Mt. Desert Island, Maine

Southwest Harbor
Tuesday, July 16 - It was a foggy morning and we waited until noon to lift the anchor. By 12:15 we had pulled out both sails, winds were off our starboard stern at 20 knots. Throughout the trip we navigated the shifting winds and numerous lobster pots by tacking and working the jib and main. We arrived at our next destination of Southwest Harbor at 2:30 and surprisingly found a place to anchor, most of the old anchor spots have been replaced by moorings and we weren’t sure if we would end up having to get one. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant in town with Gary and Renee. The public dinghy dock is about 1.5 miles from our boat, and town is about a 3/4 mile walk from there.

Wednesday, July 17 - We left at 8:30 in the morning to catch the 9:15 Island Explorer Shuttle in town to go to Bar Harbor. We decided it was easier to do that than move the boat and anchor in Bar Harbor as it was a 35 minute free shuttle ride. We walked around Bar Harbor going into several of the shops and had lunch at The Thirsty Whale, recommended by one of the shop owners. The town was more touristy than I expected, most of the shops were high end souvenirs, local sourced maple syrups, jams, etc. There was a very expensive sporting goods store, a few clothing stores and restaurants/bars along every street. That night Brian, who had a boat at Watergate Marina, picked us up at the dock and drove us to his house for a wonderful lobster boil.

Thursday, July 18 - It started to rain in the early morning and with no sun it felt cold when we got out of bed. I could hear splashing in the water and when I looked outside two seals were playing and/or hunting for fish. They make a big slash, sometimes sending fish flying into the air! The plan for the day was to go hiking in Acadia National Park but that was postponed due to weather and instead we went to Southwest Harbor Main Street, browsed the stores, got ice cream then rode the bus to Bar Harbor to go to Hannaford for more groceries. In the evening we had dinner on En El Viento.

Friday, July 19 - We were able to do a 2 mile hike along the coastline. We took the Southwest Harbor bus to Bar Harbor then took the Sand Beach bus. From there we walked down a trail that followed the coast and went a bit into the woods. We ended at Otter Cliff and caught another bus back to Bar Harbor. A lot of buses for a short hike but beautiful scenery. We took Pepper so didn’t want to do a hike that involved rock climbing. Late afternoon we moved the boat to Somes Sound a few miles up the coast to meet up with Gary and Renee. Somes Sound is like a fjord; a glacier made inlet that is very deep, longer than it is wide, surrounded by steep cliffs and a shallow sill at the entrance. Somes Sound at its deepest is 175 feet and only 0.2 miles wide, however most fjords in Norway are over 1000 meters deep, or 32,808 feet! The Narrows of Somes Sound (the entrance) is a sill but not deep enough to cause a lack of oxygen at the bottom and alter the circulation of the water. Thus, geologically Some Sound does not meet the definition of a fjord. It is however more like a fjard; a glacier made embedment that is drowned by the sea. The lower portion of the Hudson River is the only acknowledged fjord on the east coast and has an area that is 800 feet deep.
While Somes Sound is very deep we did manage to hit a rock looking for anchorage on the outskirts, the depth reader went from 5 feet under our keel to 0 in an instant. Kevin was worried that the rudder was damaged, luckily Gary has scuba gear and Kevin was able to check out the bottom. All appeared ok but we may haul it out for confirmation at some point. As we entered the Sound I saw two fins swimming, which I believe were porpoises because they were small and the fins were triangular. I learned that the porpoises like the shallower harbor waters, may be why they are called Harbor Porpoises.Leggi altro