Seals!!! Boothbay Harbor, ME

Click here to see our location in Boothbay Harbor

We had a marvelous day of cruising from Portland to Boothbay Harbor.  It was just picture perfect.  We had been to Boothbay when we took a driving tour of Maine in 1997 and then we came back with Vicki and Norm on their boat, Tide Hiker in 2008 and were looking forward to seeing it on Rickshaw.  What a lovely place.

The coolest thing is that we saw our first seals on Tuesday on the way to Boothbay Harbor.  At first we thought they were lobster floats but as we got closer to them we saw that they had eyes.  They were just checking us out and and swam away. 

We have had cool weather, warm sun and calm seas.  What more could you ask for?  So, we decided to moor here for a few days.  Our next stop is Rockland, ME.  We had hoped to meet our friends, Phil and Barb, from Raleigh who were going to cruise with us for a week.  However, their son and daughter-in-law, had a new grandbaby 5 weeks early!  So, they get to go have fun with the new baby in Chicago…we will miss traveling with them.

Boothbay is a touristy town but hanging out on a mooring ball in the harbor is wonderful.  They have plenty of space for boats 50’ and longer on the moorings but most of them are sailboats.  Since we are a trawler, we weigh a lot more than most sailboats.  That is only interesting if a storm is coming in.  Sailboats turn into the wind at a different rate than we do because of our weight (50,000 pounds).  Last night a storm was expected and, sure enough it did come in, so we were up several times checking how close we were to the the other boats.  We were pretty concerned several times because we got so close to the next sailboat that we could have walked onto it!  Consequently, today was a nap kind of day.

So, here are a number of  pictures that we took along the way to and into Boothbay Harbor.  

              Halfway Rock …halfway to ?????             The rocky shores coming into Boothbay

                                                These shores are typical of the Maine coast

   A great dinner overlooking Boothbay Harbor     We like the last sign best…says it all!

                 These pictures were taken just tooling around the harbor in the dingy

 

These and the following pictures were taken from the aft deck of Rickshaw. It is hard to get a bad shot!  For those of you who noticed, that is a lobster pot in the mooring field.  What idiot lobsterman puts pots in a mooring field?  Apparently, lots of them!!

 

                                Kayakers                                            Hard to see but our first picture of a seal

 

We dingied into town this morning and walked across this foot bridge for breakfast .  Then LT got a pedicure!  Ah, the important things in life. 

Tomorrow we leave for Rockland where we will get our mail and some other essentials.  More on that next.

Saco River and Portland, ME

Click here to see our location in the Saco River, ME

We were so glad we took the time to go  up the Saco River.  Vicki and Norm on Tide Hiker recommended it and it was just great.  It really isn’t what you think of when you think of Maine.  We usually think of the rocky coast and pebble beaches that make up most of Maine.  But it was just a beautiful river with fir trees and hardwoods lining the rock banks.  It was a five mile trip up to the Saco River Yacht Club and we enjoyed two days just hanging out on the mooring ball. 

                                                                         The trip up river

                      Rick navigating                                                   The Saco Yacht Club 1878!

Turns out that the Yacht Club is really a men’s social club built around the water.  We needed some oil for the next oil change and Gil from the Yacht Club came out and brought us back to shore and then took us to the Napa Auto store.  All of the guys that we met in the club were great; welcoming and friendly and funny.  On the way back from the Napa Store, we saw that the town of Saco was holding an antique car show so Gil dropped us off.  It was cool as they had music from the 50’s and 60’s blaring and we got to see some really cool cars.  We also got to eat some great hotdogs.

This was the coolest…A&W Rootbeer and fries and an original speaker from a drive in movie theater!!

After finding a place where Rick could get a haircut, we walked back to the Yacht Club, and Gil ferried us back to the boat.  Near twilight the fog rolled in.  It still amazes us how fast it rolls in and,  just as fast, rolls out!

Click here to see our location in Portland Harbor, ME

The next morning we left for the ‘big city’ of Portland, ME.  We had been to Portland twice before and were looking forward to seeing it again.  The ‘old port’ of Portland has cobblestone streets and lots of restaurants and bars.  In fact, the dock hand told us that Portland has more bars than any other town!  I believe it.  We spent 2 nights at the dock and it was one of the more rolly places we have stayed.  We enjoyed Portland but were glad to leave and get back to ‘horizontal’!

                                                              A monument to the lobstermen 

 

                               Some of the cobblestone streets

  This was, apparently, a former platform dock that was left to fall into the water, next to our dock

We left Portland this morning, July 27, to come to Boothbay Harbor.  More on that in our next blog!