Penobscot Bay is vast.

Feb 14, 2017
29
Mainecat 38 Anacortes
I cruised one season in Maine on my 41' cat. 2 vertical daggerboards, 2 vertical rudders and 2 sail drives. Some places I couldn't actually get between the lobster buoys and had to straddle some! (Hurricane Island area) Drug a few pots out of position a few times, made the 'wrong' match between buoy and toggle buoy one day while reefed and running in 15-20 knots. THAT was an interesting challenge! Resorted to a knife but felt very little remorse for the working man's gear. (they have no compassion for us 'yachties') More remorse for possibly keeping a pot 'fishing' indefinitely but as I understand it, the practice is often to lay down a string of pots with a buoy on either end so probably the gear wasn't lost) It DID keep me from coming back a 2nd season as I just couldn't face the hassle. I'd cruise Maine in an engineless full keeler but modern appendages don't seem compatible.
 
Jan 19, 2010
1,169
Catalina 34 Casco Bay
Pen-Bay area is unique for the toggle use. The toggles always fall off from the pot, once you have the set figured you can keep the pot close and let you bow wave push it away.
 
Oct 1, 2007
1,856
Boston Whaler Super Sport Pt. Judith
I cruised one season in Maine on my 41' cat. 2 vertical daggerboards, 2 vertical rudders and 2 sail drives. Some places I couldn't actually get between the lobster buoys and had to straddle some! (Hurricane Island area) Drug a few pots out of position a few times, made the 'wrong' match between buoy and toggle buoy one day while reefed and running in 15-20 knots. THAT was an interesting challenge! Resorted to a knife but felt very little remorse for the working man's gear. (they have no compassion for us 'yachties') More remorse for possibly keeping a pot 'fishing' indefinitely but as I understand it, the practice is often to lay down a string of pots with a buoy on either end so probably the gear wasn't lost) It DID keep me from coming back a 2nd season as I just couldn't face the hassle. I'd cruise Maine in an engineless full keeler but modern appendages don't seem compatible.
Ha! We poked our nose into Hurricane Sound once and it was so incredibly thick with pot buoys that we never went back in all the years we cruised Maine. Terrifying! That visit we came across a sailboat hung up on a pot with 4 people aboard. We very carefully threaded our way over close to see if we could be of some assistance. The owner pleaded that he didn't carry mask and fins. I said we did and would be happy to loan. Gave me a funny look like he expected me to dive on his boat!! Well, he declined the loan of our gear so we just eased our way out.
 
Oct 1, 2007
1,856
Boston Whaler Super Sport Pt. Judith
Pen-Bay area is unique for the toggle use. The toggles always fall off from the pot, once you have the set figured you can keep the pot close and let you bow wave push it away.
Actually, and you may know this, toggle usage is most prolific Down East, east of Petit Manan light. I do remember lots of toggles in SW Penobscot Bay.
 

SG

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Feb 11, 2017
1,670
J/Boat J/160 Annapolis
The changing of the coding of the main float's and the toggle float's coloring system, which I've seen vary a bunch. As you move across from place to place, the "local" custom seems to vary. One place the toggle is the plain white or colored float -- the next it's the main Float that's the "plain" one and the identified (coded) float is the toggle. So you have to just figure-out what the lobster men or women are doing. All of that is compounded when you're in fog or snotty weather and you suddenly come upon a group of pots. Sometimes they are in well over a 100 depths -- not just as a warning of relatively shallower water.
Then you have the "sea" of floats which seem like you could almost walk-over. When you see that, it's "red-alert" and white knuckle time!!!

We have a two bladed Max Prop with "Spurs" line cutters. Over the last ten (or so) years, I've only cut four or five lines. I've hooked some lines with my 7'-4" keel and 6'-6" (or so) deep control surfaces. The only time we were put out-of-service was our first trip to Maine. We picked-up a floating poly line which wrapped my prop and shaft in the Gulf of Maine (they're "illegal" in Maine's State waters, I understand). We had to get towed 18 nm into SW Harbor after the wind died. If you sail at night -- or worse motor at night, you're just playing Russian Roulette with the odds being a bit worse for you then the revolver.

For your general information:


Some friends suggest that the only thing that saves Maine from being over run is the cold, the fog, the ledges, the tide, and the pots. They believe that those hazards where combined to keep the place more paradise-like. ;^)))
 
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