8/29/22 -- Southwest Harbor to Rockland

                                            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't happy and came over to tell me so, and to say that he hoped I had learned a lesson about giving a guy room when he's laying traps (although I think we were 50-100 yards away). I replied that I was sorry and certainly had learned a lesson. He could see that I was a bit bewildered on what to do next, so he told me to cut the line that I was trailing from our prop and get going. Then he went back to work laying pots and I went to work cutting the line and we were underway again. 

            There was no apparent damage to the boat or the engine once we started again -- no rattling or vibration -- but the boat was going about 2 mph slower than usual at our regular 3200 rpm setting. I called the Ranger Tug dealer in Salem (where I had already scheduled some minor repair work after Labor Day weekend) and told their mechanic what had happened and asked for his advice. He said we should have a diver take a look, as the odds were good that we still had some line wrapped around the shaft and/or the prop and the diver could cut that off and we should be okay. I then called the Landings Marina where we had stayed before in Rockland, and they gave me the names of a couple divers, one of whom answered his phone right away and said he could be at our boat at 7am the next morning. Even though we were missing good weather by staying in Rockland rather than pushing on, we felt better knowing that we had a diver lined up at a good marina, and that it would only take another few hours to get to Rockland (not wanting to run the boat any longer than necessary with stuff tangled up below).      

            We do not have any pictures of all this fun with lobster lines, as we were too busy dealing with the mess we had made. But I did take a picture of the line that the diver cut out from the prop and shaft the next morning.   

    

             We did manage to take a few photos once we got underway again. We ran through the Fox Island Thoroughfare, which separates North Haven and Vinalhaven Islands at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. This photo shows little town of North Haven and its car ferry dock (which has a complicate mechanical structure -- painted green -- to manage placing the ramp over a ten-foot tidal range).

And this photo shows the rather remarkable granite monument built to warn boaters of Fiddlers Ledge at the western entrance to the Fox Island Thoroughfare. Mainers usually settle for a big metal rod driven into the rock -- with or without an attached beacon -- but for some reason decided that this ledge should get this lovely granite structure. I'd love to know the rationale behind this. And imagine how complicated it would be to build something like this.

And these photos show the breakwater and lighthouse at the entrance to Rockland Harbor. The breakwater is about 4,000 feet long.

             We tied up at the Landings Marina a bit after one, so we had time to do some chores and catch up on the blog. I walked up to the local marine supply store (one of the best I've seen) to buy a new ensign (ours was starting to fray after six months of continuous service) and a Maine state flag. I moved the ensign up to the mast on the upper deck and put the Maine flag where the ensign used to be. I like the new look, but Janet is afraid (and probably rightly so) that I'm going to start collecting state flags for the boat. 

            We walked up to the Landings Restaurant for dinner, where we ate the last time we stayed at this marina, and again had a delicious meal. Then early to bed with the alarm set for 6:45 so we'd be ready for the diver.