Sadly, we had to leave Somesville and head for Islesboro
for the SSCA Gam. Our first stop was back to Southwest Harbor for the
night to stage for the trip to Islesboro. Next morning, we weighed
mooring ball and headed for the Eggemoggin Reach. Within an hour we had
a problem: FOG; dense fog as we were weaving through lobster floats and
approaching Bass Harbor Bar cut. We had fog and floats until we were
midway in the
Eggemoggin; then nothing - no fog, no floats, no stress. We decided to
head directly for Islesboro instead of anchoring in Bucks Harbor. Five
hours later, we were anchored in Gilkey Harbor with 6 other SSCA boats.
By Friday the anchorage was full and the call went out
for a dinghy raft-up for happy hour and snacks. While the majority of
the 'rafters' were cordial and helpful, we had a few odd 'ducks' that
were actually rude at times. They must have been newbees. We will
watch for them next time.
The real star of the raft-up were the kids on Selkie,
especially Ellen. It was a real joy watching Selkie's crew enjoy and
participate in
the raft-up throughout the chaos. We had a chance to chat with the
Irish family during the Gam and found their adventures interesting.
We hope to meet them again on our way South.
Early count has 60+ boats attending the Gam. The crowd
on the lawn bears out the good boat count. Rain was threatening but
never really materialized. Some of our lawn chairs did sink in the
ground a bit. It was good seeing SV Over Budget who arrived yesterday
from Boothbay. We had a chance to catch up on stuff as we had not seen
them since the Salty Dawg Rally in 2013.
We had a great speaker today. Skip Strong provided a
gripping story about his encounters as captain of a large tanker headed
for Jacksonville during a hurricane. Next he described the traffic
scheme recently developed for the Penobscot Bay and ways to use it to
our advantage. Tomorrow the Gam will close after a discussion on high
latitude sailing. We would like to attend but need to get to Rockland
early.
We left Gilkey around 1000 and had a pleasant motorsail
to Rockland. We reserved a mooring ball at Rockland's Landing Marina
which was a short dinghy ride to shore. Over Budget arrived several
hours later and was given a ball much further away. Big boats are not
aways better. The Lobster Festival was winding down and we were too
tired to go to shore so we listened to the noise.
We spent several days with JW and Jennie
with a rental car visiting Belfast, Camden, and the innards or Rockland.
The towns have restored downtown districts which have interesting and
expensive shops. The local Rockland pizza and ice cream parlor provided
an unexpected and disappointing experience. The Jule III crew went
hungry while J/J got a well burnt pie. Oh well. Tomorrow we head for
Casco Bay.
;
