Penobscot Bay - August 2015

We LOVE Penobscot Bay!

Entering from the northeast - Eggemoggin Reach - we basically worked our way counter-clockwise around the bay. Castine, Belfast, Rockport, Camden, Rockland, North Haven, Islesboro, Vinalhaven and Tenants Harbor.

After Lobster Fest, Rockland became our home base with trips around the bay and stops "home" to do laundry and visit the "big city."

North Haven and Vinalhaven are in the southern center of the bay and separated from each other by the Fox Island Thoroughfare. We anchored on the NW side of North Haven in Pulpit Harbor. Lovely harbor with a small mooring field and, surprise, lots of room to anchor. Sunset was beautiful with a view past Pulpit Rock towards the Camden Hills.

We rode our bikes into "downtown" North Haven. Lunch at Calderwood Hall; the former basketball court now turned into a small restaurant and market. Yum.

Calderwood Hall

Across the street was the Waterman's Community Center (wifi, theater, cafe, daycare), the ferry dock, the Thoroughfare for watching all the boats passing by, and a small boatyard.

Fox Island Thoroughfare

Granite blocks everywhere in Maine

A 1980s Hunter 30! Like our first boat!

Ferry to Rockland

On the ride back to the boat we stopped in the market / hardware store / pizza parlor combo!

Hardware store / restaurant.

The gas station.

As with every tiny market we have shopped in Maine, no matter how remote, there was a HUGE selection of wine and cheese.

An Annapolis friend, Sue King, called to say she was in the Camden area and would we like to join her back in Rockland for the monthly First Friday Arts Walk. Sure. Semper gumby.

Then back to Rockport for a week and out to Islesboro. Dividing the northern bay, Islesboro was a Gilded Age island resort community and continues to be an upper-class summer colony. We entered Gilkey Harbor from the south and wandered north past the old waterfront homes. Opposite the Grindal Point ferry terminal is Warren Island State Park with free mooring balls. Score. We dinked over to Grindal Pt for lunch at the roach coach and a visit to the small lighthouse museum. Quiet night followed by a morning kayak trip around the little harbor.

Laundry, water and fuel in Rockland and then to Carver's Harbor on Vinalhaven.

Nemo! Found!!

Daruma amongst the lobster boats.

We are in a real working harbor with little room to anchor. Lucky for us there are a few mooring balls with "honor jars" attached. Just put your $ in the jar.

Lobster Pound  

Did a little shopping along the main street and visited the library.

Library

 

More granite piers

Carver's Pond

There are a few restaurants in Vinalhaven but all were CLOSED this Tuesday evening - except the Sand Bar; also the only bar in town.

As a winter project someone made an interesting beer-pong table top of bottle caps. Cheers!

 Fogged in on Wednesday so we biked around Lane Island and out to Lawson's Quarry.

Lane Island Preserve

Lawson's Quarry

(from wikipedia) 
"Fishing, shipbuilding, logging and shipping were important early businesses on Vinalhaven. High quality granite was discovered in 1826, and Vinalhaven became one of Maine's largest quarrying centers for the next century. Today the island is dotted with abandoned old quarries, many of which have since filled with groundwater and are popular swimming holes for residents and visitors alike. Pinkish-gray Vinalhaven granite, excavated by the Bodwell Granite Company, can be seen in the State Dept Bldg in Washington, NYC's Brooklyn Bridge and the Union Mutual Life Insurance Building in Boston. Granite was shipped for customs houses and post offices in NY, St Louis, Kansas City, Buffalo, etc.; the RR station and the Board of Trade in Chicago; the Washington Monument and federal office buildings in the Capital; the Pennsylvania Station and the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia; as well as private mansions, monuments, bridges, dams, and thousands of tons of paving blocks for the streets of  Portland, Boston, NYC, Newark, Philadelphia and other cities. The Vinalhaven quarries were the only ones deep enough to provide the eight huge polished columns called for in the original plans for the apse of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City; unfortunately the massive columns broke under their own weight, and ultimately more than one piece of granite had to be put together to create each column. The quarries also provided foundation stone for the cathedral."

Across from the library is the galamander replica.  
(Historical Society) 
"These wagons were a common and familiar sight in Vinalhaven’s former years. Different from other stone wagons the Galamander was equipped with a derrick or lever, to which was attached a rope tackle, and which, hand operated, lifted large pieces of stone from the ground and underslung them between the two rear wheels of the vehicle. In later years wire rope was used in hoisting the stones into place between the wheels, with horses supplying the power. Platform stone, curbings, and other stones which were too large to load on the ordinary stone wagon were transported to the cutting yards or polishing mill and other points by these ponderous vehicles."

Thursday morning was foggy again. Up to the library and lunch at the Harbor Gawker followed by ice cream at the Candy Company. 

The fog seemed to lift so we got underway at 1400 for the 2.5 hr trip to Tenant's Harbor. RADAR on...