Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 9/5- Long Cove, Tenants Harbor ME    Well today started easy enough as we had a nice downwind run with just our Yankee out. I knew from the wind direction and the forecast that once we turned the corner of Hupper Island things would get hard. It was blowing 15-20 and this is a narrow area with an ess like twist to it. We rolled up the Yankee and ran out the stay sail. I wasn’t sure if I could drive the boat with this sail alone but in this area I wanted a sail I could tack easily. Well none of this worked very well. The wind was hard right on the nose and there were several boats transiting the area at the same time so we called for Mr Perkins to help us out.     Once we got to Marshall Point the stay sail became a bit of liability as it kept blowing us off course. I finally said screw it and decided to roll it up. That’s when trouble began. There was a wrap in the furling line inside the drum and I couldn’t pull any of the sail in. I went up to try and un...

 9/4- Maple Juice Cove, Cushing ME    It was like we say this morning, you could roll a ball across the harbor. Yes it was that calm. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the ocean could be that still. So we waited and waited until finally the fog lifted. I knew it was time when one of the tour boats went out with a load of passengers. You could see now but there still wasn’t any wind and the ocean seemed to have remembered that it moves. There were big 4 foot rollers coming in and no wind so we motored.     As we passed Pemiquid Point and entered Muscungus Bay the wind picked up slightly but not enough to scale the rollers that were bearing down on us. Once we got to Harbor Island the waves flattened out and we ran up the sails. We cruised along at 3 knots jibing our way up the St George River where we turned into Maple Juice Cove and dropped the anchor.     After a quick passing shower the sun came back out to highlight the spectacular array...

 9/2- Tugboat Inn Marina, Boothbay ME   It was a glorious day today. We left early as I was in my anxious to get going mode. We motored around the corner and put up the sails. We crept along at 1.5-2 knots while the wind filled in. By the time we reached Round Pond the wind was 10 knots out of the east!! We cruised down the channel and once we cleared Louds Island the wind picked up a bit in the 11 to 12 knot range. We merrily bounced our way down the Pemiquid peninsula finally crossing the bar. The seas now were quite lumpy as the wind was decidedly against the rising tide. We jibed once at the entrance to Boothbay had sailed on down the harbor.     We met up with a couple of friends who were visiting the area and had a nice meal out. All the weather forecasts are pretty convinced it is going to rain tomorrow so I think we will go with that. I am not so sure that it will be that big an event but we will still button up the boat tonight. Stay dry friends!

 9/1- Hog Island, Audubon Society Camp, Bremen ME   Well I did it again and got itchy to get going. It turned out for the best today though. We headed out thinking we would motor through some of the narrow passages between this maze of islands and then we would sail once we got to Muscungus Bay. I thought even if we just drifted the wind would eventually catch up to us. Well we drifted for almost an hour and probably didn’t even go a mile. So Mr Perkins to the rescue once more and we just motored the rest of the way. Fortunately it was only about 5 or 6 miles to Hog Island.     Hog Island is an Audubon site with cabins and restrooms and even showers. They run camps for mostly adults. The one going on now is called Mindful Birding. They do own this entire island and it has some amazing hiking trails. We did about a three mile loop which was very pretty. I have always loved the dense Maine forests with the dappled light shining through to the blanket of mosses. Th...

 8/31- Port Clyde, ME    I just couldn’t wait any longer and it came back to bite me. I was so anxious to get going this morning that I ignored the wind forecast. We managed to, barely, sail out of the harbor giving the folks at the lighthouse a photo opportunity. We put on the motor as the wind was coming on the nose to get us through the narrow part of Owls Head passage. I ran the sails out again and we sailed for about 20 minutes before the wind gave up. Back to Mr Perkins again. This time we motored through the Muscle Ridge passage. There was wind in here but I was not to be fooled again so we kept motoring until we cleared the last buoy near Whitehead. Out came the sails for another try. This time we actually sailed for about 40 minutes before it looked like we were headed backwards as the tide was against us. I gave up and dropped all the sails. Of course just then the wind picked up. If I had just waited another hour or so before leaving we would probably have had ...

 8/28- Rockland ME    This morning we were treated to another spectacular display of fog. It wasn’t too bad when we arose but got worse as time marched on. We were unruffled as we walked up the hill to the North Haven Historical Society museum. I was pretty amazed at the collection of artifacts that they have here. The tool collection is impressive and interestingly I either own or have used about 95% of the tools they have displayed. It was a very interesting visit.      The other thing that I noticed today was the traffic on this island.  We walked about a mile and a half of road and there was a steady stream of traffic both ways the entire time.      After lunch the fog had abated a bit so we headed out. It was a nice sail in about 5-10 knots of wind with several miles of visibility. When we neared the Andrew’s ledge buoy the fog closed in around us. We were still sailing along at 6 knots with less than a quarter mile of visibility. N...