Boothbay Harbor redux

We are underway eastbound across the mouth of Muscongus Bay, after a pleasant five days in Boothbay Harbor. We stopped there for a quick visit with friends, and then got bottled in due to weather on the ocean side.

It's been a while since I updated the travelogue; when last I posted, we were still at Wood Island Harbor, near Biddeford Pool and Saco. Friday morning we weighed anchor for the short cruise to Portland, where we headed immediately for a spot off Fish Point, where we had anchored on our last visit. We dropped the hook near the mooring field, but well inside the boundaries of federal Anchorage A (map).

Sunset over Wood Island Harbor. "Monument" on Stage Island, right, is a 19th-century navigational beacon.

We checked in with good friends Stacey and Dave after we got settled, and learned their boat, Stinkpot, was on a mooring just a couple hundred yards from us, almost exactly where we had anchored on our last visit. We splashed the tender and headed ashore for dinner.

Unlike last time, when we were here after the end of the season, we could not get away with tucking the dinghy under the back of the "drop off and pick up only" dock. Right next to it, though, was a free dock for Flatbreads restaurant, which we had remembered as being good from our last visit, so we tied up at their dock and waited fifteen minutes or so for a spot on their deck. We had a quick stroll around the neighborhood while we waited.

Our namesake Ocean Venture in Portland. We originally saw her in Boothbay on our last visit.

We discovered that, like many towns, Portland has closed off a number of streets and on-street parking spaces to make more outside dining available, which opened up a slew of restaurants downtown, if we could find a place to tie up. The two nearby marinas wanted $20 to tie up a tender for a few hours. We figured it might be a short stay at those rates.

The next morning I headed back ashore stag to hoof it to the Amazon locker to pick up my latest batch of items. If you read my gargantuan write-up on the lithium batteries, those items included the replacement circuit breaker and the correct terminal bolts, so I could wrap that project up. I was hoping that in the morning I could tie up either at the drop-off dock or Flatbreads again, but as I was poking around, a friendly local gave me directions to the well-hidden free 2-hour dock, that even long-time locals Dave and Stacey did not know about.

Flux tied up to the secret 2-hour free dock.

Finding that dock opened up the possibility of a longer stay, and we actually remained in that same spot for six nights. We got together with Stacey and Dave one evening for a socially-distanced patio dinner at Ri Ra, and the remaining evenings we hit up various spots in the old downtown, including a restaurant, Via Vecchia, that had the misfortune to have its grand opening during the pandemic.

When it started to get rolly in the harbor and a near-perfect weather window opened up, we weighed anchor to move along. First we stopped at DeMillo's fuel dock to take on 500 gallons of fuel for $2.10, the best price we'll see in New England, along with a full tank of water. We headed up Casco Bay and made it a short day, just 15 nautical miles to Harpswell Harbor (map), where we could get out of the swell for a comfortable night.

Sunset over Portland harbor.

Shortly after we had the hook down, who should arrive but Stinkpot, today with a crew of three. We chatted briefly on the radio and by text, but otherwise were content to keep each other company at anchor-swing distance. Also in the harbor with us was the swoopy 110' sailing yacht Cygnus Montanus, which, with no visible ground tackle, appeared to be just hovering. Her anchoring day shape was out however, and I learned her anchor deploys invisibly from below the water line, and a ways back from the bow.

The next morning we weighed anchor for Boothbay Harbor. Upon arriving in the harbor we once again set our sites on a spot we had previously used, and again we had to anchor a short distance away (map) as the mooring field has grown. On our way in, we again passed the weirdly-shaped megayacht Excellence, anchored in the outer harbor. We last saw them at Plum Gut as we were headed for Montauk.

Leaving Harpswell Harbor. That's Stinkpot center-frame.

Unlike some previous stops, Boothbay has a surfeit of free dinghy docks. Summer coastal tourism appears to be in full swing here, pandemic notwithstanding, and we had some challenges scoring outdoor seating at the local dining establishments, yet we managed to do so each evening. Saturday evening we met up with Louise's quilting friend Ann and her husband, Steve, who picked up sandwiches for us en route to Barrett Park, a short walk from one of the docks. It was a lovely evening; Barrett is apparently the local swimmin' hole and a dozen kids enjoying the water were the backdrop for dinner.

Boothbay Harbor has a decent Hannaford grocery store, but it's nearly a mile from the dock, and we spent a long morning hoofing it over for provisions. We also availed ourselves of the small convenience store in town, and enjoyed dining outdoors at the Tugboat Inn, Taka Mediterranean, Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 1 Pizza. We tried, without success, to get an outside table at Ports of Italy, which we remembered fondly from our last visit.

Cygnus Montanus at anchor. Hard to tell the enormous scale of this yacht from a distance. At one point her fancy underwater tackle fouled a lobster pot and we watched the crew scramble to deal with it in their tender while the owners were visiting the yacht club.

Even though the best weather for an outside run was not until tomorrow, once again we awoke this morning to a rolly harbor, and it seemed silly to be rolling uncomfortably at anchor all day, when we could have mostly the same comfort level at sea, and be making some progress. And so we weighed anchor for the familiar run to Tenant's Harbor.

Well, we tried to weigh anchor, anyway. The windlass was making strange noises and operating slowly, and periodically not responding to the switch. We had about half the chain back in the locker when it basically quit altogether. The windlass is a critical piece of gear; we're not hand-cranking a quarter to half ton of chain aboard, and so we gravity-dropped the already-retrieved chain back out and I set to work on the windlass.

Post-arrival dinner on the deck at the Tugboat Inn, overlooking Boothbay Harbor. Vector is off-frame.

After 17 years on the foredeck, in all manner of weather and periodically doused with saltwater, it's not surprising that the windlass was crying for help. I did give it a good overhaul, some TLC, and fresh oil not long after we got the boat. But salt air has taken its toll, and I found one of the four motor brushes stuck in its holder, with obvious arc pitting on the operating face. Fortunately, that turned out to be the only issue, and after blowing all the graphite dust out of the motor, cleaning up the brushes, and spraying the commutator liberally with contact cleaner, we were back in business.

Even with the hour-plus windlass repair, we still figured to make Tenants Harbor in plenty of daylight, and so we weighed anchor to get under way. We did not get far; as soon as the anchor came on deck, Louise realized one of the bolts had worked its way out of the anchor roller, which I had just replaced in Portland. We could not go outside and bash into any seas with the roller like that, so we again dropped the anchor to deal with it.

Last-minute windlass repair. One of four brushes.

I had spare bolts on hand, and after about another 45 minutes of fiddling with the rollers, we were again ready to weigh anchor. After hemming and hawing for a half hour this morning about whether we should even leave before the better window tomorrow, it seemed like the universe might be trying to tell us to stay put. But after all the work to get the anchor fully aboard, we were in no mood to remain in the rolly harbor, and we got under way.

While Excellence was in the outer harbor on our way in, our other old friend, Kismet, who makes her home in Jacksonville, was in the harbor on our way out. We'd also seen her in Portland, docked not far from our anchorage.

The lovely view from Barrett Park, on the other side of the peninsula from the harbor.

In between Portland and Boothbay, both relatively long stops for us, I got a great deal done around the boat, including wrapping up (for now) the lithium battery project, and documenting it in the form of a post here. I also replaced the fan in the plotter computer, which was overheating, with one from the backup machine, which I later did my best to repair. As I mentioned, I replaced both rollers on the anchor carriage, and I knocked out several smaller projects and maintenance items around the boat. I also listed a bunch of eBay items, including the old inverter remote that I removed as part of the battery upgrade.

Update: We are anchored in Tenants Harbor (map), just a short distance from where we anchored last time. Owing to our late start, we did not have the hook down until 6pm, well past cocktail hour. We had a nice dinner aboard, and now I am wrapping up my post.

Kismet, a fixture of our visits to Jacksonville, in Boothbay Harbor. She was at the dock in Portland when we were there, too.

I want to mention here that the last time we came through here, it seems like I took photos of every lighthouse and landmark on the water. Since those are already posted to the blog, I did not feel the need to repeat the effort this time through. The scenery here is spectacular, but many have captured it far better than I can with my meager tools and skills.

Now that our visits and most of our maintenance (we hope) is behind us, we're pushing to get to the far eastern corner of the state, at Quoddy Head, in the next few days, saving the exploration of the numerous side channels and bays for the return trip, where we can better gauge how much time we have for each.

Gratuitous photo of my fan repair. Never meant to be fixed, the case was staked closed, and the rotor did not come out easily; I broke a blade in the process. I thought I'd just break off the one immediately opposite for balance, but there was a prime number (31) of blades.

Tomorrow we should be anchored somewhere in the vicinity of Isle Au Haut, and the next day we should surpass our previous most easterly terminus, Mount Desert Island (home to Bar Harbor) and reach the Schoodic Peninsula.