New England – Week: 13 (Heading Back South)

August 24th to 30th, 2026

Day 83 – Monday, August 24th, 2026 – To: Southwest Harbor, ME
Dysart’s Marina

Monday, we were scheduled to go to Southwest Harbor, just on the other side of Mount Desert Island, where Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are located. When we woke up, the fog was so thick we couldn’t see the islands at the end of the harbor. We checked with the Harbormaster, and he said we could stay another night if needed, so we waited for the fog to clear.

We have radar and electronic charts, which would let us safely navigate even in the fog, but radar, AIS, and charts only show rocks and boats. They don’t show lobster buoys, which are the biggest hazard! We just hung out on the boat, and at noon I walked up to the post office to mail some postcards and get some stamps. When I got back to the harbor, it had cleared quite a bit, and I could see the surrounding islands. I checked with the Harbormaster, and he recommended waiting another 30 minutes as the lobstermen were reporting heavier fog around the point toward Southwest Harbor. We’ve learned to take the locals’ advice!

At 1:30, we could see all of the Porcupine Islands and the point at the end of Bar Harbor, so we dropped lines and headed out. The first little bit of the trip was great until we cleared the breakwater. Then we started getting the sea swells. What cleared the fog was the wind! The islands around Bar Harbor had protected us, but once we cleared the breakwater, we had 17-20 mph winds. This built the swells to 4-5 feet every 5-6 seconds. At first, we were heading directly into them, and the boat handles head seas quite well. I was worried that once we turned the corner, we would have them on the side of the boat. I had plotted a course, figuring that with calm seas and no fog, we could take us around some rocks and close to shore so that we could see the sights. I altered the course to follow our inbound route, which was more offshore. The coast here is just rocks and cliffs. If anything happened and you were close to shore, there would be no time to react, and we would be up on the rocks in no time! I took the safer route a bit farther offshore. When we rounded Otter Point, we found that the waves were still pretty much on the nose. We were close enough that the waves hitting and bouncing off the shore were keeping the wave direction pretty much on our nose or at a 45° angle. While not totally comfortable, it was not our worst ride ever.

The good news was that the portion of our route that was exposed to the open ocean was only about 5 miles. We were soon back behind islands that blocked the majority of the waves, and the ride smoothed out quickly.

We got to Southwest Harbor just after 1:00, and aside from waiting for a superyacht to dock ahead of us, we were in our slip and tied up with no drama. Once we were in, we had to rinse down the boat. With the wind and large swells, several waves broke over the bow and washed up against the windshield. Even with a short cruise, the boat was caked with salt.

As I was washing down the boat, a man walked up and asked, “Number 6?” “Yes, I said!” surprised that someone would know enough about Outbacks to know that we were the 6th boat built. “I’m Dennis, the captain of #5!”
He was the captain of the superyacht that the boat before us is the tender of! The 40-meter (132-foot) Westport Yacht was docked at the end of the pier. What a small world! We had a nice chat about the boats, and he gave us some pointers on modifications that they had made to their Outback. I thanked him for the advice and for having had a bimini made in Palm Beach that saves us a month of engineering.

Once we had the boat cleaned, we checked in at the marina office, then walked up the hill to “The Upper Deck,” which overlooks the marina and harbor, for our docking beer and a snack. The view was excellent, and you could see all the way out to the Otter Cliffs 10 miles away.

After our snack, we walked the 1/2 mile into town and browsed through some of the shops. Our boat was designed by Michael Peters, a renowned yacht designer. Michael is an “ideas” guy, and he has marine engineers who do the grunt work of implementing the ideas into manufacturing plans for boats to be built. When we were at the Palm Beach Boat Show, we met Chris, who did the actual design work for our boat. Chris summers in Southwest Harbor, and we have been chatting with him so that we can get together while we are here. He and his wife run a boutique in town called Tom Cat Tide. We stopped in, but he had taken the opportunity to go out on his boat while the fog had lifted.

After our exploration of town, we walked back toward the marina, arriving just after 5:00. We decided to stop back at The Upper Deck for dinner before walking back down the hill to the boat. We sat back at the bar with a great view overlooking the harbor. We noticed that the fog was rolling down off Cadillac Mountain and through Northeast Harbor into the bay. As we ate our dinner, we watched the fog creep toward us, first across the bay, then toward the marina. Everyone at the restaurant, including the locals and staff, was amazed at how quickly it rolled in. I went out on the deck every few minutes to take photos of the progress, from a clear view with just some fog spilling from Northeast Harbor 5 miles away, to the marina almost obscured by fog. Very eerie! We are glad that we didn’t wait any longer to leave Bar Harbor!

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Day 84 – Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 – In: Southwest Harbor, ME

Tuesday morning, we woke to thick fog. We could barely see the marina office at the end of the dock. Brenda spent the morning doing a couple of loads of laundry, while I worked on my Lakeland article. By 2:00 the fog had burned off. We watched as a couple of large yachts came in. Around 4:00, we walked into town, did a bit of browsing in a few shops, then went to Cafe Drydock & Inn for dinner.

After dinner, we walked the 1/2 mile back to the marina, down the hill, and sat on the back of the boat until it got cool.

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Day 85 – Wednesday, August 26th, 2026 – In: Southwest Harbor, ME

Wednesday morning, there was no fog. It dawned bright and early. We went to the coffee shop at the marina for breakfast, then borrowed the loaner car and went to the local IGA to pick up a few supplies. Aside from breakfast and the occasional lunch or snack, we’ve pretty much been eating out most nights, so we didn’t need much. Just eggs, some breakfast sausage, and bread. The IGA is one of only five grocery stores on Mount Desert Island. And the Hannaford in Bar Harbor (on the other side of the island) is the only large market. Many of the residents travel up to 30 miles to Ellsworth or 50 miles to Bangor for their big shopping.

When we got back from shopping, Brenda put away the groceries, and I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon completing my Lakeland Boating article. The articles are 1500 words and take me 3-4 hours to write. Then I have to collect pictures from our travels to illustrate them. This takes another 3-4 hours.

By 3:00, I had finished the article and sent it off. Then I did a bit of research on stabilizers for the boat and did my engine checks for our travel to Rockland in the morning. At 4:00, we walked back into town. Monday, we picked up some Cotswold Cheese at the wine and cheese shop in town. It is a sharp cheddar with onion and chives. Yesterday, we decided to try it as our afternoon snack, and today we pretty much finished it. So, we stopped there first and picked up another piece. Then we went to Eat-A-Pita & Cafe, by the name, we thought it was a sandwich shop, but it’s an Italian restaurant run by an Italian family. The food was excellent, and with the nice weather, we sat out on the patio for dinner.

After dinner, we walked down the street to the ice cream store for dessert, and the local bakery for some pastry for tomorrow’s breakfast, and then back to the marina. As we were walking down the hill from the main road, a movement caught the corner of my eye. A deer strolled across the road in front of us, stopped, gave us a dirty look, then continued on into the yard at the rental cottages. Okay, be that way!

Once back on the boat, I sat on the back deck relaxing and listening to an audiobook, while Brenda sat inside where it was warmer. It gets cool quickly here once the sun goes down.

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Day 86 – Thursday, August 27th, 2026 – To: Rockland, ME
Landings Marina

We had planned an early departure from Southwest Harbor to Rockland. The weather was predicted to get windy and rainy toward the afternoon, so we wanted an early start. The fog, however, had different plans! When we woke up around 6:00, we were socked in again. There is a live webcam at the marina. I looked at the sunrise timelapse, and you could see that at 5:00 am the sky was clear, but by 6:30, the fog had rolled in. You can see our boat in the lower right of the marina. Thanks to Dave at Bar Harbor Webcam for sending a copy of the video!

I checked the weather, and it said it should lift between 9 and 10:00. So we hung around the boat, waiting. At 9:30, we could see the boats out in the mooring field, and by 10:00, we could start to see the islands out in the bay. The tour boat that operates out of the marina left, so we figured the fog wasn’t too bad. We could still see a little fog out on the bay, but we decided to give it a try.

We dropped lines and headed out of Southwest Harbor. The first mile was fine, but as we rounded the point, we could see heavy fog was still sitting in the Western Way channel between Mount Desert Island and Great Cranberry Island. I turned on the radar, and we slowed down to a crawl as we entered the fog bank. We had come through this channel on our way to Bar Harbor, so we had both our route plot for the trip and our breadcrumb trail from when we went through to follow. What we didn’t have was a map of the lobster buoys. Visibility was about 200 feet, and we picked our way through the traps. I kept an eye on our radar for other boats as well. Most lobster boats and smaller fishing boats don’t have AIS, and the channel is pretty narrow. Several minutes in, I saw a blip on my radar, and we looked for what it might be. A small wooden boat appeared through the fog. Wooden boats don’t reflect radar signals very well, and we didn’t pick them up until the last moment. Fortunately, it was far enough away, and we turned to leave plenty of space between us. I also saw an AIS signal from one of the Tour Catamarans out of Bar Harbor bearing down on us at 20 knots! I hoped that they saw the wooden boat. As they approached us from behind, they slowed down and passed with only a moderate wake before speeding back up. The tour catamarans don’t seem to be bothered by the lobster pots. They just blow right over them.

We reached the end of the Western Way and made our turn toward Bass Harbor Head. We swung wide at the turn as we had seen a sailboat on AIS heading toward the channel and wanted to give it plenty of room. It started getting a bit brighter, and then, like someone threw a switch, we were back into clear skies! Brenda went to the back of the boat to take a picture of the fog bank just behind us. Eerie!

As we went through the narrow channel at Bass Harbor Head, we got a great view of the lighthouse with the tour boat we had seen leave just before us in front of it. We had been given a recommended route by Chris. He summers in Southwest Harbor and is very familiar with the area. The route follows two “passages” between islands and offers beautiful views of the islands and fishing villages along the way. We crossed Jericho Bay and entered the Deer Island Thorofare. This channel runs between West Deer Island on the north side and several small islands to the south. In the middle of the channel is the town of Stonington. This is one of the islands that is accessed by the Deer Isle Suspension Bridge, which we passed under on our way to Bar Harbor.

Stonington is still primarily a lobster fishing town. However, with the road access, it’s becoming a summer home destination as well. As we passed by the town, we could see the large cranes used to load pink granite quarried on the nearby islands. As we exited the channel and entered East Penoboscot Bay, we passed the Deer Isle Thorofare Lighthouse on Mark Island that marks the entrance to the channel from the west end.

We had another open-water crossing across East Penobscot Bay, then entered Fox Island Thorofare, passing the Goose Rocks Lighthouse that marks the western entrance. As with the Deer Isle Thorofare, the Fox Island Thorofare is a narrow channel between North Haven Island to the north and Vinalhaven Island to the south. In the middle is the town of North Haven. Both North Haven Island and Vinalhaven Island have no road access to them, so everything has to come in by water. North Haven has a large ferry dock on its waterfront. As we passed the harbor, it was interesting to see the floating rafts with small sheds on them that lobstermen used to store their gear.

At the east end of the Fox Island Thorofare are two small islands, actually large rocks. Fox Ears and Sugar Loaf, and to keep you from hitting them, and mark the east entrance to the channel is the Brown’s Head Lighthouse. A classic design with the keeper’s cottage. If you fancy playing lighthouse keeper, it’s available for rent!

Once we were out into open water in West Ponobscot Bay, there were fewer lobster buoys, so we opened the throttles for a while. We’ve been running slower because we only had short runs and to save fuel, but to keep Michael, my mechanic (and the engines), happy, we need to run at speed every now and then to blow out the turbos. We brought it up to 23 miles per hour and ran across the bay (being careful to avoid Fiddler and Drunken Ledges) and the occasional lobster buoy. Once or twice, we almost missed it, so it was a quick drop to neutral as we glided over it, then back up to speed. The Penobscot Bay has a very hilly bottom. At some points, we saw exposed ledges, and just a couple of thousand feet away, it was 300 feet deep. It mirrors the cliffs along the shore! We quickly crossed the 8 miles of the bay and entered Rockland Harbor, passing the Owl’s Head Lighthouse and cruising toward the mile-long breakwater with the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse at the end.

Once past the breakwater, we entered the inner harbor and called in for our slip assignment. We had an easy docking on a face dock, and were tied up and settled in just a few minutes. Running at high speeds, especially in the wind, coats the boat in salt spray, so the next task was to rinse it down. One thing we have found with the blue wrap on the hull is that it rinses off really easily, but if you don’t rinse the salt off, it crystallizes when it dries, and fenders rubbing against the salt crystals can scratch it. Much like Gel Coat, the wrap is a bit more fragile, so we keep it clean!

When we finished, it was just after 4:00, and we hadn’t had lunch, so we walked up to Dry Dock restaurant at the marina for an early dinner. Brenda has had lobster before, but never a whole freshly steamed lobster (how did that happen?) The restaurant was having a special, and while washing the boat, we had been watching the lobster boats unload crates of them, so she decided to give it a try. As you can see from the photos, it was Commodore-approved!

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Day 87 – Friday, August 28th, 2026 – In: Rockland, ME

Friday morning was a bit overcast. There were occasional showers in the forecast. In the morning, we watched the cargo boats from Vinalhaven unloading lobsters and then loading cargo to go back to the island. We learned that the lobstermen go out, retrieve the lobsters from the traps, and place them in large plastic crates, then bring them to Vinalhaven and North Haven, where they are consolidated onto one boat that takes them to Rockland, where they are loaded onto refrigerated trucks for shipment. They then pick up supplies, bait, empty lobster crates, fuel, and whatever other cargo needs to go back to the islands and return. It saves individual lobstermen from making the 30-mile round trip.

It is interesting to watch the boats pull up and unload the crates of lobster! Our slip is only about 200 feet from the Municipal Fish Pier, so we get a great view from the back of the boat! We also get to hear the “spicy” language of the dock workers and fishermen (and women, there are quite a few!)

At 10:00, we walked into town. Our first stop was the Maine Lighthouse Museum, which has the largest collection of Fresnel Lighthouse Lenses in the US. They also have an extensive collection of lighthouse-related artifacts, such as signal lights, bells, foghorns, and artwork created by lightkeepers and their families during the period before lighthouses were automated and keepers were no longer needed. We learned that of the 700 lighthouses still standing in the US, only one, Boston Harbor Light, has a full-time lightkeeper. That is because it was the first lighthouse built in the US. The original was built in 1716, but the British blew it up in 1776 when they pulled out of Boston. It was then rebuilt in 1783 and still operates today.

Rockland was once primarily a hub for fishing, packing, manufacturing, and transportation. There was a large shipyard for building minesweepers during World War II. Rockland also produced lime for cement production and was a leader in the early production of seaweed-based products such as carrageenan.

Today, it is still a vibrant fishing village dealing primarily in lobster. The downtown suffered when the haddock, cod, and pollock fishing industry declined, along with lime production. The city has rebranded itself as the Art Center of Maine, and its downtown has been revitalized with many art galleries, shops, and restaurants. The primary gallery is the Farnsworth Art Museum, renowned for its outstanding collection of American art, with a special focus on artists connected to Maine. Its galleries feature works by iconic artists, including the Wyeth family.

After the Lighthouse Museum, we walked into downtown, making a stop at the Project Puffin Visitor Center. This is the organization that has reintroduced puffins to the islands of Maine after they were hunted to extinction in the 1920s and 30s so that their feathers could be used in women’s hats. They now have 1,500 nesting pairs of Atlantic Puffins and are growing yearly! We got to see two on our trip up, and they gave us a hint on where else we might see some. We thought that with winter coming, they were heading south, but learned that they actually migrate NORTH in the winter and spend their time in the cold waters off the Atlantic. Amazing!

From there, we wandered down Main Street, checked out a few shops, and then visited the Farnsworth Museum. It was quite interesting. Their main temporary exhibition featured modern sculptures by Maine Artist Benjamin Spalding. I must admit, while interesting to look at, modern art strikes Brenda and I as “art for art’s sake.” It’s not really our cup of tea. Fortunately, the museum’s collection includes many fine traditional paintings by famous artists and an excellent collection of Native American basket-weaving art.

After checking out the museum, we continued down the street, visiting some more shops and private galleries. Around 1:00, we reached the Rockland Brewing Company and stopped for some refreshments.

We turned around and walked back toward the marina on the other side of the street, checking out more shops and galleries, until we reached the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. We decided to take a look at it. I’m glad I got a senior discount because it was another display of very brightly colored papier-mâché sculptures. There were only about six of them in a large space. Interesting, but again, not quite our style.

From there, we went back to the boat. I sorted some photos and worked on the blog until it was time for dinner. After our afternoon snack, we weren’t that hungry, so we just went back to Dry Dock at the marina for a sandwich.

As we got back to the boat, another of the cargo boats from North Haven was just pulling in. We watched as they unloaded 59 crates of lobsters. They lifted them off the boat three at a time with a small crane, stacked them eight to a pallet, then loaded them straight into a refrigerated truck. It was quite the operation to watch. Once they were unloaded, they moved back to another dock and filled a large fuel tank on the back of the boat, which we assume they use to fuel the lobster boats.

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Day 88 – Saturday, August 29th, 2026 – In: Rockland, ME

It dawned a bright and clear day. No fog!!! We looked around at what there was to do in town. Our choices were to take the 10:30 ferry to Vinalhaven and explore there, or go to the Rockland Sail, Power, and Steam Museum here in Rockland. We want to make another trip up here to Maine, so we decided to save Vinalhaven for a future trip and visit the museum.

We started by going to the Rockland Cafe for breakfast, then walked along the waterfront walk to the Maritime Museum. Like many historic towns on the Maine coast, Rockland has a long and varied history. Much of the waterfront that was dedicated to boat building, fishing, and the lime trade has been converted into parks. There is a waterfront walking path that goes most of the way around the harbor. We decided to visit the Wind Power & Steam Museum on the far side. We took the shore path, which was a bit longer but had great views. The start of the walkway is graced with a statue of Poseidon holding a lobster, how appropriate! There were several sculptures and memorials along the path, including the El Faro Salute! Memorial, a very touching tribute to the crew of the El Faro, which was lost in 2015 off the Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin with all hands. Two of the 33 people lost were from Rockland. Danielle Randolph was El Faro’s second mate, and Dylan Meklin was an engineer. Both were graduates of the Main Maritime Academy we visited in Castine.

The next “memorial” was a business folly. In 1961, a group of Rockland businessmen built a grain silo to receive chicken feed by barge, rather than paying the high cost of rail transport. Only one barge load was ever shipped. The railroad lowered prices, and the poultry industry was already in decline by 1966, when it was finished. In the end, the railroad bought and used it for grain, but it was shipped in by train. It’s too heavily built to tear down economically. In 1985, it was acquired by the Passamaquoddy Tribe as part of a program to regain ownership of historically owned lands.

The Sail, Power and Steam Museum in Rockland, Maine, was founded in 2007 by Captain Jim Sharp and his wife, Meg, to preserve and share their extensive collection of maritime artifacts, boats, engines, and equipment. The museum occupies a historic waterfront site that was once part of the Snow Shipyard, one of Rockland’s major shipbuilding centers during the great age of sail, and today celebrates the region’s rich maritime and industrial heritage through interactive exhibits, historic vessels, and boat restoration. Captain Jim Sharp, the founder, is a lifelong Maine mariner, windjammer captain, and boat restorer who helped build the region’s passenger schooner trade. At 93, he still hosts guests at the museum from his mobility scooter.

When we arrived, there was one other couple in the museum. Then, a tour bus from the American Cruises ship arrived, and the museum filled up quickly! Captain Jim started by introducing himself, then sang a spicy sea shanty for the group. He is quite a character! Rather than taking the guided tour with the large group from the ship, we took the self-guided option, exploring the many displays and the historic models. Captain Jim said that his wife told him to get rid of all this old junk at their house, so he started the museum. Then other wives told their husbands to give all that old junk to Captain Jim for his museum. Junk, it’s not. Everything is well preserved and has stories attached to it. On the museum’s 10th anniversary, Captain Jim recorded a video tour, so that visitors can enjoy the stories and history after he is gone.

When we had finished touring the museum, we went outside to see if we could find a Geocache. The cache location was a large green channel marker on display in the parking lot. As we approached, we saw a couple from the American Cruise group looking at the buoy. We watched them for a minute, and it was pretty obvious that they were looking for the cache too. We walked up, and they became “stealthy,” so we said, “Watch for Muggles!” (Muggles are the term Geocachers use to refer to non-Geocachers watching them.) That let them know that we were Geocachers too!

They asked if we had already found it, and we said “No.” So we introduced ourselves and searched together. It was a tough one. The logical places were inside the bell in the middle, or on the clappers that strike the bell when it moves. The gap to reach into the bell was small, and we could only reach a few inches up, so I took my phone and made a video of the inside, no cache. We searched every inch of the frame and the clappers. Brenda and Carol searched through the old log entries for clues while Ray and I continued searching. There were a few hints that pointed to it being at the bottom of the buoy. I was checking around the base and noticed a hole in the bottom of the float. I stuck my hand in and felt around, hoping not to find a snake. Bingo! I found the container!

We logged the cache and said goodbye to our new friends. They live in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and we hope to visit there next year on our Loop trip, so we said we would look up their caches if we get there. From the museum, we walked back toward town, stopping at the Stone Alley Brewing Company, a microbrewery, to try another of the local beers. It was pretty good. They just started two years ago. Brenda was happy because it was the first place we’d found in town that had Coke!

After that, we went back to the boat. I received an upgrade to our Hull-Shield system that keeps growth off the bottom of the boat while we were in Southwest Harbor. It was a pretty easy install, just changing the power to 24 volts and swapping out the controller unit (4 screws and 9 screw-on connectors). That took me about 90 minutes and one band-aid. Not bad!

After completing that project, I went to get a snack from the refrigerator and saw a couple of seagulls hanging out by the dock. I had a small stub of bread I had been about to throw away, and I decided to toss it to them. When will I ever learn?!?! I tossed it out, and two seagulls turned into a scene from The Birds! One of the gulls that didn’t get a piece hopped over on the dock, and we noticed that it had yellow eyes! Most of the others had dark eyes. So, I got another piece of bread and tried to give Yellow Eyes some. Well, each bit caused a flurry of wings and feathers as they all competed to get it. I tried feeding it from my hand, but it would only come within 3 feet of me. After two more pieces of bread, he was finally able to get a piece. Brenda got a kick out of the gulls swarming me!

For dinner, we walked into town to Hill’s Seafood restaurant, which was recommended to us by some local boaters. It was very good, although I had Granddaddy Hill’s Steak Tips. Brenda did have seafood, however, and she said that the scallops were excellent.

After dinner, we walked back to the boat and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

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Day 89 – Sunday, August 30th, 2026 – In: Rockland, ME

We had planned on leaving for Portland this morning. While it looked clear and calm here in the harbor, the wave and wind forecast for offshore was not bad, but not ideal. Most of our 77-mile run is in open ocean, not protected by islands, so we decided to wait a day as Monday looks much better.

There is a lighthouse at the end of the bay called Owls Head Light. We passed it on our way into Penobscot Bay, heading north toward Camden, and we will cruise past it on our way to Portland. You can walk up to the lighthouse, and there is a small museum at the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. Also, just down the street from it at the local airport, there is the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum, with a collection of vintage airplanes, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and popcorn wagons!

So, we took the bikes off the boat and went for a ride. The lighthouse was 6 miles from the marina, on quite hilly roads. Again, we were thankful for the electric assist! It took us about 30 minutes to ride there. The lighthouse grounds are a Maine State Park with a swimming beach (burrrr…), a picnic area, and the lighthouse. We parked the bikes in the parking lot, keeping quiet so as not to disturb the outdoor service at Owls Head Baptist Church, then walked the access path along the cliffs lining Owls Head Bay to the lighthouse. From the keeper’s cottage to the light, there is a ramp and stairs to climb to the top of the bluff where the lighthouse is. It was a clear day with no fog, but for some reason, the foghorn was going off. We walked around the lighthouse and took some photos of the schooners sailing past out in the bay. The view was wonderful. From the lighthouse, we could see out to the open ocean, and from here it didn’t look very wavy. We were second-guessing our decision not to go, but then we wouldn’t have visited the lighthouse.

The museum in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage is run by the American Lighthouse Foundation, which helps to preserve lighthouses all across America. They had a display of lights used at the Owls Head Lighthouse, a history of the lighthouse and its keepers, and a small gift shop. We picked up a hat pin and an ornament for our collection, then walked back to the bikes we’d left in the parking lot. The Baptists were in full swing, so we grabbed our bikes and headed out.

From there, we rode back up the street to the Owls Head General Store and Post Office. Brenda had seen that there was a Geocache there; however, we couldn’t find it. You need a small child with tiny hands to reach into the supports of a guardrail. Our hands were too big, and we forgot to pack a small child. Next, we rode 5 miles to the Transportation Museum, much of it was backtracking the way we came.

The Owls Head Transportation Museum is in a large aircraft hangar beside the airport and has an amazing collection of restored aircraft, cars, and other vehicles. You can see that they have expanded over the years. Last weekend, they had a classic car auction, and many of the cars that were sold were still there waiting to be picked up, so we got an extra bonus viewing.

We walked around looking at the displays. It’s quite a diverse collection, with cars and airplanes displayed side by side and, mixed in, circus wagons and popcorn wagons. There were also quite a few motorcycles and bicycles mixed in. They also had an entire room dedicated to steam engines, including a huge 1895 Harris-Corliss Tandem Compound Steam Engine. The flywheel is 16 feet tall. It reminded me of the three-story-tall steam engine that Dean Kamen (Segway inventor) has in his house in Bedford, New Hampshire.

Probably the most unique item in the collection is an Ornithopter! An early flying machine with wings covered in feathers woven into chicken wire! And a full-scale reproduction of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane.

After touring the museum, Brenda noticed a Geocache near the entrance, so we went looking for it. This one was an easy find! #562! We noticed that the sky had clouded up quite a bit and it looked like rain, so we rode the 4 miles back to Rockland. It was almost 1:30, and we figured that even with electric assist, we deserved a snack after our 15-mile ride, and went back to the Rock Harbor Brewery. Our bikes are just pedal-assist. On hills, especially steep ones, you have to pedal to help, as the motors won’t haul us up on their own. While we were there, I got an alert on my phone from the Weather Channel that rain was about to start, so we hurried back to the boat and put the bikes away. We felt a few drops, but it didn’t really rain.

While we were loading the bikes, Brenda noticed a lobster boat pulling up with lots of different buoys on it. We’ve been told that lobstermen can only pull their own traps, with one exception. A 90-year-old lobsterwoman has a special exception that her son can tend her traps if she isn’t feeling up to it. Maybe he just collects loose buoys?

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up the blog, and then we walked back to Dry Dock at the marina for dinner. It’s close, and the rain keeps spitting from time to time, so we didn’t want to go into town.

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Weekly Recap

After a nice time in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island, we’ve started our trip south. We only did 62 miles this week. We had our first real experience with Maine’s famous Pea Soup Fog. Our stop in Rockland was intended to just break up the distance to Portland. It turns out that there is a lot to see and do here, and we’ve enjoyed our stay and our extra day.

Next week, we have Portland, Maine, Wentworth (Portsmouth), New Hampshire, and then we’ll spend Labor Day weekend with the witches in Salem, Massachusetts. I hope that I don’t get turned into a frog!