Shake Down Cruise(s)

Last week we took a couple of days and cruised from Camden across Penobscot Bay to Pulpit Harbor, North Haven.  This is a lovely little spot with an entrance marked by a rock reportedly recorded in Champlain’s logs.  The rock is topped by an osprey nest.  At high tide you can almost see into the nest.  This year we saw Mr. and Mrs. Osprey, and we take it on faith there are babies being guarded there.  

Pulpit Rock Osprey

We spent the first several hours in Pulpit Harbor, at anchor, and then moved around the corner into what we know as Cabot’s Cove but is marked as Minister’s Cove on some charts.  It’s quiet and calm there, and we were alone, sitting on a friend’s mooring.  The weather forecasted rain and perhaps thunderstorms and this is the perfect place to ride out any bad weather.  Dan spent much of the next day working on the air conditioner installation.  The manual says it’s an easy three hour installation for most vessels, but for us it’s been at least three hours/day for about ten days now - with much of the time spent in cupboards - and as of this blog it’s still not fully operational.  

Dan in the cupboard with the a/c

Dan had finished the repairs to the engine heat exchange and coolant systems just before we set off, and we were pleased to see everything was working (and not leaking) as it should. We also managed a long hike on the Sedgewood Point trails, which lead to an overlook of Pulpit Rock and other beaches on the west side of North Haven, before the bad weather set in.  

Now we are out for about ten days, to keep an eye on things and to continue working on that air conditioner.  Not that we need it right now - the weather is sunny, but hovering about 65 degrees during the day - but it will come in handy for more restful sleeping weather when we are in Southern climes later this year.  We’ve been visiting familiar haunts and stretching our legs along the roads of various harbors.  Yesterday we were in the Benjamin River in Sedgewick and saw a black bear foraging at the far end of a field!  We rendezvoused with some friends in the Barred Islands and met a local lobsterman on Swans Island who is hoping to represent his community in the state legislature.  While this isn’t the way we thought the summer would go, it’s a good reminder that our own backyard has a lot to offer when it comes to cruising.  

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