We made a short 14 nautical mile hop from Bar Harbor to Southwest Harbor to provision and do maintenance prior to leaving Mount Desert Island and moving on into the Penobscot Bay.
In contrast to Bar Harbor, an upscale touristic town, Southwest Harbor, also part of Mount Desert Island, is a hard working, no-nonsense fishing town. The harbor is full of lobster boats and support services.
Southwest Harbor is also home to Hinckley Yachts, one of several highly respected Maine boatyards. Across the bay in Northeast Harbor is Morris Yachts, maker of exquisitely designed traditional sailboats. Incidentally, we learned that Hinckley acquired Morris in 2016, shortly after our last visit to the region. Other classic boat builders in Maine include Sabre Yachts in South Casco and Lyman-Morse in Thomaston. Sabre used to be the benchmark for cruising sailboats, but they discontinued building them to focus on power boats.
Another reason we love Down East Maine so much is the culture. It seems time has stood still here. Rather than the highly charged, divisive, political world in which we currently live, people in Maine are a community, looking out for each other, trusting each other and accepting each other. Even visitors, referred to as people “from away” are made to feel welcome. Yesterday, when we checked into a marina in Southwest Harbor, the office manager pointed to a big yellow pickup truck in the parking lot and told us the keys were inside and we should feel free to use it to run errands. No paperwork, no deposit, no photocopy of a drivers license. Where else does that happen?
Dan, with his unexplainable passion for commercial fishing, always seizes opportunities to talk with lobstermen. Past generations were known to be very private and suspicious of people “from away”. The current generation is surprisingly friendly and open to talk about their trade. Just don’t ask about their catch or yield. That subject is taboo and you will likely get a vague and understated response, such as “not as good as we’d like” or “not what it used to be.”
We spent the afternoon doing practical things… provisioning, laundry, getting supplies from the local West Marine and supermarket. We did a thorough fresh water wash of True North who’s already showing the first effects of salt after barely a month on the ocean.
The challenge for the next chapter is to pick our stops. There are so many beautiful unspoiled anchorages and quaint harbor towns between here and Portland that some people spend a full season in this region alone. We only have a few more weeks. But the more we experience Maine, in spite of the fog and the wall-to-wall lobster traps, we think we’ll spend a good part of next season continuing to explore it. Perhaps we’ll even make it the new home port for True North. We know every square inch of Lake Ontario and the 1000 Islands. And while it’s a wonderful place to sail, we’re learning that there’s a lot more out there.
A final topic. This is hurricane season. Idalia is wreaking havoc on the gulf coast of Florida and Franklin is pounding Bermuda. Hurricanes can work their way up to the Northeast and have caused problems in the past. Fortunately for us, these two storms appear to be headed out to sea before getting close enough to be a problem, other than some bigger-than-usual sea swell.
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