So we made it to Maine! We spent our non traveling day on Thursday in Yarmouth getting some laundry done and taking care of a few things on the boat ready for our crossing and then we took a bike ride out to Cape Forchu light with Ian and Robin, from Passage, who were docked beside us. It was a 10 km trip one way so when we got there we were all ready to eat lunch. After we ate we had a look at the museum - very interesting and informative and well done for a community run group. Apparently on Nov 30th when the lobster season starts, hundreds of people get up in the middle of the night and go out to Cape Forchu with flashlights to send off the fleet as they head out to sea. That must be pretty amazing.
We went to bed before 9 p.m. on Thursday and then got up just after midnight and headed off into a beautiful calm night with a full moon. Conditions were perfect for an easy crossing as we had hardly any wind. For me it is far better to have no wind than too much. We did 2 hour watches and each got a bit of sleep and after the sun came up it was a beautiful sunny day. It was so warm I actually put shorts on! And so calm that I did yoga on the foredeck while we were under way. About twenty miles from the Maine coast the lobster traps started, so our watch became much more vigilant and soon we had to hand steer around the traps. At 7:30 p.m. (6:30 local time) we tied up to the public dock in Bar Harbor, nineteen hours after we left Yarmouth, to wait for the customs agent so we could clear in and get our cruising permit.
So add that to the list of 'adverse conditions' - Maine lobster traps. It is impossible to describe how many traps there are in the coastal waters of Maine - you have to experience it yourself to really understand. And I have tried to take photos, but you just can't capture it. I knew it was coming, but I still wasn't fully prepared. A couple of times since we've been in Maine I have vowed to boycott Maine lobster because the traps are such a big pain. In some conditions both of us have to be in the cockpit looking out for them together, because one person just can't handle it if the seas are rough or the sun is low in the sky. The risk of missing one is that you will end up with it wrapped around some part of the boat - worst case the propeller if you are motoring, as it can get ripped out, which leaves a big hole in your boat. Our autohelm has done very little driving over the past week as one of us always has to drive to avoid the traps. That makes long days pretty challenging, but so far we have done okay.
After spending the night on a mooring in Bar Harbor we went into town to get some groceries and try to sort out a SIM card for our cellphone (no luck). The seas were pretty rolly in the harbour, so we headed over to Winter Harbor which is about 7 miles away to the east, but still on Mount Desert. We had to go straight into the wind, so we were motoring towards the point just before we turned into Winter Harbor when the engine quit. Luckily we were about to turn downwind, so we unfurled the jib and quickly started sailing. Dave went below to try to figure out what had gone wrong while I sailed the boat up the harbour.
It turned out that we had run out of fuel - pretty embarassing - but we were very lucky that it happened when it did and not while we were crossing in flat calm or manoeuvring in a tight spot. Dave couldn't get the engine going on the port tank (we haven't used it for a few years and he just cleaned it out this year and had put a bit of fuel in, intending to try it out under more controlled circumstances) so we decided to sail into the cove at the head of the harbour and anchor. Luckily there was lots of room in the cove and we were able to get anchored using the jib in a decent place not too close to the moorings and other boats there.
We decided we had better go and see if we could get some fuel so we dinghied over to another cove where we saw a wharf and found Wes Shaw, who runs the marina there and was kind enough to lend us his courtesy car and give us directions to the nearest gas station that sold diesel. We then proceeded to fill our one five gallon jug twice, which involved going to the gas station 2.5 miles down the road, filling up, coming back to the dinghy, ripping across the head of the harbour in the fog which was rolling in, dumping the diesel in the tank, ripping back across to the marina, driving to the gas station - well, you get the picture.
We got 10 gallons in the tank and tried to start the engine - no luck. Anyone who knows about diesel engines will tell you it can be hard to start them again after they have run dry. Lines need to be bled of air and primed and to top things off, because we had run down to the dregs of the tank there was a lot of dirt plugging things up. By this time it was after 7 p.m. so we decided to eat supper. We had one more go of it again with no luck before we went to bed.
The next day we spent the entire day from 9 a.m. til 5 p.m. sorting out the problem. Dave changed filters, bled lines, tried to get the port tank working... at noon we finally figured out that the return valve was in the wrong position and we thought we had it fixed but the engine ran for 12 minutes then shut down when the Raycor filter was empty. At that point Dave decided we had to now take the 10 gallons of diesel out of the tank and clean it and the suction lines. This involved manually pumping the diesel out, freeing up a second jug by dumping the gas in it into our dinghy gas tanks, blowing lines out (diesel all over) etc. But at the end of it all we got the engine started and it ran for 40 minutes before we turned it off, satisfied that the problem was fixed.
Needless to say cocktail hour that night was a happy occasion! The next morning we headed over to Northwest Harbor, where we filled the tank up and added some more to the port tank so we can try that again some other day. Our new friends Robin and Ian, on Passage, had let us know where they were, so we caught up to them in Valley Cove on the west side of Somes Sound which runs up the middle of Mount Desert Island, and we spent that afternoon on a great hike to three peaks - Acadia, St. Something and Valley Peak. It was six miles and a lot of up and down but it was good to stretch our legs and get out to see some of the beautiful woods of Maine. After the hike both boats motored up to the top of the Sound and we anchored in a cove there and Passage rafted to us. We had an impromptu progressive dinner to celebrate our last night together as we were planning to push on south and they were hanging around for a few days before pulling their boat in Rockland.
The next morning we set off for the island of Vinalhaven. For a while it was really tough going with wind on the nose and big chop and lobster traps everywhere and then it started to rain! Conditions soon improved and eventually we made to Winter Harbor (apparently a popular name around here) and dropped the hook there. We were in bed by 7:30 p.m. after a couple of physically exhausting days!
At this point we were still searching for the elusive SIM card for our phone, so the plan was to head for Rockland on Wednesday to get one there. We were anchored in Rockland just before 11 a.m. and by noon we knew we were out of luck there too, so we went out for lunch and set off again to get a few more miles under us, spending the night in Long Cove, near Tenant's Harbor.
Thursday we left just before 7 a.m. and we had a great sail over to Jewell Island - about 10-15 knots of wind on a beam reach in pretty flat seas - perfect conditions for Romana. We still had to steer around lobster traps, but at least it is fun being on the helm when you are sailing rather than motoring! We were anchored by 3:30 p.m. which gave us lots of time to go for a walk on the island, which was used in WWII as a lookout and defence post. You can still walk up to the top of the lookout towers, which were built out of concrete in the 1940s and are still looking very sound. On our way back to the boat we stopped and talked to some folks on a trawler and ended up joining them for drinks, which was appropriate, as the name of the cove we were anchored in was 'Cocktail Cove'.
Today we headed for Portland first thing in our ongoing quest for a SIM card and at last we have one. We are disappointed that we can't tether our computer and iPad to the phone, but we may eventually figure something out there. In the meantime I will be posting my blogs via cellphone when I don't have wifi, so I'm not sure how that will work, but we will give it a go, starting with this one. I am just finishing it at anchor in Biddeford Pool, which is south of Portland and with any luck I will upload it tonight. Not sure if I will be able to do any photos, but if not I will do those next time I have wifi.