A Hike in the Park, Acadia National Park that is!

After another beautiful and enormous breakfast and despite the occasional sprinkle, we decided to take a hike. Alan recommended the walk from Thuya Gardens to Jordan Pond, about 3.5 miles, and could join us. Knowing my love of flowers, we could not only see Thuya but the Asticou Azalea Gardens afterwards. Jeanette declined as she had lots of work at the Inn getting ready for the paying guests the next day, but would meet us at Jordan Pond House for lunch and drive us back to our car.










Both gardens are along the edge of Northeast Harbor. Scott and I have had wonderful times there sailing with our friends Bob and Lesa from North Conway. They kept their boat on a mooring there for many years. The walk starts down by the road and zig zags up the slope on beautiful granite steps and paths. You can view the harbor through the trees from various angles. This was the home of Joseph Henry Curtis who gave it to the town in 1928 at his death. Thuya is named after the northern white cedar, thuya occidentalis in Latin.
Both gardens were designed and built by Charles K. Savage with financial help from John D. Rockefeller. He was able to save the plant collection of Beatrix Farrand when her Reef Pt. Estate was sold. Now they are owned and maintained by the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve (http://www.gardenpreserve.org).










The Thuya garden was formerly an orchard and is behind Thuya Lodge. Both are open every day during the summer season. Formal flower beds alternate with the walls of rhododendrums and azalea. We were really lucky to be here in June when they are in full flower. There was also a huge selection of dahlias and peonies. From there we exited through a gate to several trails leading to the Jordan Pond Trail. Excellent signs at every cross path make getting lost pretty impossible. There are a huge number of trails throughout Acadia National Park of many difficulty levels. This was easy; just gradual ups and downs. The forest itself was very green and cool with carpets of ferns.














Our destination was Jordan Pond, a pristine clear body of water in the middle of the island. We had lunch at the Jordan Pond House , built in the 1870's as a tea house serving a specialty of popovers. It was donated to the park by John D. again and when the building burnt down in 1979 it was rebuilt with private donations. It's a big restaurant high on a sloping green lawn with an interior of light pine, big stone fireplaces and floor to ceiling windows over looking the pond. Generally it is possible to eat outside but it still threatened rain so we ate sitting near one of the windows inside. Jeanette joined us not long after we arrived.
Our food was very good but not cheap. We had bowls of lobster stew with 2 hot popovers for $20. Both were excellent. There was quite a bit of lobster in my stew and the popovers, hot and served with butter and jam were marvelous. I'm resolved to try to make them at home - never tried it before although I did make Yorkshire pudding a few times and that is very similar.





Jeanette and I stopped at Asticou Gardens afterwards. This is modeled after a Japanese Stroll garden and since I've never been to Japan, this was my first example. I loved it. The paths lead you to different views of the pond and flowers. It's like walking through an art museum and seeing the pictures, except here the pictures are live! Sometimes you feel you're entering rooms with walls of flowers, mainly rhododendrums and azaleas. A small stream artfully flows in and out of these rooms before entering the lake.

We had such a wonderful time visiting Maine it was hard to pack up the next morning and leave. The only bad part about coming here, is coming here. "You can't get there from here" is true in this case. Roads in northern New England go north/south, not east/west. Rt. 2 is an exception but it is a 2 lane road going through every hamlet and town between Bangor, ME and Burlington, VT. We came that way and it took 7.5 hours. We went home via the highways 95 to 89, driving all the way down past Portsmouth, N.H. and it took 7.5 hours. Ah well, like childbirth, the memory of the pain goes away and we remember only the beauty and hospitality of this lovely place.

A weekend in the country...Ann's Point Inn, Bass Harbor, ME

Alan, Heather, Jeanette and Scott

Those of you following my blog may remember our friends Alan and Jeanette's visit on Scott Free in February. They joined us in Jacksonville Beach and motored down the ICW to Daytona with us.
They own an inn in Bass Harbor, ME and invited us and a few other friends to open up their season with them. What a great idea!
This is an amazingly beautiful place at the end of a peninsula surrounded by this pretty harbor. We were only a few minites from Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. Bar Harbor was 11 miles away.

Ann's Point Inn, Bass Harbor, ME

They are all on Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park takes up a good deal of it. This is the smallest of national parks but it packs a lot of beauty and activities in this little area.  I spent a lot of time here in my youth on my Uncle and Aunt's boat on these waters. We've taken Scott Free up close to here twice years ago (see our old blog entries on Maine).
As you can see from the pictures, this is a special place (four star AAA). They even have an indoor pool and sauna. There are only four rooms, really suites, so it feels like you are visiting a home - well, actually we were! We stayed in the Blue Heron Room with a living area, gas fireplace, king sized sleigh bed and a private terrace (and a double shower, a real treat for us cruisers).
Jeanette makes incredible breakfasts and Alan

The view is beautiful at high tide (over their meadow)

serves wine and cheese every day at 5PM. We tried a wonderful dry blueberry wine from a local vineyard.
(http://www.bartlettwinery.com/ ) 
We brought a group of cheeses from Vermont with us and the combination was terrific.
Scott and I haven't been cosseted like this - well, maybe never. We tend to stay in hostels! So this was a big luxurious occasion for sure. 

Wine and cheese is served at 5 PM. Is this heaven?

Breakfast inside

or breakfast outside: That is the question.

They have a table for any weather at breakfast. Our favorites were outside on the deck or inside the sun room, although the kitchen is lovely too - oh these difficult decisions. Did I mention that Alan makes cappuccinos on the espresso machine in the mornings?
If you want to experience this yourself, just check out their website at http://www.annspoint.com/

Bahamas to Florida

Our little hitchhiker on Anything Goes
and below on Scott Free

The cruise ship that asked us to please get out of their way.

Anything Goes tied up behind us in the Port
Canaveral lock

Petty, Mitch and Diane on their new Freedom

On the ground sitting, Peter, Scott, Heather, Graham, Julie and Diane

And it's a perfect lift off!

Anytime we are facing a longer passage, weather is a major factor. This time we were looking to cross the Gulf Steam from the Bahamas to Florida. Scott and Peter checked a number of weather web sites like passageweather.com and NOAA. I really like to talk to Chris Parker at the Caribbean Weather Service. We have subscribed to his services for almost seven years now and rely on his personalized forecasts. We get an email from him every day with general weather in our area, right now the Bahamas/Southern East Coast. In the morning we can hear this forecast and talk to him on the SSB at various times and frequencies. Recently he has added a webcast and that is great while at marinas or when we have access to wifi (we have a WIRIE system bought in St. Martin which has been terrific).
You can take a look at his website at caribwx.com. We highly recommend him!
So Chris warned us that some possibly severe squalls would be coming in late that day and overnight, possibly from the west. The next day there would be large swells from the north but good wind for the passage to Great Sale and then overnight to Port Canavarel.
We decided to get around Whale Cay and over to Green Turtle Cay before the swells became a problem but then we had to face possible severe squalls. Anything Goes was able to leave early and go into White Sound's secure anchorage for the night but we couldn't leave Hope Town until 1:30PM.
It was an easy trip until out to sea around Whale Cay when the skies turned dark and ominous. Anything Goes called on the VHF to tell us that they had just tied up to the Bluff House Marina two seconds before the skies opened and the wind howled.
Too late for us. The wind hit 33 knots and the rain made for hard visability but our strong motor and boat plowed through everything and came through the cut successfully. Still it was a miserable looking anchorage we picked out near the ferry landing near Treasure Key (protected from the west). Scott dove on the anchor to make sure it was set and later the wind died down and we had a pleasant evening.
In the morning I talked to Chris again and all looked pretty good for the next few days. There were possible squalls on the morning we approached Florida though. Anything Goes pulled out of White Sound and we sailed down to the harbor at Great Sale for the night. They had a really nice time a the Bluff House Marina. The cost was $1 a foot but they subtracted that from the restaurant or bar bill - nice!
Great Sale is the departure point for many making the trip to Florida or further north. It's a large well protected harbor where it's possible to wait for weather, but there is nothing else there. The next morning we heard from Chris again and this time he used the word "benign" - nice word for weather crossing the Gulf Stream. We were off at 7:30AM motor sailing at first but later sailing alone. A tiny bird joined us and stayed with us for hours, moving from one boat to the other. Once off the banks the waves increased and were a bit choppy. We saw only a couple of boats on the crossing. With our AIS (automatic identification system) we have info on all boats anywhere in our area along with our closest point of approach, and they have that info on us. When there is a chance of a close call, we radio them on the VHF and make adjustments. Two freighters made adjustments to pass further from us out on the Gulf Stream and a cruise ship near the entrance to Port Canavarel asked us politely to get out of his way. "Yes sir!"

Peter, Julie, Diane, Heather, Scott and Graham our last night
together on Anything Goes

Outside the channel to Cape Canaveral we made some calls to marinas looking for a place to tie up. Unfortunately we didn't make advance reservations and had to go further up the canal, through the opening bridge and locks to get spots for both of us. Harbortown Marina was a comfortable place with a restaurant, pool, laundry and nice personnel. We stayed three nights until the next weather opportunity to move further north. At this point we were to part. Peter and Julie (along with Diane and Graham who had bravely agreed to make the crossing) were going to St. Augustine Marina via the inter coastal. We were headed off shore to make a two day, one night passage up to the St. John's River, past Jacksonville, to Green Cove Springs.

Sunset over the old docks at Reynold's Marine Center

But meanwhile we had the great fortune of a scheduled shuttle launch on that Monday morning. It was a postponement of a previous attempt two weeks before. And this time it went off perfectly, at least for the shuttle. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud cover, so a few seconds after the liftoff it disappeared in the clouds. Still it was a great thrill.
We rented a car on the previous day and drove down to Ft. Pierce to see our good friends Mitch and Diane. They have bought a new Freedom 38 so we were able to have drinks on board before going out to dinner. Diane and Mitch were role models for Scott and I. They sailed around the whole Caribbean basin for ten years, returning and selling their Freedom 44 "Segue" before we left for our trip.
It was heart wrenching to say good-bye to our good friends and buddy boat the next morning. We had been together almost 2 months. We so enjoyed getting to know them and sharing so many adventures! They put their boat up on the hard and returned to Australia a few days later.
Our passage went well at first with the expected WNW wind but in the evening the wind shifted more ahead of us and picked up. We were bashing into the waves and could only keep our main up sheeted tightly. The motion must have stirred up the diesel because suddenly the engine shut off. We set the sails as close as possible and sailed while Scott changed both sets of fuel filters, the inner one being very hard to access normally, let alone in a jolting boat. It took awhile but finally he got it going again and we turned on a more direct heading. What a relief!
We were both exhausted and glad to see the sun come up and the St. John's channel appear.
The trip up the river was a pleasure; sunshine, calm waters, well defined channel and lots of interesting scenery. We hope to spend more time exploring Jacksonville when we come down next January but now we needed to get to the Fletcher Marina Center. We had only three days to get the boat ready for hauling and wanted to get started.

Scott Free in the sling at Green Cove Springs with Heather
at the wheel. Notice the new solar panel at the stern

Our boat was being hauled at the Green Cove Springs Marina and stored there on the hard until January, but they didn't have a spot at the dock with enough water for our boat for the preparation time. Only a short distance away the Fletcher Marina had deeper water and adequate facilities. Getting in and out from the river channel to the dock was a bit scary. We basically gunned the boat and plowed through the mud! But it worked!
Preparing the boat means taking down the sails and folding them, washing the boat inside and out, emptying and cleaning the refrigerator, laundering everything, changing the oil, winterizing the outboard, etc. It's hard physical work and unfortunately it was hot! The crew running the travel lift was very professional and solved several problems particular to our boat. Scott had to take down the wind generator and the split backstay.
We rented a car from Avis one way, returning it to the Jacksonville Airport. Our last night we had a very pleasant tasty meal at Latinos Store La Casita. We saw several people from the marina there and the staff seemed to know everyone. The food was good and a great value. The next day we flew to Washington DC to spend time with our two sons there and then on to Boston to see our oldest son and family. A few more day later and we were home in Vermont.
We'll be back on the boat at the beginning of January and plan to head down to the Keys, the Dry Tortugas, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. If all goes well, we'll leave Scott Free in the Rio Dulce next summer.

Hope Town - in our top five harbors

We are often asked what are our favorite places so far on the trip. One of them is Hope Town Harbor, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas.

It has all the elements; safe enclosed harbor from all but hurricanes, beautiful views from your boat (the candy striped lighthouse is amazing), fantastic beaches, quintessential cottage village, good restaurants and bars. It's in a word - charming!
It is possible to anchor, although there's not much room, but the moorings are only $20 a night so we hook on with pleasure. There are marinas too but our boat draft (6.5 ft) makes that impossible at present (the new marina being built, visible from the pictures below, may solve that problem).

There are so many little details to love about
this place.

Scott, Diane, Peter, Julie and Graham at Cap'n Jack's

Blooming onion, perfectly cooked for an appetizer

Looking out the window on the way up

The entrance to Hope Town harbor from the lighthouse

Panning right from the above shot

Looking over the Harbor from the lighthouse, continued (panning right)

The Fresnel lense

and gears!

One night we decided to dress up and go out for a special dinner. The Abaco Inn on White Sound, a few miles south of Hope Town, was the perfect destination. We made a reservation in advance as they come in a van to pick you up. The small resort is perched on a narrow bluff between the ocean beach and White Sound, the other shallower bay mid way down Elbow Cay. From the welcoming bar you can see the ocean and the Sea of Abaco. We had drinks on the terrace and watched the sun go down. Then followed with a very nice meal in the restaurant. The food was good and the service attentive - the view amazing.

We also enjoyed Cap'n Jack's right on Hope Town Harbor. One night we stopped for a beer and ended up staying for appetizers and Bingo! Haven't done that for awhile. It was $1 per board and we all tried it for awhile - no winners in our group however.
The village is so attractive with narrow lanes that wander all over. One day we started out from the north end of town and many miles later circled back, having made it to the end of the island past lots of lovely homes.
Of course we explored the famous candy striped lighthouse on the far side of the harbor. It's a long climb up the narrow staircase to the top. A narrow balcony circles the tower below the light. This is one of only 3 manual lighthouse left in the world. It has a spring mechanism that must be hand cranked every few hours. The lens is a first order Fresnel, built in separate sections mounted in a frame to make it lighter and thinner than a regular lens. It's beautiful!
We stayed here for three nights until a weather window opened up and we left for our trip back to Florida.
By the way, entering and leaving the harbor is harder for us due to our 6.5 ft. draft. We had to wait until two hours before high tide and that was just barely enough water for us.

Scott, Peter and Graham dressed up for our big dinner out -
and don't they look fine!

Julie, Heather and Diane in their Sunday best

The Abaco Inn pool hanging over the ocean beach

Sunset over White Sound, Elbow Cay