Time to go home. We headed west and broke the trip into 3 days. Our strategy for cruising Maine is to get East as quickly as possible and then visit some of the places we by-passed on the way home. This gets us further west and gives us a better angle on the prevailing southwest winds for the long leg to Cape Ann.

We had a long first day, but interesting, taking several of the classic Maine channels. We left Camp Island and headed through Deer Island Thoroughfare, with nice views of Stonington. From there we headed across East Penobscot Bay to Vinalhaven and through Fox Islands Thoroughfare (this was our 6th passage through there on this trip, we seem to have been doing a lot of back-tracking!). After that we headed over to Muscle Ridge Channel, and finally past Port Clyde and up the St George River into Maple Juice Cove. Lots of navigation, and lots of pots to avoid! We had a pleasant evening in Maple Juice Cove where it was noticeably warmer than we found further east, and we were happy to see eagles around.

I am intrigued by the numerous gunk holes and harbors in the rivers of mid-coast, so next day we headed for Sheepscot River, and into Robinhood Cove, which is about 8 miles up the river and entered through a fairly narrow channel. This is part of a complicated estuary for some of Maine’s largest rivers, with back channels and weird currents everywhere, and power boats were buzzing around, scaring themselves in the rapids at Hells Gates! Provisions were running low, so we had dinner ashore at the Osprey Restaurant. I can report that you can indeed see Ospreys from the restaurant! In the morning we left via Little Sheepscot River, which has a very narrow entrance through which the tide was rushing.

From mid-coast we headed to Dolphin Marina in Potts Harbor, at the eastern end of Casco Bay. We often use this as a jumping off point for the trip back to Marblehead, as there’s a good fuel-dock and it’s an easy place to get out of first thing in the morning. Our final leg was uneventful, except that the roller furling line on our jib broke and we ended up motor-sailing half the way. Golden rule of sailing: if you ever think that you might need to replace something soon, it will inevitably break within the next week! We arrived home before 6pm and drew a line under this year’s Maine Cruise.