Through The Weather Window

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A spectacular sunset from our dock at the Safe Harbor Marina in Rockland

 

Down East to Mount Desert Island

 

When the weather window opens you go through it. Such was the case for leaving Rockland to take a short cruise over to Mount Desert Island and poke around a bit in Acadia National Park. 

 

It’s a mere 35 miles from Rockland to Southwest Harbor as the crow flies, but the navigable route is more like 50. A good bit of it is stressful through fields of lobster buoys. We broke up the trip by staying at Isle au Haut. There is a narrow channel at Isle au Haut that is called a “thorofare”. These cracks in the rock islands provide shortcuts between the larger water bodies and provide safe sheltered places to anchor.

 

We picked up a free guest mooring ball to spend a quiet night off Flake Island across from a private club. Only 92 folks are full time residents of Isle au Haut and their livelihood is tied to the sea and summer vacation homes. 

Half of the island is a unit of the Acadia National Park. It looks like an idyllic life when the weather is good, but one must consider the times when the weather is not hospitable and winter. Like every island community, Isle au Haut has a small library, and we suspect the islanders are well-read.

 

A Seafarer 23

Next to us was a small 23 ft boat hailing from New York. Aboard was a young singlehanding cruiser. How adventurous and courageous for her to sail a small boat by herself from NY to wander the coast of Maine. How we would have liked to learn more, but she expertly sailed away from the mooring ball before we could chat.

 

She was off to find a more protected spot ahead of foreboding weather.


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It is such a treat to be alone at anchor or on a mooring ball, self-sufficient and comfortable with the amenities of our small boat. With the generator, we have hot water, an induction stovetop, microwave, and reverse cycle A/C. Pelagic birds come and go, eagles fly to nearby perches, the sun sets, painting the sky with vivid colors or a pastel palette.

 

A Pearson Ensign daysailer was on a nearby mooring
- a doppelgänger for our Calypso - home at our dock.


The dregs of Hurricane Ida were forecast to fizzle over central Maine, so we took off for the 25-mile run up to Southwest Harbor and famed Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina. Dysart’s is always full until about the first of September. We got a transient slip and hunkered down in advance of the predicted winds and rain. The weather arrived and we were thankful to be secured to a dock and not at anchor or worse, out in it trying to get someplace.


Small World: Dysart's dock master, Jane, is from Antigua and mutual friends
with Reg, renown archaeologist who oversees Antigua heritage and Nelson's Dockyard!


 

A day inside the cabin might be a little confining, but having our own wifi aboard helps pass the time and Lee has needlework for occupational therapy.




With the weather passing, the next day we can take a road trip to harbors, boatyards, botanical gardens, and boutique communities, all the while admiring the land of the “rusticators”. 


Thuya Garden, Northeast Harbor




Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island

 

"Rusticators" isn’t a particularly new word, but the etymology is from a label applied to the seasonal summer visitors who came to rustic settings and cabins. Not sure how many rustic homes are left on MDI. 










 

We got to thinking….

 

How fortunate we are to be able to visit this scenic and historic northern vacationland on the water side, having the health and modest income to be able to wander the coast and see how people live, both above and below our pay grade.

 



We’ve seen such amazing over-the-top mega yachts that require an annual budget greater than the median net worth of Americans. To us it seems incomprehensible. But then we consider that we might appear just as excessive to someone working hard for a living wage and paycheck to paycheck. It’s all perspective. The tourist economy of coastal Maine certainly benefits from the seasonal influx of vacationers arriving by land and sea and would be totally resource-based or subsistence without it.



Covid has taken its toll on the businesses. We aren’t aware of the cost in health and life that the pandemic has dealt to Maine. Certainly, the tourists and businesses seem to be taking it much more seriously. Masks and promotion of vaccination is everywhere. We are anxious about returning to Florida. Although Americans might be done with Covid, we don’t believe Covid is done with us.

  

And the rain rolls in again at the end of the day!

 

Stay safe!

 

Thanks for reading.

 

08.04.2021


Meanwhile back in Florida, Bay Breeze and Calypso wait.

 

 

 

 

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