Cruising Log for Week 8:  September 1 -  September 2, 2002--The (Sadly) End of the Cruise

Sunday 9/1:  Long Cove/Tenants Harbor - Harbor Island (Rhumb Line Distance:  12.2 nm)  PDF Route Chart  Harbor Detail Chart

Overnight, the wind dropped off completely and the sky remained clear.  This, coupled with a chilly air mass, allowed temperatures to drop lower than any time during the cruise, making for a chilly wakeup.  Some inland areas recorded lows in the upper thirties and lower forties!  While I was out on deck in the early morning swabbing off the night's dew, I glanced down to check on the progress of the coffee pot and noticed that the stove was out.  Yup--out of propane in the main tank.  Fortunately, the coffee had perked enough and was ready to drink, so I didn't have to deal with digging out my little adapter fitting and setting up one of the small camp cylinders to see us through--instead, I could put this off till lunchtime, when we wanted to heat something up after we had anchored at our destination for the day.  Pretty good--over 50 days on a little 10 lb. propane tank, using the stove several times daily, baking bread and cakes and so forth.  But this seemed to be one more sign that the cruise was inexorably coming to an end.

The day was clear and calm, and we departed fairly early for our trip to Harbor Island, midway through Muscongus Bay.  As we left the cove, some high cloudiness began to filter the sun, and remained throughout the day.  We raised the main for motoring and powered the whole distance, as it remained flat calm all morning and in fact throughout the entire day.  The seas were oily and reflective with no waves and only a minor swell.  The air was so clear and dry, however, that distant objects seemed close by--Monhegan Island, 9 or 10 miles offshore, looked so close as to appear merely an extension of some of the nearer islands.  Our course to Harbor Island took us through the little channel near Port Clyde, the destination that started off our cruise over 7 weeks ago.  Then, we threaded between some of the nearby islands and ended up at Harbor Island, where we anchored in the narrow, deep harbor in 30' at low.  (Wow!)  We chose a spot slightly outside of a boat that was already anchored, rather than push up closer to the ledges at the head of the harbor where there was room, though we thought it would probably get more crowded there later on.  We also chose one of the few holes between the lobster pots.  The anchor set immediately on 90 feet of scope, which I later extended to 120.  (Definitely a little less than I might normally like, but it was calm anyway.)

Soon after we anchored, another boat came in and anchored a bit in front of us, but hung back so they were way too close, and right over our anchor location.  I went forward and mentioned it, and the nice people reassured me that they were only stopping for lunch, so no problem.  Several minutes later, another huge (well, 46'--seems huge to me) sailboat came in and rafted up with the one in front of us; I was glad that they were only staying for a while, as this was ridiculous.  The landing of the second boat was about as poor as it could be, really, and it was amazing that no boat (or no one) was hurt.  Later, they broke up the raft-up and anchored in different places, separately and away from us.  But they provided us with plentiful entertainment for the afternoon.  A huge powerboat (actually fairly attractive and classy-looking) from the New York Yacht Club (with a delivery crew--no owners on board) tried anchoring behind us but couldn't seem to get the hook to set, so they departed.  By the late afternoon, the small harbor was filled with a dozen boats.

Throughout the day, Heidi and I talked and basically decided to just blitz it home tomorrow, rather than try for one more day on board.  It's funny how once you get close to the end, and closer to home, you are just ready to get there.  We had thought we would stop somewhere in between for Monday night and head back on Tuesday, but we decided it would just be better to go tomorrow and get it over with.  Plus, the weather forecast for  Tuesday sounded less nice anyway, with higher, unfavorable winds and possible rain, so it's not like we would really miss anything anyway.

Monday 9/2:  Harbor Island - Falmouth Foreside (Rhumb Line Distance:  41.2 nm)  PDF Route Chart

Once you make the decision, you might as well just blitz it home.  That's exactly what we decided to do--no sense pulling out another day just for the sake of it, plus the weather forecast for Tuesday was less good anyway.  To that end, we got up early in the morning and by 0615 we had raised the anchor and were headed out into the calm, platinum seas and gray skies.  Ahead lay about eight hours of boring motoring.

The trip passed uneventfully--under power with the main up the whole way, no wind, and a pretty good-sized, but gentle, swell off the three rivers near Boothbay and in the outer portions of Casco Bay between Cape Small and Little Mark Island.  We had the tide with us most of the time, so we averaged 5.5 - 6.0 knots over the ground.

It was weird getting back to the yacht club--so many boats, so busy!  Our mooring was waiting for us, and the lines weren't even tangled on the chain, which was a nice treat.  However, they were twice their normal size with nasty growth and mussels.  When I pulled the lines on deck, I realized that even the plant-looking things were squirming and wiggling around, nightmarish creatures that I had never seen before.  Yuck!  I pulled a lot of the stuff off and sluiced off the decks as best as I could.  A major washdown is in order in the very near future...I can't wait!

Not much to tell, other than we made it home to the mooring by 1400, put the boat away and went ashore with a bag of laundry and a few other things; most of the unloading will occur later this week, once I bring the boat into the dock.  Then, I can unload the rest of our dirty laundry, clothing, books, etc.  We will leave most of the food, books and other cruising gear on board for the remainder of the season and beyond, so the unloading really isn't so much of a big deal.  But it will be nice to get rid of extra water and fuel jugs, other deck cargo, and so forth.

More cruise details and observations to come in the near future.  Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed reading about our cruise, and will continue to check in now that we're back.  I apologize for the delays in posting the logs during the cruise--it proved to me much more difficult and inconvenient than I had hoped, so we just never put much thought into getting it done.  For those of you who suffered through the information drought on this website over the past couple months, thank you for checking back in!  Feel free to get in touch anytime.

Anyone want to buy a nice house with good property???  :<)  I'm ready to load up and go right back out...