Cruising Mid Coast Maine

[Maine Sail]

To follow up on Roger Long's post here some inside perspective:
Robinhood Cove - Ignore the marina end of the cove and head down SW into the long cove good holding and peace & quiet. Beware worst mosquitoes on the cost reside on the Georgetown and Phippsburg peninsulas.

Love Cove Ebenecook - West side of Townsend Gut. This is a good quiet spot away from the hustle & bustle of Boothbay. Usually will have it to yourself.

Seal Cove - Up the Damariscotta River. Go in & leave at mid-high tide so you can get over the shoal spot. Once inside it opens up and is beautiful.

Damariscove Island: This is off Boothbay. Get there early in the day if you want a spot just as the over-nighters are leaving. The bottom holding is heavily kelped so be sure to back down hard on your anchor and if your brave enough take a dive on it at low tide. You'll also need to be short scoped as the cove is not wide enough for 5:1 let alone 7:1, if you were to swing in the night. The hiking is great and the views beautiful.

The cove @ Damariscove is very narrow:

Damariscove caretakers cabin:

The outer cove widens out a little:

Seal Bay - Vinalhaven Island

Long Cove Vinalhaven - Beautiful spot if you go up in.


The Basin Vinalhaven - If your have HUGE balls you can make your way in, I've been in in the big boat but I am older and wiser and won't do that again. I suggest anchoring in Long Cove, just around the point, and taking the dink over for a lobster bake on one of the many small islands that dot the Basin.

Inside The Basin - Vinalhaven Island -

Winter Harbor Vinalhaven - Simply amazing you can go way in past the big rock and no one else will follow you:

Carvers Cove (Not Carvers Harbor) best sunrises on the coast

Sand Beach - Marshall Island (great day stop)

Frenchboro / Long Island - Lunt's dock has the best lobster on the planet. This is is second best hike on the coast next to Isle Au Haut.

Wreck Island - Merchant Row:

McGlathery Island (West Side) - Great beach for a lobster bake:

Hells Half Acre (North Side) - Great spot -

Isle Au Haut Thorofare - Moorings put money in coke bottle, best hiking ANYWHERE on the coast. Plan to spend a full day hiking the trails of Acadia. Duck Harbor is nice but has lots of granite and can be poor holding have seen more than one boat on the rocks there.

Duck Harbor - View from Duck Harbor Mountain:

Hiking The West End of Isle Au Haut:

Burnt Coat Harbor Swans Island - Go in and pass the rental moorings near the big building. Go past all the fishing boats and anchor up in the cove roughly across from the church. No morning lobster boat traffic and a nice peaceful spot:

Burnt Coat Harbor Swan's Island:

Over Rated Spots IMHO:

Camden - Crowded but okay spot to provision @ French & Brawn
Pulpit Harbor - Beautiful but usually has one or two mega yachts in there.
Perry Creek - Buggy, little breeze and crowded.
SW Harbor - Blah...
Rockport - Exposed and just kind of okay.
Tennants Harbor - This is a big stop for many but grows old quickly.
Rockland - If you like small city life then it's okay. We go to get away..

Under Rated Spots:

Round Pond - Muscongus Bay
Castine - Quaint village, good provisioning:
Castine Yacht Club:

Dennett's Wharf Oyster Bar & Restaurant:

Belfast - Not as quaint but a cool little Maine town.
Northeast Harbor - Caters to the transient boater.

JO Browns North Haven / Fox Isle Thorofare - Watch all the boat traffic go E to W or W to E. This is a quintessential old school Maine boat yard. Once there go inside the boat shop and take whiff of the best smell since, well, it's just the best boaty smell trust me.

Fox Isle Thorofare:

Stonington - Anchor off town and can provision at the store which is right off the town docks where you can tie your dinghy. Not a good overnight spot.

If JO Brown's does not have it "ya dan't neehd it.."

 

[gettinthere]

I'll (eventually) need your recipe for shore lobster cooking. I have the little gas bottle burner & a pot.

Can't wait to get there.

 

[Tim R.]

I must respectfully disagree about second best hiking and you missed one great place to stop; Monhegan Island. A little rolly but some great hiking. And you step back 100 years when you step onto this Island. If you don't like rolly, get a room at a local hotel. Old style charm and family style dining. Can be a little busy on the weekends but weekdays are good. Like Isle Au Haut, plan to hike the hole day and maybe two.

 

[Tim R.]

I'll (eventually) need your recipe for shore lobster cooking. I have the little gas bottle burner & a pot.

Can't wait to get there.

It is quite complicated.

Put about 3 inches of water in the pot, bring to a boil and drop the critters in and cover for 12 minutes.

 

[Bob J.]

Thank you Maine for posting this stuff. It's always nice to see things like this while we wait to put winter behind us.

 

[Tim R.]

Here are some of my favorites:

Tennants: Like MS said, good stopover going E or W.

Swans Island:

Off-shore racing to NE Harbor

Seal Bay, Vinalhaven

Castine

Holbrook Island, Castine

Maplejuice Cove, "Christina's World" house

Fast sailing off Pemaquid

Five Islands

 

[LuzSD]

you all live in heaven, or very near it. Beautiful sites, every one of these pictures.
We have year round sailing but you have the most gorgeous sites. Thank you...

 

[PaulK]

Thanks for the ideas and comments. We're planning to visit in August.

 

[All U Get]

Hi all,
Looking at the photos reminds me of stopping at JO Brown's. We spent the night and were negotiating the cost of showers in the AM. Somehow my humor got involved when the woman behind the counter asked if it was to be "One or two showers." I replied "We hadn't shared one since our wedding night." The stare I received was as cold as the water outside. She began a lecture on decency and I started laughing and asked to pay for the showers before she made me stand in the corner. She must have raised all boys. It always feels good to be treated like family instead of a customer.

All U Get

 

[CaptBren]

Maine Sail -

Great photos and brief descriptions of a lot of my favorite places to sail here in Maine. Your post makes me hungry for the sailing season!

You mentioned the Basin and I wanted to let you know I sailed in there a few years back on my boat (99' two-masted schooner; 20' beam) I spent a lot of time over several summers kayaking in there to determine whether or not I could make the old girl fit and the conditions were finally just right one day to follow through with my plan. We sent a couple guys ahead of us in a row boat to film the whole thing (you can see it on youtube) and I have to admit that it was pretty intense. We didn't have a lot of room to spare but the video makes it look like just a leisurely sail. The comments on the video are pretty disparaging - saying it's no big deal - but I figure you might, based on what you wrote here, appreciate the accomplishment. I think I am the only windjammer captain to ever attempt it and, like you, I think I probably won't ever do that again!

We anchored in the Basin for about an hour, had lunch, and then used the yawl boat to push back out. Our entry was entirely under sail though . . . and despite the nay-sayers, I was pretty proud of the accomplishment.

 

[woodster]

may i ask what i have to type in to see the YOU TUB video......

regards

woody

 

[Maine Sail]

Maine Sail -

Great photos and brief descriptions of a lot of my favorite places to sail here in Maine. Your post makes me hungry for the sailing season!

You mentioned the Basin and I wanted to let you know I sailed in there a few years back on my boat (99' two-masted schooner; 20' beam) I spent a lot of time over several summers kayaking in there to determine whether or not I could make the old girl fit and the conditions were finally just right one day to follow through with my plan. We sent a couple guys ahead of us in a row boat to film the whole thing (you can see it on youtube) and I have to admit that it was pretty intense. We didn't have a lot of room to spare but the video makes it look like just a leisurely sail. The comments on the video are pretty disparaging - saying it's no big deal - but I figure you might, based on what you wrote here, appreciate the accomplishment. I think I am the only windjammer captain to ever attempt it and, like you, I think I probably won't ever do that again!

We anchored in the Basin for about an hour, had lunch, and then used the yawl boat to push back out. Our entry was entirely under sail though . . . and despite the nay-sayers, I was pretty proud of the accomplishment.

I had heard about you! That takes guts. Having been in/out many times in the dink and seeing the un-marked erratic glacial boulders on the route in I feel lucky that I did it without a scar on my keel. I can't imagine taking a 100' schooner in there under sail but as you said the conditions had to be just right. The slack is always off of what the tide charts say and you just need to watch & wait for it but it does not last very long.

When we went in the sounder was so crazy picking up un-charted rocks that we actually turned around out in the deep spot, on the same tide slack, and headed back over to Long Cove. At one point I looked to port and could see a ledge or erratic just inches from the surface covered in barnacles and kelp. It could not haven been more than four or five feet from my hull. But, under my sounder was 35 feet of water then 6', then 40', then 7' then 20' then 6.5' then 50'.......

Hell a 20' beam barely fits between the entrance ledge let alone the turn you need to make to port to miss the huge erratic on the bottom then the turn back to stbd to miss the next one..

Here's the video but it does NOT do this entrance justice.. Oh and YoutTube has removed the audio track?

Here's another video at low tide that shows the rocks you can't see on the video above. This guy actually goes aground in his dinghy!

 

[sinnettc]

You're killin' me!

Man I miss sailing in Maine. We used to live in Bass Harbor on Mt. Desert Island . . . and I never once went to Swans Island. d'Oh!

Closest thing we've got is the San Juans, which are a 6 hour drive from here. I like the lake but I'd like sailing back there better.

 

[dscribner]

MaineSail,

Thanks for the ideas. Farthest we've sailed so far is to Harpswell sound. All in good time. Your daughter is adorable! Don't blink. I did. My little boys are 24 and 19 and tower over me. I miss those days!

 

[Roger Long]

One of my favorite anchorages in the mid coast which I never seem to share with anyone. Across from J.O. Brown off Calderwood Neck. It's too open for a strong wind but it's a rare midsummer night when that would be a problem. Far enough out from shore that you can finish watching the sunset before the bugs find your boat. Large enough that you can always be sure of finding room. Not too many lobster pots. Even if exposed, shallow enough for it to be easy to put out lots of scope and lots of room to deal with a dragging anchor without worry about other boats. I've never ridden out a strong wind there but the bottom seems very good.

I think the sunset view over the Camden Hills is every bit as good as Pulpit Harbor. J.O. Brown very handy if you need fuel.

N44 06.968 W68 51.152

 

[Maine Sail]

Roger,

I am guessing you're referring to Seal Cove over by Broom Island up in past Perry Creek, its a nice spot. The little gut over by Broom Island is good too unless winds are out of the NW. Carvers Cove just around the point is very similar. I also like the cove up in by the Northhaven boat yard called Southern Harbor in non SW winds. Kent Cove is good too up in behind Indian Point, good sunsets..

Here's where we're referring to:
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13308.shtml

 

[rfrye1]

I'm ready to go!

Looking at these pics makes me really want to explore this beautiful coast. What are the bareboat opportunities like in Maine? I've chartered in the Pacific NW several times and have dealt with tides & currents, so that doesnt concern me.
Thanks. Bob

 

[Roger Long]

What are the bareboat opportunities like in Maine?

http://www.bay-sailing.com/

 

[Maine Sail]

There's also...

There's also Johansen Boatworks they are nice folks..

Johansen has a nice charter fleet which is certainly not entirely made up of your typical charter type boats...

Bucks Harbor Marine also has some charter boats including some classic trawlers.

 

[Tim R.]

I have seen many of the Bucks harbor boats up close. I can give you some tips if you consider chartering with them.