Isle of Shoals, NH/ME to Boothbay, ME

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

During the night a front passed, and behind the breeze that whipped up, drier air.  Not only could I see stars at 0400 this morning, but, the day is clear this morning, with miles of visibility.

Isle of Shoals is composed of several small islands, with a couple of them linked by stone breakwaters, making for the protected anchorage that we were in last night at Gosport Harbor.  As we pulled out of Gosport Harbor, we rounded Duck Island, where we had heard there were seals.

I watched through the binoculars at all the rocks in the water surrounding one part of the island, realizing that it would be tricky to get a whaler through them.  Then, I realized I was looking at seals!  We made a couple of those "dumb tourists" maneuvers as we turned around and approached a little closer, though the coastline wasn't real conducive to our morning approach.  We decided that we'll have the chance for better seal photography at other places, because, now, we are in Maine!  OOOBoy!

We cut SE of Boon Island, with its lighthouse, and yes, more seals!

We saw seals out in the middle of our transit, and three different sunfish!  The water here is gorgeous!  and cold!

We entered the gorgeous Boothbay Harbor, detouring to the west of the smaller islands coming in.  Boothbay is full of boats at docks, and on moorings.  It is a big lobstering community, now turned tourist.  It is a pretty place.

We grabbed at mooring belonging to Carousel Marina after calling by telephone.  Then we launched the RIB, and went in and paid at the marina.  After the dogs had been out for a bit, we continued with our harbor tour before returning to the boat for the evening.

About 9:00pm a neighboring community shot off fireworks, which is always impressive when you see them over the water.

Scituate, MA to Stellwagen Bank, to Isle of Shoals NH/ME

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

This morning, we departed with the group at 0700, but quickly headed off to do our own thing,, uh, aka Linda had to go see a whale!

We headed for Stellwagen Bank, a National Marine Sanctuary, and an area that whale watching boats from Cape Cod and Gloucester frequent.  An internet search showed me photos and stories of humpbacks that had been spotted on the bank the past two days.  It was certainly worth it to me to go spend a few hours looking.

I'm not sure how keen Ellen was on the whole idea of trudging offshore in the morning haze, but, she was as excited as I when we saw a whale or two.  They weren't the humpbacks I'd been hoping for, but they were still the size of the boat!  We saw either one or two individual whales, though only one was on the surface at a time.  They (it?) swam at an angle towards us, and crossed our stern.  Though we weren't able to get photos, we were excited to see them!

Due to the detour we had taken from the group, we wouldn't have gotten to where they were headed at Biddeford until 6pm, so we chose to head for the Isle of Shoals, located offshore about 5.5nm, on the New Hampshire/Maine line.

By the time we arrived, the fog had settled in, with about 1/2mi viz.  We came between White Island and Star Island, and between Lunging Island and the #4 can before turning into the Gosport Harbor.  

There were several moorings with no boats on them, and about 9 boats here before we arrived about 1510.  A few more arrived after us. We grabbed one with someone's name on it, with the understanding that we will move if the owner shows up.  Sounds good to me!

N42 58.758' W070 36.709'