Wild

 7/29- Tom Codd Cove, Holbrook Island Preserve, Brooksville, ME

    We got Alayne back from her family reunion and we decided to head out. Of course there was less than no wind in Rockland so we decided to hang until lunch time and see what gives. We were thinking of heading over to Roche Island but the forecast had nothing but east wind in it. We instead thought we head up to Holbrook where we had a mooring and wait out this storm. 

    The wind piped up nicely as we left Rockland behind and we raced out across the bay. Once we cleared the buoy and turned north the wind was directly behind us. This is not my favorite point of sail but it had us going along at 6 knots in the right direction so … We got about halfway when the wind petered out and we motored onto our mooring. 

    We were the only boat around except for a couple further down the bay. That would change the next day as we watched about 15 other boats pour into the two anchorages. We did dinghy over to Holbrook Island and hike around. It had been some time since we had been on the island and it was great. Nice wide trails and easy walking. We went through big meadows into typical Maine woods which are so thick you couldn’t get off the trail then along long stone beaches. The light was just fantastic seeping through the spruces and showing off all the different mosses that covered the forest floor. It was a very pleasant experience. 

     The next day we headed out for a hike on the mainland. We walked down the road until we came to the trailhead. Again this path through the woods was wide and beautifully lit with great fields of moss spreading under the spruces. The trail was spongy with all the moss and pine needles on it. It was comfortable walking. We came to a fork in the trail and in the immortal words of Yogi Berra we took it. We had a bit of a steep climb but it was short and sweet and found a nice lookout at the top of the mountain. There was a nice view overlooking Castine. 

    We have seen much wildlife while we have been here. There are pogies all over and with them there are many seals. There are explosions of fish as the pogies leap out of the water to escape the seals. There were porpoises cruising around picking off more pogies. We were treated this morning to a low strafing run as an eagle decided to get a closer look at us as we dinghied in. He swooped right over our heads. 

    We are planning to stay another night here as the rain is finally expected to get this far and plus this is such a nice place to hang out. It’s also lobster fest in Rockland so that is a good time to be somewhere else. 

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