Sailing to Portland ME USA

After a peaceful night anchored off Coleman Cove we woke to a still but sunny morning.  We had planned to anchor off Portland for a couple of nights whilst we took our EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating RadioBeacon) to a servicing agent to have the battery changed but the forecast for the next night and day was for strong northeasterly winds and there are no anchorages off Portland that offer protection from strong winds, let along strong northeasterlies.  Given that we had already made arrangements with the service agent to do the work, we decided that the best thing would be to take BV into a marina for a couple of nights.

So, having done a bit of research (and gulped at the cost of marina berths in the area!) we motored the 7½nm through the islands towards Portland. [Ed: So not really a ‘Sailing to Portland’ Blog entry at all!]

It’s a beautiful area and it was a lovely day.  In fact it was hard to believe that the wind would actually blow as forecast that night.

Northwestern end of Peaks Island

We spent the hour or so of the transit delighting in the scenery, enjoying the attractive houses (and turning our noses up at some of the less attractive ones) and keeping a sharp look-out for the speedy ferries plying their route between the islands.  It was great fun.

Portland ahead

Fort Gorges at the entrance to Portland Harbour

We wanted to get fuel and had decided that if we needed to take out a small mortgage for a couple of nights in a marina we wanted to be in the centre of town for getting ashore and seeing the sights.  We also needed to be able to get to the airport easily so that we could pick up the hire car that we had booked.  Nicky had called DiMillo’s Marina to try to make arrangements for a berth but our mobile phone signal was poor and we said that we would call on the radio when we were closer.

Portland waterfront with DiMillo’s Marina in the centre and M5 moored to the left

As we entered Portland Harbour we spotted M5 (formerly Mirabella V), the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.  Close to her mooring was DiMillo’s Marina so we called them up on the radio.  Things did not go as planned.  Their fuel berth was closed due to an ‘incident’ and, as a follow-on to the ‘incident’, they had no marina berths available.

Moored up in Sunset Marina, South Portland

We asked if they could recommend another fuel dock and we ended up taking on fuel and water at Sunset Marina on the South Portland (opposite) side of the harbour.  Sunset Marina was also able to let us have a berth for 2 nights, so we took them up on that (amazingly, even more expensive than DiMillo’s Marina on the Portland side of the harbour!) and started to work out the logistics of how we would get to the airport to pick up our hire car from somewhere that felt rather in the middle of nowhere.

Portland, Maine, USA