Peaks Island Portland ME USA

We woke up on Tuesday 25 September to find that the harbour was full of cruise ships.  Portland’s a nice enough place but with the grey skies and near drizzle, the passengers could have had a better day for visiting.  We needed to be out of our berth by 1100hrs or risk being bankruptedcharged for another 24 hours but that still gave ample time for Nicky to do the laundry, for me to top up the water tanks (again) and for the two of us to have morning tea with Wendy.

We eked out almost all of our ‘allowance’ in the berth and finally left at 1050hrs.  The mooring fees here are typically USA east coast steep and so we wanted to get out to a more economic anchorage whilst we waited for better weather to move on.

As we left we passed several sailing tripper boats.  This is big business in the area and it’s lovely to see the old yachts and working boats still going strong, albeit in a different guise.

Leaving Portland Harbour

We had looked at the various options and, with the wind from the southwest and the tide running east along the coast, it made sense to stay in the Casco Bay and to move on the following day when we would have more time before dusk and, likely, better weather. The forecast for that evening wasn’t great either, looking set to blow quite strongly from the southeast and south, so we went off to find a good anchorage with some shelter amongst the islands close to Portland.  We took a look at the north side of Cushing Island but though the chart shows some hopeful-looking bays they were filled with lobster pots and/or moorings or the wind was curving around the headland and right into the bay.  So, we went up to the northwest end of Peaks Island, an area we had passed close to on our way into Portland.

Northwest side of Peaks Island. We anchored just beyond the yachts in the top photo and close to the houses in the bottom photo (photos from our last passage when it was much nicer weather!)

This provided an excellent anchorage. It was sheltered from the wind that afternoon and looked to remain that way through the evening and night.  The water was flat and that wind that was getting through the shelter of the island was hardly noticeable Unfortunately, by the time we had put BV to bed for the day the weather was truly unpleasant: sheeting rain and the wind whistling above us.  Consequently, the photos of the anchorage are from when we motored past previously with beautiful blue skies.

We settled down to try to catch up the blog somewhat and late in the afternoon got an e-mail from Cate and Murray Basingthwaite on Coolchange.  We had last seen them off Pigeon Island, Guadeloupe but had kept in touch with them, particularly recently as we ended our time in Nova Scotia and headed towards New Brunswick and the top end of Maine.  Somehow we had kept missing them and now they were 6nm north of us, anchored to the north of Great Chebeague Island.  It goes to show just how rainy and unpleasant the weather was that neither of us wanted to up anchor and move so that we could get together.  Instead, since we were headed in the same direction, we agreed that we’d meet up soon.

So, hoping that the blue skies would return the next day, we settled down to a windy and rainy night at anchor and planned for a move towards Gloucester, Massachusetts, the following day. However, with the wind forecast to come from the southwest, we decided that a move just 15nm or so to Wood Island Harbour would be the sensible thing.  Then, the next day it should be an easy run on to Gloucester which, in turn would leave us well-positioned for Provincetown and thence the Cape Cod Canal. Fingers crossed for it all working out!

Peaks Island, Portland, ME, USA