Whale Watching at Gloucester MA USA

Dawn at Wood Island Harbour

Our night move onto a mooring buoy meant that we slept much better for the last couple of hours of the night but it was still an early start for us from Wood Island Harbour on Thursday 27 September, especially as we knew that the wind had already gone round to the northeast and would help us on our way.

Departing Wood Island Harbour

We had the anchor up at 0655hrs and motored out of the harbour, via a rocky inshore route [Ed: to shave minutes off our passage time!], whilst we got BV ready to sail.

The previous couple of days’ passages meant that today we would try to get on as far as Gloucester.  It’s a distance of around 60 miles which was a reasonable way to go before sunset given that, though we would have a full period of ebbing tide with us, we would also have most of a period of flood against. It all depended upon our speed and we found that with the genoa poled out we made 5½-6 knots which was plenty.  We might have gone faster with the MPS hoisted but there were still quite a lot of bouncy waves around and we worried that the MPS would just keep collapsing with only 10-12 knots of wind.  Around lunchtime we passed the Isle of Shoals, off Portsmouth, which had been our back up destination if we didn’t thing we could make Gloucester by nightfall.

I decided to have an afternoon nap and Nicky kept BV going in the right direction with the distance to go to our waypoint slowly ticking down.  As we got abeam Cape Ann, about 12nm to the east of Gloucester, Nicky called out that she had seen a whale blow.  We had a little time in hand to do some unexpected whale watching and so rolled away the genoa rapidly.  It was a good call and almost immediately we were treated to this fabulous sequence…..

Wow!  It doesn’t get much better than that, we thought, except, perhaps, seeing a whale breach.

But it did.  As we watched we realised that there were several whales surfacing, indeed, several groups of several whales surfacing.

Each group would stay up for a few minutes and then disappear for a short while and, of course, we had no idea if once a group dived whether or not those whales would return to the surface close to us or further along the coast.  With the groups fairly well spaced out we had our work cut out watching for the blows to spot the next group surfacing.  We didn’t switch our engine on, and with only the mainsail up so that we didn’t go too fast or have an additional sail to handle we couldn’t really get from one group to the next between their dives.  So, we jilled around in the middle of the area they seemed to be operating in and waited for them to come to us if they wanted to.

Some spectacular fluking by the humpbacks

Thacher Island off Cape Ann with the only operating twin lighthouses in America – the question is, why?

There was a bit of a gap in the display and we thought that we really ought to get going…..

….and then, suddenly one whale decided that it really did need a close up look at the strange boat floating around in their swim space.  The whale surfaced so close behind us that Nicky squeaked and wondered if the whale was going to run into us.

It peered long and hard at us but it was so close I couldn’t get a decent photo with the telephoto ‘paparazzi’ lens I had on the camera!  However, we knew it was jolly close because the eye looked big and we could clearly see the white of its pectoral fins in the water.

Then another one surfaced next to the first …. and a second….and a third.  Shortly after we reckoned that we had 6 good-sized humpbacks gently swimming alongside us, apparently totally unconcerned about our presence.

And then, one by one, they dived away.  Clearly, it was time for them to move on.

It was time for us to get going too. We looked at the darkening sky and realised that we needed to hightail it under engine to get into Gloucester before dark (yes, there are lobster pots in that harbour too!).

We made it in around the breakwater and up to the middle of the eastern side of the large outer harbour, where we anchored close to a mooring field, just as the sun set.  We’d had a lovely sail south and a fabulous experience with whales.  What a great welcome to Massachusetts.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA

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

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

Portland ME USA

Our ‘hire car’ for the afternoon

So, having got a marina berth (eye-wateringly expensive) in South Portland, we decided that we needed to make best use of it by getting over to and exploring Portland as soon as possible. Whilst Nicky put together some lunch, I started to unroll the dinghy so that we could pop over to the public dinghy dock on the other side of the harbour.  I hadn’t got too far into the job when Wendy and Ken on MY Serenity, moored on the hammerhead of our pontoon, came over and said that my job looked far too much like hard work, would we like to borrow their dinghy?  Let me think about that for a nanosecond…..oh, yes please!

We left the dinghy at the public dinghy dock and immediately stepped into a world of quayside apartments, ferries and tripper boats.  The quays, reaching out into the river, are quite close together, dark, built on pilings and with surprisingly tall buildings on top of them.  Even with today’s clean water and clean air, it’s easy to imagine the industrial city of yesteryear as you look out across the narrow waterways between the quays.

Further inshore, the previous industrial heritage is clear to see.  Brick, warehouse style buildings line narrow alleys and on the larger streets there are statement buildings made of stone, with elaborate facades and copper roofs; business utility and monied wealth all on show.  And despite it being a late Sunday afternoon, Portland was busy. There were lots of people about enjoying themselves and there were bands playing (good) live music in the streets. And we saw the standard souvenir shops that line the streets of a holiday destination but we saw plenty of good-looking bars and restaurants too.

The piers are all built on wooden pilings – would you buy and apartment in the brick building supported
just on wooden pilings? Oh, and by the way, whilst the dock you can see is a yacht broker’s dock,
the dock on the other side of that building is where a large number of the lobster boats moor and there
 are lobster pots piled up on the dockside underneath the apartment balconies.  Would you still buy an apartment here?  Seemed to us to be a brave move for a bricks and mortar investment

Local fresh oysters and steamed clams

We looked at the wooden-piled docks and thought about the weight of buildings, cars, people and tarmac on the piers on them and decided that eating oysters and steamed clams at J’s seafood restaurant (recommended to us by Wendy) was the best way to not think about the structural engineering masterpieces on display.  It was a good move because the oysters and steamed clams were very good – far, far better than the fried ones we had tried at Eastport and Cape Charle Harbour.  So good, in fact, that we are now ‘steamed clams converts’ and want to try to do them ourselves…

Watching the sunset from Sunset Marina

But we needed to get the dinghy back to Wendy and Ken and Portland has a 2-hour limit on mooring at the dinghy dock [Ed: which we bust slightly but it was out of season!].  So we returned to Sunset Marina in time to invite Wendy and Ken on board to say thank you for the loan of their ‘car’, whilst we all enjoyed the reason the marina has its name.  And having swapped future plans with them, and shown them the inside of a sailing yacht, we enjoyed drinks with them and our other neighbours on the pontoon.  It was a very convivial evening shared with likeminded nautical folk - great fun shared with lovely people.

Monday 24 September was all about getting our EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating RadioBeacon) serviced. This is an emergency beacon that, when activated, transmits its position via satellites to land-based listening stations and which also, on a separate frequency, can be homed in on by rescue aircraft.  GME (the Australian manufacturers of our beacon) have only 3 ‘North American’    service centres: one in Panama, one in California and one just outside Portland, ME.  The battery last 6 years and ours needed to be changed in April 2019, at which point we planned to be in the Caribbean, heading north.  Whilst we were losing 6 months of battery life, it seemed sensible to get the battery change done whilst we passed a service agent rather than wait until the following year and then have the difficulty of sending the item off by post, and (somehow) having it returned to us.

Having arranged to hire a car from Portland Airport, we needed to make a prompt start on the Monday morning to catch a bus from close to the marina to Portland city centre and, from there, to the airport.  Maybe we could have done it by Uber, but signing up for that got rather difficult and, besides, we quite like using buses.  From the airport we had an hour’s drive through lovely scenery to the service centre, an office in the basement of a house a long way up a gravel drive somewhere off a small road.  Though the surroundings weren’t what we had initially expected, the service we received was entirely professional and, within an hour, Clara had tested our EPIRB to check the circuitry and transmission capability, changed the battery and the case, pressure tested everything and then confirmed it to be waterproof.  It passed all OK and she printed the test sheets and certification to prove it. All good for another 6 years.

Aside: we eventually found out about the ‘incident’ at DiMillo’s Marina.  M5 had been berthed alongside the fuel dock when the wind had blown strongly from the north.  The stresses on the dock had been such that several of the pilings had broken and M5 had ended up with her bow pointing almost directly across the river rather than being nicely moored up parallel to the flow of the river.  Subsequently, at some stage, she had been moved to the berth on which we had seen her and the yachts moored on the inshore side of DiMillo’s fuel dock moved to onto other berths so that the fuel dock could be re-piled and rebuilt. Hence, after all that overnight drama, there was no space when we called up in the morning asking for a berth.

Portland, Maine, USA

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

Coleman Cove Great Chebeague Island ME USA

Passing Franklin Island at the outer end of St George River

We left the delightfully named Maple Juice Cove today, Saturday 22 September at 0935hrs.  The plan was to break the passage to Portland over 2 days, but we were making such good progress that we just kept on sailing.

That seemed to be a particularly good idea because the forecast for Sunday had little wind so it was a case of sail the route today or motor it tomorrow.

Coleman Cove

We didn’t want to go straight into the main harbour at Portland because it is supposed to be quite a rolly anchorage due to the amount of boat traffic, so instead we scouted around in the islands to the north and found a suitable spot to anchor in Coleman Cove beside Chebeague Island (great name!).

 Coleman Cove, Chebeague Island

We dropped anchor at 1730hrs for what is just an overnight stop. Tomorrow we will move into Portland Harbour run some errands whilst on Monday we have a hire car booked to take our EPIRB (emergency beacon) to a service centre for its 5-yearly routine test and to have a new battery fitted.

Coleman Cove, Great Chebeague Island, ME, USA