With the two blankets on last night we were nice and warm and toasty but I have a bad night’s sleep with weird, hallucination-like dreams which are quite disturbing. Maybe I’m eating too much seafood!
There’s fog when we wake up and the boat it soaking wet outside, and moist on the inside. Not nice. We wait. So does the fog. Great, another day of blind motoring!
We set off following Brown Eyed Girl but lose her in the fog after a few miles. At least there’s one good thing – it’s Sunday and the fishing boats are not out so it’s only rocky islands, lobster pots and the occasional other mad sailor we have to watch out for.
About 5 miles short of our destination, the fog suddenly starts to lift, and suddenly there we are, surrounded by loads of little rocky islands, big granite outcrops covered almost to the water line in fir trees. Ahead of us is Stonington, a largish village, beautiful homes littered around its centre. Amazingly, about half a mile ahead of us we spot BEG making a sharp right around a little island, exactly on our course.
Photo: The fog starts to clear
Photos: Stonington and the surrounding islands
There are so many sailing boats out today taking full advantage of the now clear blue sky. With their motors turned off and sails out, they take no notice of the thousands of fishing pots and just glide through the smooth water unheeded.
Photo: Look at all those bloody pots!!!
Photo: Racing around the islands
We come to a stop alongside BEG and put the anchor down. I can hardly see the markers because the chain is covered in thick, dried mud, but we put about 200 feet of chain down to make sure we don’t shift in the night. Occasionally during the afternoon, blankets of fog roll across in the distance but quickly disperse in the strong afternoon sunshine.
Most of Judith and Joe’s fellow sailors from the yacht club arrive in the anchorage over the next few hours and at 5.30 we take the dinghy over to one of the little islands for a cocktail party. It’s still lovely and warm outside, which is more than I can say for the water. Joe gallantly carries Judith out of the dinghy and onto dry land, but Mike looks at me with that ‘no chance’ look and I have to step into the frigid water, which comes to below my knees but is numbingly cold all the same. I move quickly!
We have all taken our own drinks with us although Mike forgets to pack me a glass and I nearly have to resort to swigging out of the bottle (not for the first time) until someone takes pity on me and loans me one of theirs. There is no beach as such - what looks like white sand from a distance is actually solid granite.
We spend a pleasant early evening chatting with the other members of the Boothbay Yacht Club then the four of us go back to Jeannius for dinner. We watch the wind instruments gradually show an increase from a steady force 5 to a steady 7 gusting to 9. Getting Judith and Joe back on their boat is not a pleasant experience and I am very glad that I am not the dinghy driver – there is an upside to pretending to be useless! At least it’s not raining – yet!
Position: 44 deg 09 min N, 68 deg 37 min W
Distance so far: 1687 miles
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