresh dinner delivered Getting ready for steaming
On Thursday we did fun stuff like laundry and grocery shopping. While at the laundry we met another cruising couple, Scot and Kitty, who invited us to their sailboat for appetizers and drinks. We had such a ball with them. They have sailed around the world twice…once before kids and once when their kids were around 7 and 9 years old. What great stories they had to tell. We hope to bump into them again along the way.
On Friday we took the bus for a tour around the island. We got off at several places and walked around. The first was Jordan Pond, a beautiful inland freshwater lake.
Aside from the amazing location, the restaurant at Jordan Pond is also known for their tea and popovers!
Rick and Lynnie in front of the Bubbles at Jordan Pond
We had a great day seeing the sights then went back to hang out on Rickshaw to await Sean’s arrival.
