Nearly disastrous July 31

I haven't been able to connect to the internet in about a week, but now that we're using the WiFi of the gift shop on Isle au Haut, I can upload pictures from my phone and add a post or two. The write up below is from July 31.

Acadia National Park is lovely! There are so many places to explore, especially when it's nice and sunny and warm.

Sasha and I took the kids up to the Cadillac Mountain on Friday. We went up the steep western slope, which made the ascent both more exciting and more difficult. The promise of a wealth of blueberries at the top kept Margot and Pavel going. It's not like we didn't see blueberries as we were going up, but our friends told us of a magic patch of blueberries close to the top, aka blueberry paradise. As we were approaching the summit there were more blueberries, but not enough for a "paradise". Nevertheless, the kids decided that it was prime time to start picking them. Maybe they already ate enough?

Since people with cars can drive up the mountain, we saw crowds at the top. Not NYC-type crowds, but still, lots of people. We had excellent visibility, so while Nova Scotia was not visible, the views were fantastic! We could see wind patterns on the surface of the water, hills (or mountains) on all sides, clear skies, some clouds. Bar Harbor was clearly visible and a big cruise ship that was anchored in the harbor. Simply eye candy.

We boosted kids' energy with blueberry soda. We were in Acadia last year, so Margot and I knew of the drink, but it was a pleasant discovery for Sasha and Pavel. As we were descending on the north slope, we did find our blueberry paradise. We found a few patches where the four of us could sit down and without getting up eat more blueberries than we could fit and pick the rest. By the end of the descent we had a good bowl of wild blueberries that we ate on Salty Ginger over the next 2 days. Yummy!

Saturday we had another beautiful day. We got up at 7:30, had a quick breakfast, refilled water tanks and set sail to Bar Harbor. This time around we were much more awake, so as unpleasant as the lobster pots were we ducked them all as 3 sets of eyes were focused on trying to find the least painful path through the minefield. We took a detour through Winter Harbor, saw a pod of harbor porpoises on the way, and then squeezed into a narrow passage. While having tens of feet of depth beneath the keel the steep rocks on our starboard side were less than 50 feet away from the cockpit and the submerged rocks on the port side were another 50 feet away. At one point I went on the bow to look out for a rocky patch that was clearly visible and helped Sasha steer S.G. clear of the rocks. A very nice adventure.

Saturday night we started the crew exchange with arrival of Dima, Katya, and their two kids Erik and Dasha. I brought up this possibility with Alex and Sasha before, and Alex said right away that he will sleep outside. Margot gave her sleeping bag to Alex and moved in with me for a night. Somehow everything worked out and everybody got enough sleep.

Not that I didn't realize it before, but Sunday I was struck with the fact that I want my family aboard. Margot left and she was the string that essentially tied me to the four of us and with her departure the family empty space in my mind got even bigger. I still do not miss NYC, but I do miss Irina, Peter, and Margot. A lot!

Bar Harbor is a very touristy place. Dima's first introduction to the USA was there some 17 years ago, and he visited the island a number of times since then and can attest to the fact that tourism has skyrocketed and changed the feel of the town. In the past few people visited the low tide sandbar that connects Mount Desert Island to the small Bar Island. This past weekend there were tons of people who were on the bar at low tide. For dinner we went to the Poor Boys restaurant where Dima used to work many years ago. Now under the new ownership the lobster bisque was ok, but not fabulous. We got some appetizers and helped the two kids finish the kid-size chicken Alfredo pasta. Yes, it took 5 of us to finish the pasta from the kid menu.

The cruise ship that was at Bar Harbor on Sunday had very stinky diesel dingies that were bringing people ashore. The dingies of the cruise ship that docked Monday morning created such a swell that I was awake at 6:30. I guess you have to choose stinky Dutch diesel or wake from passing dingies. This "feature" of Bar Harbor is well covered by cruising guides, so it didn't come as a surprise, but the difference of the two mornings was remarkable.

As I had tea with yogurt and granola in the morning I realized that I needed to get another mug to complement the 3 mugs that were gifted to Salty Ginger in Nova Scotia. After all, we started the voyage with no mugs aboard, so getting memorable mugs is in order. While the Dima and Katya were getting the kids ready I rowed ashore to get a topo map of the park and a mug. We provisioned the day before, so we cleaned up Salty Ginger, got her shipshape and left the mooring ball.

Bar Harbor is home to Margaret Todd, a 4-masted schooner with dark red sails. When we left the harbor M.T. was sailing with all 7 sails set in the distance. We made a cirlce around her (we had the advantage of a nimble sloop in light winds), took some pictures and then headed out of Frenchman Bay into light and shifting winds. And shifting means 40 degrees. At one point I was about to tack and then the wind changed the direction where I didn't have to. At another time we had to tack early because the wind was taking us the wrong way.

As we headed south, I noticed a patch up ahead with whitecaps. "Katya, get the kids, we'll be healing quite a bit in a minute or two." Kids secured, we sailed right into ~15 knot winds that persisted for the next couple of hours. With a shortened foresail we made great progress to windward, although to the dismay of adults neither kid fell asleep. At least we got to sail!

As we were nearing Somes Sound all of a sudden I felt a jerk on the wheel. I was ducking a very thick field of lobster pots, so I was sure we caught one with the rudder. I dropped sails, and as I was analyzing what was going on, I realized that the autopilot was engaged. Apparently, as the kids were playing with the chartplotter they engaged the autopilot, but for the longest time I was sure we clipped one of the lobster pots in a very thick "minefield".

We anchored in a very nice cove in the Somes Sound where the bottom may be rocky, so I decided to set a trip line (for the first time ever). Then the anchor seemed to be holding, so all 5 of us went for a little hike. And on the way to the shore I removed extra slack since it seemed that we were already at high tide. A trip line is designed to help lift the anchor in case it gets caught on a rock or something else, so that getting it up with the chain is impossible. Unlike the chain which pulls the shaft of the anchor the trip line pulls on the "front" part of the anchor, thus releasing it from an obstacle rather than getting it stuck even deeper.

I climbed up onto the nearby cliffs, saw Salty Ginger, and noticed a dark hulled vessel pull into the cove. Ok, I thought, we'll have neighbors, not a problem since there is room for a few more boats. Then I went into the thick of the woods and came back to the anchorage an hour later. As soon as I came Katya told me that the couple from the dark blue sailboat told her that they saved Salty Ginger after the anchor was tripped and she drifted off into the middle of the bay, into lobster pots. WHAT? THIS IS A BIG DEAL! I REALLY MESSED UP!

Turns out that the brave and knowledgeable crew of Yankee Cowboy saw our overly tight trip line lift the anchor off the seabed and thus S.G. was set adrift. They came alongside on their dingy, yelled to see if anyone was aboard, and then decided to board the vessel. They raised the anchor, turned on the engine (everything was unlocked), motored back into the anchorage, dropped the anchor in 30 feet of depth, set the trip line loose and went back to their vessel. If they were not there to save S.G. we could have been in BIG trouble. Really big trouble. I thanked them profusely and then came back to gift them the last bottle of Tidal Bay wine from Nova Scotia that we had aboard. Very dangerous mistake that I made, but all is well that ends well.

Salty Ginger and Yankee Cowboy at anchor while everything was still under control.

As I'm writing this up in the thick of the night we have a solid 10-15 knot wind blowing from the south, and somehow the hills just south of us are providing little protection from it (could it be katabatic effect?), but the anchor is holding and now I'm sure we're set for the night.