SVJoli: Portland to Boston with a stop in Isles of Shoals

DiMillo's Marina in Portland has a large ferry boat used as a restaurant and very nice shower and laundry facilities. It is located right in the middle of the old Portland waterfront. We arrived on Friday, 8/30/19, Labor Day Weekend. The plan was to stay a couple days and then continue on towards Boston. We liked Portland and DiMillo's so much that we stayed until Tuesday.

After rinsing off the saltwater and scrubbing the deck and hull (Bryan) and polishing the Strataglass windshields (Polly) on Saturday morning, we walked to Trader Joes, CVS pharmacy and West Marine. On the way there, we passed Portland City Hall where a wedding ceremony was in progress. We had a very delicious dinner at DiMillo's restaurant that night.

On Sunday, we heard a voice call out, "Sandusky Yacht Club!!!" A friend who used to dock near us at SYC was entering the marina and docked a couple slips down from us. He had sold his Catalina 47 Drop of the Dew and bought an Oyster 53 in Fort Lauderdale and was sailing through Maine. It was such a surprise to see him and we enjoyed catching up.

Monday morning, we walked to Becky's Diner for breakfast. Some friends had recommended it and there was a bit of a wait but my bacon & asparagus omelet was delicious and Bryan said his steak omelet was good, too. We definitely did not need lunch!

Tuesday, we headed out to Isles of Shoals, a group of nine small islands about 6 miles offshore from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Five of the islands are in NH and four are in Maine. The islands are very rugged and beautiful and apparently a popular spot in the summer time. Portsmouth Yacht Club maintains 6 mooring balls that are first-come, first-served and free but there are no facilities ashore. It was not so busy being Tuesday after Labor Day and most of the mooring balls were open. I fixed Curried Carrot & Bean soup for dinner and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Weds. we left Isles of Shoals by 8:00 and headed for Boston. It was rough and windy and "on the nose" once again. We motor sailed with the main up along the NH/MA coast in mostly cloudy weather. As we rounded Cape Ann Peninsula, the fog rolled in as the wind picked up. We were happy the fog only lasted about an hour. The sun came out and we had a nice fetch for about an hour as we headed more westerly towards Boston. We were tied up at Boston Waterboat Marina at about 6 pm, just in time for a short, but windy & rainy thunderstorm.

Isles of Shoals

Sunset at Isles of Shoals

Isles of Shoals

Moon over Star Island Resort, Isles of Shoals

High Tide at DiMillo's

DiMillo's Marina

This Coast Guard Buoy Tender was leaving Portland at the same time we were. We saw them a day later doing maintenance on a buoy as we rounded the Cape Ann Peninsula on our way to Boston.