Hiking up South Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park, 8/14/19

At the highest point of South Bubble Rock

The view of Bubble Rocks from across Jordan Pond - South Bubble Rock is on the right.

Our friends from Sandusky Sailing Club, Burt and Prue on Exuberant, showed us the ropes at Northeast Harbor.  They have been living on their boat and spending summers in Maine the last 8 years.  We took the free (thanks to LLBean) Island Explorer bus into Acadia for the hike and then stopped at Asticou Inn for happy hour on the way back.  This is the view of Northeast Harbor from the patio at the Asticou Inn.

Beautiful moonrise - our view from our mooring ball in Northeast Harbor

Bryan, Burt & Prue (Exuberant) and Mark & Beth (My Way Too)
We appreciated all the helpful advice from Burt & Prue.   Burt & Prue introduced us to Mark & Beth, who were from Mansfield, OH.  They recently sold their house and are living on their trawler.  We had a great time with the gang and enjoyed the day at Bubble Rock and Asticou Inn so much that we repeated it a few days later.

Shelburne to Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, 8/12/19 - 8/13/19

8/12/19, 1030 mbar rising, partly cloudy, 57 degree water temp, 65 air, 11 knots of breeze out of the SW
The anchor was up and we were headed out by 8:00 am. By the time we got out onto the ocean, the water and air temperature had both dropped, the wind had built and it was foggy. The Labrador Current moves cold water southwest along the coast of Nova Scotia and the water is typically colder as you near the southern tip.  When we turned northwest toward Mount Desert Island, we used the main with two reefs and the jib for a very comfortable close reach. We were both bundled up as the fog and water temperature (we saw a water temperature as low as 47 degrees) made it very cold.  We had sausage and rice & beans for dinner and Bryan went below for a nap before his 9:00 pm to midnight watch. The fog cleared in time for sunset and I enjoyed a beautiful moon rise off the transom and sunset off my bow. The ocean was much more kind to us than it was on the sail from Halifax to Shelburne!  Bryan woke me up early during his 3 am to 6 am watch as he encountered lobster pots when we were still several miles out from Mount Desert Island.  He also noted that before dawn, he started to see all kinds of white lights, that looked like head lights coming at him.  It turns out that the lobster boats have a spot light that they shine in front of them.  We weaved our way through the lobster pots and picked up a mooring ball by 7:30 am.  We had been in Canada since July 4 and it felt good to be back in the US!  Our friends recommended we use the "ROAM" app to check in to Customs and it was quite easy.  Northeast Harbor was beautiful and the municipal Yachtsman Center was everything we needed - internet, showers and laundry.  We enjoyed the next 2 weeks in the same spot, out on Mooring "601 Dickson", doing some boat work, hiking in Acadia and hanging out with some Ohio friends.  I bet it was unusual to have 3 boats with an Ohio hailing port and 2 of them being Sandusky, Ohio, in the harbor at the same time!

Home near the entrance to Shelbourne Harbor

There were several "aquatic farms" in Shelbourne Harbor.  As we approached the anchorage at night, they looked very strange and it was very confusing.  We found out later they raise trout and salmon in the pens.  Here's what it looked like in daylight as we left. 

A Rough Sail from Halifax to Shelburne, Nova Scotia

8/8/19
While enjoying Halifax, we continued to watch for a weather window to make the passage to Mount Desert Island, Maine. The prevailing winds along the east coast of Nova Scotia are out of the southwest. All of our jumps along the coast so far have been on the nose since we are sailing SW down the coast. From Halifax, it is about 130 NM southwest to the southern tip of Nova Scotia and then 125 NM northwest across the Gulf of Maine to Mount Desert Island. A low-pressure system was predicted to provide some westerly direction to the wind, so we decided the best time to leave was early Thursday morning, 8/8/19. Bryan was up at 5:15 for his shower and we were off our dock at Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron at 5:50 am.  It was cool, cloudy/foggy with a light breeze.  As we motored out the channel towards the ocean, the waves were stacking up and by the time we reached the ocean, they were 10 feet and very close together. Yikes!!  It helped stabilize our motion a little when we turned along the shore and unrolled our jib but the waves were averaging 10 -12 feet with a 15-footer thrown in every once in a while. It was also cold and gray - NOT a pleasant day on the water. After several hours, Bryan looked for a spot towards the southern tip of Nova Scotia that we could pull in to rather than going the whole way to Maine. We decided to go to Shelburne, which looked like a great harbor and a good spot to make the jump into Maine. By afternoon, the wind had built to 20 knots and we we going steady 10 knots so we switched to the “Cute Little Jib” (CLJ) on the inner forestay. We made it up into Shelburne Harbor by evening and anchored in the dark at 9:15.

We spent the next three days in Shelburne and really enjoyed it.  The people at the Shelburne Yacht Club were friendly and welcoming.  We were anchored off the yacht club marina and for a small fee we could use the yacht club facilities.  Unfortunately, they had a fire in their main building several months ago, but there were showers in the "learn to sail" building and they had a trailer set up for their bar.  We joined several members two times for happy hour and it was fun hearing about fishing and other local activities from them.

We watched the junior race team, or maybe "learn to sail" kids have a fun race on Friday afternoon.  We had a traditional Salt Cod Dinner (Salt Cod, mashed potatoes and turnips with bacon & onions over all) at the Sea Dog Tavern and celebrated our anniversary on Saturday night with a very delicious dinner at Charlotte Lane Cafe.  We also took a hike to the Boxing Rock Brewery and walked back to the marina with 2 12-packs of beer.  We had met the owner of the brewery at the yacht club, where they served Boxing Rock Red Beer which was quite tasty.

Fun race for the juniors on Friday

Joli looking tres joli in Shelburne Harbor 

Surf & Turf for Bryan and Lobster & Scallops for me at Charlotte Lane Cafe

Liquid desert (scotch sampler) and chocolate/carmel cake

The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore was filmed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia in the 1990's.  A steeple was added to this building to make it the church in the movie.

Sign from Boxing Rock Brewery