8/25/22 -- Bar Harbor and Somes Sound

                                         8/25/22 -- Bar Harbor and Somes Sound 

            We had agreed with Ted and Julie the night before that we'd take the 9:10 bus into Bar Harbor in the morning and see the town, then come back to the boat for a little afternoon cruise up Somes Sound. We set the alarm so we wouldn't be late and ended up being half an hour early to the bus stop in the little crossroads village half a mile from the marina. The half-hour bus ride featured some interesting stops (campgrounds and the Mount Desert High School) and lovely scenery. We walked around town and checked out many of the numerous tourist shops but didn't buy much. Ted and I walked down to the town dock to talk with the harbor master to learn how we might manage our planned drop-off the next day (i.e., our dropping Ted and Julie in town in the late morning so they could get a cab ride to the Bangor airport). Bar Harbor has lovely views but very little public dockage, so we would just have to take our chances. We had an early lunch in town as we decided to take the noon bus back to Southwest Harbor and give ourselves plenty of time for our Somes Sound cruise.

            Somes Sound is often described as the only fjord on the East Coast. It is about six miles long, half a mile to a mile wide, and roughly 75 to 150 feet deep, with big hills on either side. This photo shows the entrance to the sound (at the narrows between Fernald and Manchester Points):

and this one shows Mount Acadia (about 650') on the western shore:

and this one shows some of the nicer "cottages" along the sound. Notice how much work it is to build a dock that can cope with ten-foot tide. Hence the popularity of moorings.

            We took our tour of Somes Sound slowly to enjoy the views (just 10 mph) so it was 4:30 by the time we got back to the marina. We all hung out in the cockpit and had cocktails until it was the right time to tell John John to cook our lobster dinner. John John was one of the dockhands -- a very sharp and personable young man from Romania working at the marina for his second year (and last as he will soon finish his law degree) -- and had offered to cook lobsters for to us that he pulled fresh out of a storage box at the dock. We paid $5 per lobster, plus gave him a hefty tip. Ted and Julie had bought corn and potatoes at the crossroads village store in anticipation of this feast, and I had purchased a six-pack of 16 ounce Rolling Rock beer the day before, so we were all set for the perfect Maine dinner. We ate at a beat-up old picnic table next to the marina office and it was heaven.

             After dinner we went back to the boat for some digestifs and got to admire the night lighting of the mega-yacht Carson over at the next pier.