17 August 2022
Depart: Bar Harbor commercial dock drop off 9:30
Arrive: Rockland Harbor anchorage 5:00
Distance: 64 nm
After dropping off the family at the commercial dock, our new objective was heading home and stopping to visit friends along the way. Clark decided we should target Rockland for tonight, which meant we had a full day of travel ahead of us. We had one concern for the trip - the 70% full waste holding tank needed to be emptied, and no where near around Bar Harbor could perform that task for us - either dock occupied or pump out not functional.
Looking at the charts, Clark determined that with a short detour we could reach beyond the 3-mile dumping limit and discharge our waste that way. Knowing we would get into our next port too late to find an open pump-out station there, we made the slight detour to the 3-mile line part of our travel plan.
Travel in the morning was fine. We took no pictures because there was nothing to see but water and lobster pots. Around 11:30 I went down below and came back with lunch for both of us. Everything was pretty normal. Unfortunately, weather picked up around 12:30, and from that point on we had a rough ride in Penobscot Bay. Between weather coming in earlier than Clark anticipated and the time added for our pump out detour, we found ourselves in conditions we would not normally sign up for.
Today turned out to be one of our worst, or maybe the worst, boating experiences ever. We left Bar Harbor expecting a rainy day. Clark expected to get us to Rockland before the winds picked up. We ended up in Penobscot Bay with high and frequent seas, near gale-force winds and salt water spraying over the upper helm into our faces.
As we approached Rockland, we had limited visibility. Each time Clark asked if I could see the land, my answer was "Not yet! " He had his work cut out for him handling wave action and avoiding pots, so he had me give him navigation info while he tried to steer in the direction we wanted to go. Besides turning this way and that to avoid lobster pots, he tried to tack to cut down on wave action.
On each tack he would ask me what piece of land we were aiming for and what bearing he needed to point back towards Rockland. I have performed many jobs on the boat before, but this was the first time I ever been Clark's eyes to navigate using instruments only. Usually there is something to point the direction even if it was just a fun-shaped cloud in the sky.
We had the hatch to the lower deck on the boat closed to keep salt water from running down the stairs. That, and due to the conditions, neither of us wanted to leave the upper helm. As the boat rocked and swayed and sometimes rolled, I worried about what might be happening below. I hoped I had remembered to lock the fridge door. I had visions of milk all over the galley floor if not.
We had eaten lunch underway around 12:30. We finally found a spot to drop anchor in Rockland about 6:00. Neither of us had made it below after lunch. The highest priority for each of us, before even lowering the anchor, was to use the toilet.
I went down first and noticed water on the floor in the hallway by the guest stateroom. Looking for the source, I noticed that the small port light (porthole) in the stateroom was open. Although we have a shield over the outside of the porthole to prevent water coming in, it quickly became clear that the waves that broke over the boat had still managed to flood the guest room with salt water.
I threw a couple of towels down on the floor and continued on my way to the toilet. First things first! We had a huge mess to deal with that would take a lot of time. After that I took the helm for Clark to give him the opportunity to run use the toilet also. Then, feeling much more comfortable, we set the anchor. After we were secure, we went to address the mess below.
We just that morning said goodbye to family that had been on board for several days. The guest room sofa was still made up as a bed and covered with sheets, pillows, a mattress cover, and a sleeping bag. All were saturated with salt water.
The good news perhaps is that the bed linens absorbed a huge amount of water thus partially protecting the sofa cushions. By the time I was done mopping up water and stripping the bed, I had a pile of sopping wet towels and bedding 3 feet tall.
With all the moisture in the boat, even things on the boat not directly hit by water felt damp including the sheets on our bed. Clark opened the engine compartment door to let the heat from the engines warm and dry things. He placed the sofa cushions in the engine room doorway to give them the most heat possible.
Eventually Clark turned on the generator so we could have heat on the boat to get out the excess moisture. That gave me the ability to use the clothes dryer to dry sheets and towels. It took about 3 hours to whittle the wet things down to a manageable level. After that we still had some damp towels but we had a warm boat, so I hung stuff up and called it a night.
18 August 2022
Depart: Rockland anchorage 9:45
Arrive: Simonton Cove, Portland Me, anchorage 6:40
Distance: 69 nm
This morning, I ran a vacuum over the mostly dry sofa cushions to pull out salt. I wiped out the inside of the dryer to remove salt that might have collected from drying salt water linens. I knew I would have to wash everything eventually, but for the time being I had dry dirty laundry instead of soaking wet laundry!
All I wanted yesterday was to relax and read. That didn't happen! Unfortunately, it was another grueling day again today with long hours on the boat with fog, misting rain, salt spray and of course lobster pots!
Once again we traveled without taking many pictures partially because we had covered this area before and partially because of a lack of things of interest. All the pictures below were taken as we left the Rockland anchorage.
We arrived when the chart plotter predicted we would - just around 6:00. We went back to an anchorage we had used on our way northeast, so we were in familiar territory at least.
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| Map showing Rockland in northeast and Portland in lower left corner |
After too long, dreary days on the water, we were more than ready to eat a quick dinner and relax for the rest of the night.
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