We’ve reached our goal! Tonight is the 20th new-to-us anchorage in our cruising career of the Maine Coast. I told Dan today we could thank COVID-19 for this special summer - we’ve spent all but seven nights aboard the Willie Dawes since mid June. (Tommie has spent even more than that aboard, as we haven’t upset her by bringing her home for just one night here and there.) This summer we’ve watched osprey fledge and seals hunt fish, hiked trails in Isle au Haut a couple of times, enjoyed the occasional dinghy visit with cruising friends, spent hours on various beaches collected interesting rocks, sea glass, and driftwood. And we’ve found grand new places to spend the night.
Some of our favorites have been deep into Winter Harbor, Vinalhaven, Orono Island looking into Mackerel Cove, the Barred Islands, and the extreme East of Seal Bay on the other side of the island from the place where most people anchor. Tonight we are up in the Western arm of Gouldsboro Bay. It’s Labor Day Weekend. We’ve been avoiding towns and picnic beaches, staying off shore. Hoping to see whales, but apparently they don’t wish to be seen. (We’ve spotted exactly one minke this summer.) Porpoises, birds, seals, and ocean sunfish, yes. But only the one whale. We’re headed down East for one last trip: to Roque Island, for sure. We’ll see if we want to venture beyond that. Canada never did open the border and they are pretty strict about enforcing it. Maine has done a great job keeping the spread down, but there are too many people both in this state in from other states who just aren’t willing to put the health of other people in their consideration. The US as a whole has done a very poor job of controlling the spread and impact of COVID-19. So we have spent our time avoiding towns and tourists and looking for peaceful little places to spend our time.
Thus this summer has given us a chance to rejoice in the little things that we’d probably never notice otherwise - a cool breeze on a hot day, incredible sunsets and moon rises, how fish swim together joyfully in a circle and then burst out of the water just for the fun of it, seals sleeping in the water with their noses up in the air, the noise great blue herons make when they take off flying. We recognize how lucky we are to have had this opportunity to cruise and this area to cruise in. We’ll be out here til the cold pushes us back ashore. If we’re lucky, that will be a few more weeks.
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| Moonrise over Deer Isle |
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| A large school of fish leaping. |
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| Gouldsboro Sunset |
