Au revoir Maine!

 We have been anchored in Seal Cove the past two nights, and some of the pictures below will validate the name! After Castine, we travelled to Southwest Harbor, in the heart of the Acadia Mountains.  We were surprised at the car traffic in the small town of SW Harbor, but it is at the crossroads to Acadia National Park, and hikers, canoers, and nature lovers of all types were headed to the park.  SW Harbor has had the most mountainous scenery of this trip, and is as far north as we will go.  From SW Harbor we were either jumping over to Nova Scotia, are heading back, which is the option we have chosen.  

We would not have had enough time to enjoy Nova Scotia, so will add it to our bucket list.  Instead we will head south stopping at a few ports we missed on the way up.  Stanwood and Janet will join us in Newport, RI and ride with us to NYC.  We are looking forward to their visit.  Before that, we will spend labor day weekend in Boston, and enjoy that city.  

We will stay the next two days in Rockland, ME to provision for our trip south.  The weather looks agreeable so fingers crossed the forecast holds. Alexis likes the marina at Rockland as it has a nice SUV we can use to grocery shop, and a laundry where she can do large loads (we have a mid sized washer dryer on board).  So we will provision, and head south Tuesday.  Maine has been absolutely spectacular.  The rugged coastline, the wildlife and the cool temperatures have been great.  We have had to run the heater the past few mornings to warm up the boat!  I can now understand why it is such a summertime destination.  Here are some pics: 

Moonrise Seal Cove.

Sunset Seal Cove. 

The next few pics are among hundreds I took of seals.  The rock in the above pic only comes out at low tide (12' tides here!).  This family of seals would show up at low tide and play king of the mountain!  They would try to push off whoever was on top and take his/her place.  Lots of barking and hissing, sort of reminded me of my grandsons at play...........

A channel in Seal Cove that only has water at high tide. 

The tundra would change from rock to marsh in an instant. 

The above pics were taken at Seal Cove; the below at SW Harbor. 

Acadia National Park mountains.  

SW harbor. 

High tide at the dock.

Low tide at the dock. 

High and low tide at the jetty. 

We walked to town, and this park was on the way.  Tons of mallards in the background, taunting me.

Geese too...

Squirrel!

These woodpeckers are sculpted with metal. 

This small museum was in SW Harbor.  Mr. Gilley was a decoy carver, who branched out into nature carvings and became quite famous in his day.  

This was a painting in the museum which reminds me of my sister's art. 

Notice the flounder in the osprey's talons. 

More of SW Harbor. 

I'll end up with this seal video.  

Belfast, Castine and Hurricane Ernesto.

We are anchored in a protected bay next to Castine, ME waiting out Hurricane Ernesto.  It is passing well off the Maine coast, but is creating large swells which are hitting the coast here at 7-10'.  We are at the upper end of Penobscot Bay, in a beautiful cove and are completely out of the swell working its way into the bay.  It is eerie as the wind is calm, but the seas are up. We were completely fogbound yesterday, and it only lifted a few hours today.  Tomorrow a cold front moves in clearing out the fog, and the seas are supposed to calm, so we will make our way to Southwest Harbor where we have marina reservations.  Southwest Harbor is on Mount Dessert Island and in the Acadia National Park.  That will probably be the farthest north we go, before we start the trek back to Florida.  There is a mass migration of boating snowbirds that head south in the fall, but most insurance policies don't let them move past Norfolk before the end of hurricane season, so we are trying to get a little ahead of the heard.  In the meantime, we have continued eating our way through the Maine coast.  Here are some pics:

Sunset at the Belfast Marina.  

Belfast is yet another charming town on Maine's coast.  We happened to arrive for its annual Harbor Fest event. 

The marina is well into Penobscot Bay on the Passagassawakeag River (you try to pronounce it), but it still got some of the swell, and the dock we were on became uncomfortable, so we left to anchor in our cove. 

Belfast diner. 

Interesting shop in Belfast. 

Us on the dock before the waves kicked up.  Swell from the south would hit the outgoing tide from the river, which pitched us around on the dock, making it a bit uncomfortable. 

We had one of our best meals (and blueberry lemonade) from this food truck.

Live music was played at this park each day for Harbor Fest.  

Loons everywhere, even on the boat.....

Yes, the American Eagle again.  Can't seem to shake it.  

My cousin, Joel, visited us in Belfast, and we had a great time catching up.  She moved from Maui to Maine a few years back.  

Have no idea what this display represents!

Ernesto slipping up the east coast. We are the boat symbol. 

The cove off Castine.  It is bucolic.  Maybe in the top five anchorage of all times!   Seals, osprey and eagles everywhere.  We spent yesterday afternoon just watching them feed.  

We took the dinghy into Castine. 

Castine's waterfront. 

The cove. 

Curtis the seal.  Cameron named her first seal sighted, and the name stuck.  We are always amazed to see them.  We are like the people who visit home and freak out over seeing an alligator.  

This charter sail boat came into the cove yesterday, to get out of the swell.  

Fog in the cove.  Can you see the sail boat anchored about 100 yards away?  

We took a golf cart historical tour of Castine.  Our driver and guide was a retired radiologist from New Hampshire.  The town has become a retirement destination, and the retirees volunteer for all types of civic causes in town.  It has a winter population of about 800 plus a thousand cadets at the Maine Maritime Academy located here.  The retired doctor bought a home here and stays through the winter, and he told us that the winters are becoming warmer and they have much less snow each year.  

Maine Maritime Academy. Graduates come out as seaman, and can go into the Merchant Marines or the Navy. 

Cadets being drilled (beyond the hill, which is part of an old fort). 

A restored Inn. 

Some houses in Castine.