August 10, 2015: Twenty + Miles Today!
Leaving Port Bickerton we were greeted by a
large long swell and strong off-shore wind. We started the day with
main and jib but were soon down to storm jib alone. On this section
of the coast there are many islands and we wove our way along thru
protected water in along narrow channels, some buoyed, some not,
for 25 miles or so, occasionally crossing a bay of a couple miles wide.
The swells were still coming in strong from the south as we headed up
Spry Bay to a back passage into Pope Harbor.
Back in the late 1980s there was a young schooner captain in the Maine fleet. He thought he was pretty adventurous so one year decided to try and have each Lobster Bake (one per trip) on a different Maine Island. Toward the end of the season, maybe around trip 18 or so the pickings were getting pretty slim. He remembered being shown a small group of islands in Hurricane Sound that were owned by the State of Maine. The timing was right so he anchored up and brought his group ashore, starting the campfire to steam supper. Soon enuf along came a man in a whaler so the captain came down to the shore and they spoke. The man said, “What are you doing here?” The skipper answered, “Having a Lobster Bake” To which the man said, “I don't know if Mrs. Whatsherface would like that.” To which I thought, whoops, by which I mean the skipper replied “Why this island is owned by the State of Maine, this is Ram Island.” To which the man exclaimed “RAM Island?!!, this is NARVO Island, Why, you don't even know where you are!” Well that provided quite a bit of entertainment for the crew. We , er..., they finished the cookout and went back aboard the schooner without incident. The next day Mrs Whatsherface came out in her whaler and we made friends and chocked it all up to a misunderstanding.
Port Bickerton Light
one of many eroded embankments we passed
Back in the late 1980s there was a young schooner captain in the Maine fleet. He thought he was pretty adventurous so one year decided to try and have each Lobster Bake (one per trip) on a different Maine Island. Toward the end of the season, maybe around trip 18 or so the pickings were getting pretty slim. He remembered being shown a small group of islands in Hurricane Sound that were owned by the State of Maine. The timing was right so he anchored up and brought his group ashore, starting the campfire to steam supper. Soon enuf along came a man in a whaler so the captain came down to the shore and they spoke. The man said, “What are you doing here?” The skipper answered, “Having a Lobster Bake” To which the man said, “I don't know if Mrs. Whatsherface would like that.” To which I thought, whoops, by which I mean the skipper replied “Why this island is owned by the State of Maine, this is Ram Island.” To which the man exclaimed “RAM Island?!!, this is NARVO Island, Why, you don't even know where you are!” Well that provided quite a bit of entertainment for the crew. We , er..., they finished the cookout and went back aboard the schooner without incident. The next day Mrs Whatsherface came out in her whaler and we made friends and chocked it all up to a misunderstanding.
The reason I tell this story is that with our
admittedly somewhat rudimentary charting system on the Willie Dawes,
very often we find ourselves wanting for place names. Eventually we gleaned that the cove we were
anchored in was in fact Little Pope Harbour, thru the wonders of satellite
communication and my Dad, Alan Pease's computer in Camden Maine.
So we have Little Pope Harbor, where we
anchored in a mill pond-like setting, all to ourselves.
You see, all along we knew where we were, just
not the right name.
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