Wood Island Harbour ME USA

Shortly after departing Peaks Island – fog and a decent breeze, even if we were hard on the wind

After a night listening to the wind and rain, it was quite nice to get going on Wednesday 26 September but it would have been better if, once we got out of the warm protection of Peaks Island, we hadn’t disappeared into a fog bank.  The wind started off quite brisk from the southwest, much as forecast, but before long it had dropped away to about 10kt with a lumpy sea and we let out the reefs we had put in just to try to punch through the waves.  Even that wasn’t enough and with BV hobby-horsing away and getting nowhere fast, we started the engine and motor-sailed.

Arriving in Wood Island Harbour. Through the gap ahead is Biddeford Pool

Twenty miles later, the weather had perked up, even if the wind hadn’t and we arrived off Wood Island Harbour. There’s a large outer pool (Wood Island Harbour), protected by islands and ledges, and then through a small gap between 2 headlands, Biddeford Pool, a tiny landlocked pool with sufficient water for BV at low water but no space for her in amongst the moorings.  We retreated to the outer pool and found a space to the southeast of the channel, clear of the moorings and the surrounding rock ledges, where we could anchor.

We took the end off the boom to try to resolve an issue with the No 2 reefing line

Based on the forecast and the sound of the wind in our anchorage at Peaks Island, we had started the day with 2 reefs in the main.  However, when we came to shake out the No 2 reef the reefing line seemed to be jammed and though we freed it sufficiently, we wanted to check that there wasn’t a problem with the blocks and sliders inside the boom.  As we deconstructed everything, it initially seemed that the No 2 reefing system had jammed again but with it all apart we could find no fault; all the lines ran freely.  So we decided to keep monitoring the situation and put it all back together again, though we removed the spare batten that we had previously stored in the boom and secured it to one of the guardrails, just in case that might have been causing a problem.

Evening in Wood Island Harbour – suddenly there were a lot more rocks and shoreline!

The afternoon’s maintenance distracted me from taking any pictures of the place but as evening and low tide approached I remembered to get my camera out.

By this time there were a lot more rocks on show but we were nicely placed taking into account the forecast for the night.

At 0300, the wind changed direction, generating a slight chop in the anchorage and making BV swing on her anchor chain, which graunched on the seabed.  The new motion and the noise woke Nicky, so she got up to have a look. It was clear that that the next afternoon’s forecast wind change had occurred very early and that BV was now swinging to put her stern towards the rocks that had been off her bow the previous evening. Though it was likely that BV would swing to remain well clear of the rocks, we both felt uncomfortable with her position, so we lifted the anchor and, to save the bother of reanchoring in the dark, we picked up one of the empty moorings for the remaining couple of hours until dawn when we planned to leave.

Wood Island Harbour, Maine, USA