Maine

FOG!

As we approach the coast of Maine in thick fog, the vis is about 50 meters and that is not the only hazard - there are lobster pots EVERYWHERE, and dodging them is serious work.

Daryl said that if I ran over one, I would have to get in the water and free it. That certainly kept my attention on the job!

Camden.

Great to visit this busy town again. Met up with an old friend 'Michael',I used to crew with, 'back in the day'!

Had a wonderful lunch at the yacht club with him and his family and enjoyed talking about old times and watching the beautiful boats sail in and out of the harbour.

In Maine most of the yachts are wooden and in kept in perfect condition, we have just been to Southwest Harbour, where the famous 'Hinckleys' are built and it is just wonderful to see such beautifully maintained boats sailing around here.

There are buoys attached to lobster pots are absolutely everywhere.

Each fisherman's license allows him to lay as many as 800 pots, and they will pick up these pots every other day.

One of the locals at Bar Harbour said that they were harvesting between 1100lbs and 1400lbs of lobsters each day!

This is big money, and apparently there is quite a lot of antagonism between the different fisherman gangs, and they carry shotguns on the boats! Mental note: be nice to the lobstermen.

Maine is beautiful, when you can see the coastline! But so much of the time, it is really foggy and all you can see is the bow of the boat!

But so much of the time it is like this, and motoring along feels almost like floating on air.

We headed for Rockland for the Maine Lobster Festival! What a great event, loads of lobster and good seafood, originally started to get rid of all the excess lobster caught in these waters. Even got interviewed by the local TV station and appeared on the local news that night!!