Boating with Sunset Delight: 2022: Maine Part II

4 August 2022
Depart: Boothbay Mooring 1:10
Arrive: Rockland anchorage 7:00
Distance: 45 nm

Last night watching the local Maine news, Jeff and Clark heard that Rockland was holding its annual Lobster Festival starting on Friday. The decision was made to go check it out.

Before leaving Boothbay, we took care of a few chores. I did some laundry. Then Clark and Devon rode our bicycles to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Bread and milk always seemed to be on the list! We left for Rockland after lunch.

With the trip to Rockland taking a few hours, I had time to work with the two older girls to do some sewing crafts. I brought plastic canvas, yarn, and darning needles on the trip for just this purpose. When the girls were on their most recent hike, I cut out squares of the plastic to form a cube. While we traveled today, the girls kept busy sewing designs on each side of their respective cubes and then sewing the squares together to make their cube-shaped boxes with lids. It kept them entertained and busy for the entire trip.

We did have a brief interruption in our sewing session. On the way to Rockland, Captain Clark took the boat past the island known as Eastern Egg Rock. Every passenger on board studied the island well as we were told that we might see puffins on the island. According to the guide book, Puffins lived here in abundance in the 1800s. By 1900 both the plentiful puffins and the numerous terns that lived here had been wiped out. Starting in 1970 and ornithologist and the National Audubon Society reestablished the puffin colony here and terns retuned in abundance as well. We saw no puffins - only gulls as we circumnavigated the island. The guide book says that they are visible on the island in June and July.

Eastern Egg Rock -- looks pretty desolate -- seven acres of boulders and grass.

By the time we reached Rockland each girl could show off her sewing expertise.

Sierra and Violet with their hand-sewn cubes.
(The arm belongs to Zoe.)

No sewing for Zoe yet but
she wanted to be in the picture.

Sunset at Rockland, ME anchorage

5 August 2022 - Rockland, Maine Lobster Festival

Because we anchored out and had 7 people on board, it took two trips each way to go into towns to see the sights. Clark took Sierra, Jeff, Devon, and Zoe on the first trip today and then came back for Violet and me. When we arrived, Clark received a text from Jeff that they were in the "Children's Tent". We soon realized that unlike the Seafood Festivals we see in Florida, this lobster festival was designed with children in mind.

Clark, Ev, Violet, Zoe, and Sierra

In the picture above, Sierra and Violet are holding their treasure maps. If they found each clue and punched a hole in their "map" at each spot along the way, they would receive a treasure at the information booth. How exciting to draw them into the activities right away!

The Treasure Map!

To get to the Children's Tent, we walked through the "Lane's Barnyard Friends" tent. It was smelly but had cute animals.

Nigerian Dwarf Goats
"Regina" and "Reggie"

Miniature Horses

Zoe's favorite spot had toys to play with

Sierra made completing the treasure hunt a true quest - no time for games!

Jeff and Sierra ---
Rushing to the bouncy houses to search for
clue number 5!

Later, Sierra found a clue in the lobster trap near a statue!

Probably the favorite for the girls, given how much time they spent there, the marine tent offered a hands-on opportunity where they could pick up, touch, or look at lobsters, starfish, and other marine life.

Touching lobsters must have made us think of food because our next stop was the food tent. Violet saw a booth with Domino's Pizza and that's what she wanted! The adults decided to partake of the various lobster options. Very tasty but more than a bit messy to eat a whole lobster with a plastic fork!

After that we walked around to where we heard some good Irish-sounding music and listened to the "Pirates of the Dark Rose" live -- real toe-tapping stuff.

We were tempted to "Sell at least one of our children"
here given a melt down at the food tent.
Fortunately for the child in question, we decided to pass.

Lucky Violet!?
This was the first time ever this woman made an object from a balloon!
Thankfully, it did look like a pirate's sword when she was done!

From this area we heard a man advertising that the firing of the cannon would be held at 1:00. Since we were right there with balloons and good music, we hung around for the big event. Little did we know that several of team Woodworth would end up as crew firing the cannon.

Devon was drafted first.
Lieutenant Devon read the orders to the
crew for the procedures to fire the cannon!
Written in old English - it was harder than one might think!

Sierra and Violet were recruited as crew also.

Sierra got the dubious honor of being the powder monkey! She was warned that she could "Blow her head off" if not careful. Violet, at least, had a less dangerous task to perform. She just had to help
position / aim the cannon for firing. One girl who was Shanghaied to become a crew member ran off during the show. Fortunately, the young man in the gray t-shirt happily stepped in to take her place.

The two crew members with the most work to do were the older ones at the front of the cannon. They sounded like they were from a Scandinavian country. The older girl could speak English, but her younger brother could not. She translated the complex, cannon preparation instructions for him. Ironically, he had the most work of all.

While we watched the proceedings, we stood in the blistering heat. The man in charge was rather long-winded and dramatic. The show started at 1:00 as promised. At 1:30 he was still going and warning multiple times that heads could be blown off. In the end it was all rather anti-climactic as the cannon was not fired. The audience was asked to yell "Bang" when all was said and done. The least they could have done was pop one of the many balloons that were in the area to make a bang of some sort.

Oh well - time for some goofiness and ice cream!

Sierra and Violet

Zoe and Violet

Lobster Zoe and Fisherman Jeff

Sitting on an anchor while eating ice cream.

Sierra - looking through the eye of the anchor

After the fun at the Lobster Festival, we returned to the boat (again in shifts). Someone got the crazy idea to jump in the water for a swim. Jeff? Sierra? Violet and I shook our heads and sat down to play games together. I had several games on board that turned out to be very popular including "Cribbage" "Othello", "Skipbo", and "500 Rummy".