Seeing new places as we move west in Maine

Our Coastal Explorer software, GPS and Chartplotter are key for navigation but we still need to attentive as we plan our routes. Shoals and rocks are never far away and sometimes hidden by the ten foot tidal difference.  We are close to this shoal of rocks but it is pretty deep up to them.

Picking up a mooring at Robinhood Marine Center was a night's stop up the Sheepscot River.  The Center bought some of the Cape Dory boat molds in 1987 when Cape Dory closed.  We suspected there would be some other Cape Dory boats to see.  It is always fun to see how others have fixed up their boat identical to ours.  Robinhood was the English name for Chief Mahotiwormet who led a tribe of local Indians in the early 1600's.  He was known to have kept peace with the white settlers and the marina honors him with its name and statue.  Priority is moored far back in this photo.

Robinhood Marine Center occupies the whole cove with docks, moorings, restaurant, library/museum as well as huge work sheds.  Jay found the boat molds for the 27' and 30' Cape Dory boats.  We had fun looking all around. Jay stands over the dock where we could land our dinghy when coming ashore.

With water tanks filled and laundry all clean we left Robinhood and sailed to The Basin off the New Meadows River.  Friends recommended staying here as a very protected, peaceful and beautiful hurricane hole anchorage. We navigated the narrow entrance as shown in the photo which opened into a larger pond area with room for us to anchor in a muddy bottom (instead of rocky). A great recommendation!

 

After morning rain showers, we left The Basin and continued west to Eagle Island.  Admiral Robert Perry who is credited with first reaching the North Pole built a family home on this island.  His family donated the island home to Maine which opened it as a state park.  Perry bought Eagle Island for $200 when he graduated from college and eventually built this house where he lived for nine years until his death.  It is beautifully maintained and filled with his collections from traveling the world.

Lobsters used to grow bigger here in Maine.  Perry caught this 15 lb. lobster off the island.  Having studied taxidermy, he mounted it for display.  Today Maine lobstermen measure each lobster they catch and must throw back any they catch under or over a certain size.  Perry's lobster was huge compared to those lobstermen catch today.

From the unique windows in Perry's library we could see Priority riding on a mooring.

Park rangers maintain the building and yard.  Summer interns and volunteers come by boat daily to help.  Only one caretaker lives in a small house on the island all summer.

 

This monument was built on one of the outer islands next to Eagle Island along Maine's coast to help boaters identify their location.  Before having GPS to locate a boat's position, this monument marker told sailors exactly where they were among the many little islands dotting the shoreline.  It still stands strong and tall today.

We sailed up Harpswell Sound to anchor in Harpswell Harbor for the night with thunderstorms and a rainy Friday forecast.  The orange line shows our travel path west.  It intersects our yellow track followed when we went east but we attempt to visit new places.