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9/2/22 -- Portsmouth NH to Beverly MA

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                                                         9/2/22 -- Portsmouth NH to Beverly MA               We got up before our 6-a.m. alarm went off due to bridge and harbor noise and perhaps nervousness about our undocking. The marina manager was ready at 6:30 as promised and we got off the dock easily by following his instructions. We then headed across the river to get diesel at the self-serve fuel station on the New Hampshire side. The marina manager recommended it, saying it is a state-run facility where we could get fuel 24/7 (with no one else in the area offering fuel for sale at this hour). This was the first time we had ever experienced a self-serve station for boats, but it worked just fine, and is something that other states should consider (like in Eastport, Maine, for instance!).                We left the fuel dock a few minutes before seven and had a 28-mile run across open water to the tip of Cape Ann. We had swells out of the east, but they weren't too bad, and
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9/1/22 -- Sebasco Harbor to Portsmouth NH

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                                               9/1/22 -- Sebasco Harbor to Portsmouth NH               We got up early after a very restless night because of the surge coming out of the SW into Sebasco Harbor. We were told by the dock master that we'd be fine, but I should have known better having been there before -- even if only on day trips -- because the harbor opens to the SW. Everything was nice and calm when we went to bed, but the wind must have kicked up overnight because we were rocking pretty good when we woke up.                We got underway at eight and headed into a pretty good chop coming out of the SW, but we soon escaped it by heading west to seek the cover of a series of small islands and ledges heading towards and then after rounding the southern tip of Baileys Island. We worked our way west to the east side of Chebeague Island, then ran down towards Cape Elizabeth. It got choppy again as we headed into open water but moderated a bit as we rounded Cape Elizabet
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8/31/22 -- Tenants Harbor to Sebasco Harbor

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                                                    8/31/22 -- Tenants Harbor to Sebasco Harbor               We got up late this morning, to a bit of fog and noticeably lighter wind. The NOAA forecast was still calling for 3 to 4-foot waves, but it just didn't seem that bad where we were, so we decided to head out and see what we'd find. I took the dinghy over to the boatyard office to tell them we would be leaving and get a refund on our second night mooring fee ($35), and we were underway at 11:30. The seas were a bit bouncy, but not that bad, and we kept pressing south and west down the coast while we figured out where we wanted to end up for the night. We decided on Sebasco Harbor, which we have visited many times while staying at MacMahan Island by riding over in a day boat. It is a well-protected harbor with moorings and a launch service and a nice restaurant. We pulled up to our mooring a bit after two. We showered on board, took the dinghy into dinner just after five,
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8/30/22 -- Rockland to Tenants Harbor

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                                                       8/30/22 -- Rockland to Tenants Harbor               This was another shortened boating day, this time because of weather. The forecast called for a strong wind out of the SW, and it was blowing that way all night, but the wind wasn't that bad early in the morning, so we weren't sure what sort of seas we'd encounter. I asked the diver and he said we'd be fine as far as Whitehead Light, at which point we'd face open ocean and would then find out what we'd be facing for the rest of the day, given that we'd be working our way west and south along the coast. He also said that if we didn't like the seas, we could duck into Tenants Harbor, which was only a few miles past Whitehead Light and is very well-protected. We got underway at 7:40 and when we rounded Whitehead Light about 45 minutes later, we quickly decided that we didn't like the seas and so we ducked into Tenants Harbor and picked up a mooring
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8/29/22 -- Southwest Harbor to Rockland

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                                                       8/29/22 -- Southwest Harbor to Rockland               This was not our proudest boating day. After all this time boating in Maine waters -- where boaters are constantly dodging lobster trap buoys -- one finally caught up with us. We were about an hour out of Southwest Harbor, headed for as far west as we could manage while the weather was good because the forecast was turning bad, and of course that turned out to be the day that we got tangled up with a lobster buoy line. A lobster boat was laying traps in an area that was already rife with buoys, and we saw him but obviously didn't give him enough room, because all of a sudden, I saw a 20+ foot plus length of line laying on the surface right in front of the boat and ran right over it. By the time I slowed down the line that I'd caught on the boat caught two other lines (this area was just full of pots), and we were dragging three traps and their rigs. The lobsterman wasn&#
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8/28/22 -- Eastport back to Southwest Harbor

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                                          8/28/22 -- Eastport back to Southwest Harbor               As described in yesterday's blog, we delayed our departure till almost noon so that we would have a favorable tide. That gave us time to go to the little Episcopal Church for morning prayer (they share a priest, and she was at the church in Machias, so a lay person led the service, and we didn't have communion). A couple dozen people attended -- with a few others besides us being "from away" -- and the service was nice. Afterwards we walked to the IGA to get some groceries and by the time we got back to the dock it was time to get going.                 We had a beautiful sunny day on the water with a light wind out of the SW. We had a 4-mph current pushing us under the Quoddy Narrows bridge, and 1-2 mph running our direction almost all the way back to Mount Desert Island. We pulled into the fuel dock at Dysart's Marina (our new favorite) just before five. As we ap
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8/27/22 -- Southwest Harbor to Eastport, Maine (the end of the line!)(revised)

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                          8/27/22 -- Southwest Harbor to Eastport, Maine (the end of the line!)             Today was a big day, as we reached our final destination, Eastport, Maine, the farthest you can go up the East Coast without entering Canada. We'll start with a couple pictures of the West Quoddy Head Light, which not only marks the entrance into Quoddy Narrows from the Bay of Fundy, but also is the easternmost point of land in the United States. The first photo shows West Quoddy Head in the left foreground, Campobello Island in the distance, separated by Quoddy Narrows. Campobello Island is in Canada (and  history buffs will recall that  Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had a summer home here) and we actually circumnavigated Campobello Island to get to Eastport because I was concerned that the currents coming out of Quoddy Narrows would be too ferocious.               And that was one of the main themes today -- tidal currents. This last stretch of the Maine coast is at the m
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