Day 3--August 10, 2001

We had a warm, pleasant, calm night in the harbor--it's extremely well protected.  There was some wind blowing outside, but you really couldn't tell from inside the cozy cove.  We rose early, and spent a little time relaxing in the calm morning.

Around 0800, we prepared to leave.  I had trouble starting the engine--all batteries were low!  This bothered me, since we had spent the entire previous day powering and should have been fully charged.  I also felt bad because I'd had my concerns about the charging setup since day one, but had never had a chance to troubleshoot or determine if it was charging or not.  I was concerned enough about it beforehand that, before we left, I printed out some troubleshooting advice from the Ample Power website.  A little foreshadowing, methinks.  Of course, I was kicking myself for not working it out sooner, but there wasn't time--today was only one week since the boat was launched with the new engine, so it's not like I had all the time in the world to work out the charging situation.  I've described my troubleshooting procedure and the fix for this problem on the charging page of this site, so I won't repeat it all here--click here to read about it.

By 0930, I had fixed the problem, and we were ready to depart for real.  The wind forecast was for 15-25 knots, so I put up the main with double reefs.  We motored out of the harbor and into some steep swells rolling in the Sheepscot against the tide.  The wind was not particularly heavy, but these swells seemed left over from the blow the previous afternoon and overnight.  We had a pretty short passage planned--only about 13 miles, all told--so I figured we could pretty much deal with anything.  At first, the waves seemed brutal, but they seemed to lessen a little as we got farther out the mouth.  We took green water over the bow a couple times, but the boat handled very well in the seas.  As we rounded Cape Newagen and the Cuckolds, at the tip of Southport Island, the seas became more on the beam as we changed course to the east.  This resulted in a very uncomfortable motion, even with the main up.  As I mentioned, there really wasn't much wind--just a lot of slop, so we didn't try sailing to smooth out the motion.  We headed across Booth Bay (the town is Boothbay, but the body of water is Booth Bay) towards the pass between Fisherman and Damariscove Islands.  However, given the reduced visibility--about 3/4 mile in haze and light fog--and the nasty sea conditions, I decided to run down and go through Fisherman's passage, which I thought would be more comfortable.  The engine gave us a couple moments' pause when it seemed to bog down in the troughs--it seemed like it was dying--but all was well in the end.  We enjoyed the flat water in the protected waters behind the islands for a little while, but then were exposed to more of the southerly waves as we neared John's Bay and Pemaquid Point--maybe even worse than before.  Very steep, so we had to head the boat more into the waves to keep the motion comfortable.  Eventually, I was able to turn the boat in towards our destination--Pemaquid Harbor, about three miles up John's Bay, which is actually the mouth of the Damariscotta River.   At this point, the wind began to really blow, and I was glad for the double reefs.  We entered the narrow pass between John's Island and Knowles Rocks (click here to see a chart) and had to face several hundred lobster buoys, which is OK in calm conditions.  However, with the large waves, they bobbed up and down, in and out of sight, making steering through them a real pain.  There were also a few lobster boats to dodge.  Needless to say, we were pleased to get into the protected waters behind Knowles Rocks.  We picked up a mooring in the inner harbor, after stopping by the very nice state pier to meet our host for the weekend, John Stolecki of Pemaquid Marine.

We experienced another small wiring problem after we shut the engine down--it's also described on the charging page, so I won't repeat myself here.  (Click here)  Then, we settled down for a nice relaxing afternoon after a tough--but brief--passage.  I was more tired than anything, as steering though the seas had taken a bit of effort.  Later in the afternoon, the wind really picked up out of the southwest, and blew through even the inner harbor.  By later in the evening, though, the wind completely died, leaving behind soft, gray conditions and a soft rolling sea, which rocked us a little overnight.  The wires inside the mast slapped back and forth--I need to do a better job muffling the wires for next season.

Day 4--August 11, 2001

It's amazing what a difference a day makes!  After waking early to a beautiful sunrise at 0521, we went back to sleep for awhile.  When I got up a little later, the scene was completely different than the day before.  It was warm and sunny, and the discomfort of yesterday's trip was long forgotten.  The air was clear--it had been so murky and humid for days--and the temperature was much more comfortable.

Pemaquid Harbor is a nice little place.  There's a sort of separate working harbor a little further up the Pemaquid River, inside of where we were moored, and also another, outer harbor that was more exposed.  There's a state park here, constructed around Fort William Henry, which is built on Fish Point.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the fort, or the nearby museum--$1.00 per person gets you into both.  A local festival was underway--Olde Bristol Days--and there were a lot of people around on the park grounds, along with the usual festival fare--junk food, crafts, etc.

We were moored with a nice view of a classic, spare, New England foursquare--something about this scene just seems right to me!  The water was warm--at least on an outgoing tide--and we swam several times during our stay.

Later in the day, we had our scheduled New England Triton Association lobster bake at Pemaquid Marine--a fun time!  This was, after all, the driving force behind the cruise to Pemaquid.  Sorry--I forgot my camera, so didn't take any lobster bake photos.  The turnout was good--between 20 and 30 other Tritoners, plus one other boat that made the trip up--#587, Valkyrie, from Falmouth Foreside as well.

As an added bonus, there were good fireworks held near the State Park this evening.  After the lobster bake, we returned to the boat, and had a great view of the fireworks from the cockpit.

Day 5--August 12, 2001

We dropped the mooring at 0730, said goodbye to the Smith's on Valkyrie--they weren't quite ready to depart yet--and headed out for our return trip to Falmouth.  Distance:  about 36 miles.  The weather was gray and cool, with virtually no wind.  A light southeast breeze was predicted for later, which would be a favorable direction if it materialized.  We raised the main, and settled in for a long, boring motor home.

The trip was uneventful--no wind ever came up, so we powered the whole way at about 5.5 knots.  Amazingly, we had the tide with us nearly the whole way--it was ebbing as we left Pemaquid, and flooding as we came into Broad Sound near Harpswell.  This current gave us a nice push, so we averaged about 6 knots over the entire trip.  

Passing by The Cuckolds at about 0920

Heading towards Sequin, again.  Flat water, just chugging along!

We passed through a few light rain showers, and picked up our mooring in Falmouth at about 1345.  Not a bad trip at all!  There was really nothing noteworthy to report.

As always, it was sad to leave the boat--but nice to come home for a hot shower!  Of course, I'm ready to head back out anytime!

Thus endeth the log.