Isles of Shoals

Departing Sebasco we moved SW through Casco bay to Jewel Island. Jewel has been a rumored pirate hangout and a sub lookout during WWII. The only thing we could confirm is the WWII part. Jewel Island is a part of the state park network for Maine. We anchored for 3 days taking advantage of the many different trails and beaches. We explored the military installations, the lookouts were easy, the underground bunkers. Unnerving especially with fading flashlights. We drug anchor for the first time, though at 7:30 in the morning as we were drinking coffee in the cockpit. This was simultaneous with two other boats. As the anchorage was packed and is very small everyone used very little scope on their rode so just a high tide (tide ranges are 10 feet) with a strong wind and some waves and presto our anchor broke out.

We then did a drive by of Portland harbor, rounded Cape Elizabeth and sailed to Isles of Shoals. These islands are about 7 miles off the coast and the city of Portsmouth, NH. They have a long history including a sighting/landing by John Smith (he named them the Smithys after himself but lost out in the naming game eventually). The islands were a very successful cod finishing outpost for many years. There was also a discovery of a pirate treasure of four silver bars there, which paid for the construction of the first breakwater for the harbor. Also rumored to be where Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, left his young bride. Among the notable events; 1) Betty Moody’s cave where she fled with her two infant children to escape an attack by Indians only to slaughter them to keep them from crying and giving away their location with their crying and 2) a double ax murder of 2 women by allegedly a former employee, who in the middle of winter rowed from the mainland killed the two women and rowed back, all during the night. The testimony of the one surviving women resulted in the conviction and execution of the “murderer”. A great book by Anita Shreeve, the Weight of Water, retells the story. All of this happens, by the way, on 7 islands, each of which can be walked entirely in about 30 – 45 minutes.

On our last night in the Isles of Shoals we got hit by a massive thunderstorm. The harbor is untenable unless on mooring, which we were as were the many other boats there excepting one. I am guessing but think the winds were as high as 50 knots at the peak. All of the boats including ours were swinging wildly around the anchorage with rain gushing down and whitecaps on 4 foot waves. The boat that was anchored drug onto the rocks as did one boat on a mooring, both saved themselves though by motoring off quickly. We kept our engine on as I am sure everyone did, just in case. This was about 7:00 pm, lasted no more than 45 minutes, then the sun came back out, everyone was a little wetter and out to BBQ their dinner. These thunderstorms, though not nearly as violent have followed us all the way down the coast since.