Provincetown to Maine

At 12:30 am Thursday morning Rae wakes me to inform me that our radar is indicating an object within 2 nm of us and that she can hear the blow hole of a whale – she wants to know what to do? The wised captain of many a sea voyage, gets up, turns off the radar alert function, advises to not hit the whale and goes back to sleep.

200 nm and 30 hours (our personal longest single sailing leg to date) brought us to Mt. Desert, Maine. Along the way we had 10 separate whale sightings, one seal, one bald eagle and some very beautiful country. Our first trip to Maine, and although we had very high expectations based upon what we had heard and read, those expectations have been far surpassed. The country is very rugged, rather unspoiled and populated by very nice people. We hit a glorious three days of sunshine so we got in some hiking, canoeing and general exploring. Now we get a better taste of Maine weather with some rain and fog for a few days.

We left Provincetown on Wednesday morning arriving Thursday afternoon in Mt. Desert. For the most part we were able to sail, although with the shifting winds we had several sail changes to make it work. The seas were rather calm with the occasional North Atlantic roller lifting under us to remind us we were walking the edge of coastal and ocean sailing. The kids did great, spending the entire day Wednesday whale spotting with us and then taking their normal night time, awaking Thursday morning with not a complaint. Probably repeating past posts but Nikita is a nice sailing boat and that certainly helps keep the crew happy as we roll along with a nice turn of speed and comfortable footing.

We will spend the better part of the next six weeks exploring the Maine cost moving back southwest before meeting my parents in Boston at the end of July.