Distance Travelled: 34.5 nm | Destination: Northeast Harbor

We woke to a cool. . . ok, ok, COLD. . . morning. Despite that fact that it felt like it was only 45 degrees or so, the HIOBS students took a quick morning dip in the water off the dock. Hardy folk! We got things ready and prepared to head out, as we had a long way to go and expected to have to motor the whole way.

Just a little excitement

We dropped the mooring at 0720 under an almost solid overcast and motored out of Hurricane Island Sound into Isle Au Haut Bay between Vinalhaven and Isle Au Haut. We had an uneventful motor along the southeast side of Vinalhaven, but it was so cold that we broke out the wool sweaters and hot tea! This, coming from a guy who routinely drives with his windows down in February.

We continued on up Isle Au Haut Bay and slipped through the narrow pass between Pell and Burnt Islands into Jericho Bay. Faithful readers of these pages may recall that we had a bit of difficulty in Jericho Bay on our last cruise to Penobscot Bay. Click here to refresh your memory about August 6th, 2002. So as we entered Jericho Bay against a strong current Heather suggested that I add some fuel from the jerry can on deck to the tank. "I just don't want to run out in Jericho Bay," she said. I believe I said somthing like "mm-hmm" in reply.

About 40 minutes later the engine bogged and died. Idiot. Fortunately there was no one nearby and we were pointed dead into the current. Heather kept us nose up while I dumped 5 gallons into the tank, bled the engine, and got it running again. Once this was done I was amazed to see how far back down the bay we had been swept by the current. Kudos to Heather for keeping us from getting hung up on any pots.

We continued the long motor up the bay, and across Blue Hill Bay toward Mount Desert. There seemed to be a bit of air still in the lines, as the engine would continue to balk then rev back up for quite some time. Eventually it seemed to smooth out, however, and we made it across Bass Harbor Bar and up into Northeast Harbor without any majore difficulites.

Diddles!

We, of course, made Clifton Dock our first stop, where we filled up with diesel. Then we headed up to the head of the harbor to pick up a rental mooring. The prices are quite fair—amazingly still just $15. The mooring that we were directed to was all the way across the harbor from the town docks, near the Asticou Landing docks.

I put the dingy motor on the dink and tried to start it up so that we could go ashore for showers. Nothing. What the hell? After several minutes of yanking on the starter I still couldn't get it to fire, so I rowed us ashore. Heather went up to the Yachtsman's Building with Gavin while I tried for another ten minutes to get the engine to fire. Only succeeded in getting two huge blisters and ripping them open. Grumble.We had showers and as we were starting the row back to the boat, some cruisers felt sorry for us and gave us a tow back. Thanks!

Back at the boat I made dinner while Gavin marveled at the incredibly tame ducks in the harbor. Every time they came near the boat he would point and exclaim "Diddle!" Diddles they are, I guess! We had our usual evening routine by now, but as the evening progressed it became increasingly damp and eventually we were driven below where we spent the evening reading and listening to the Democratic National Convention on the radio.