August in Maine

August has been full of guests and socializing. Everyone is curious to see the new boat. We have tours down to a science by now but are very happy to show her off. She continues to be very comfortable and seaworthy. The weather has definitely improved and has even been warm enough the last few days to swim. With guests in tow, we continue to explore old favorite harbors and new ones. Dinghy expeditions to collect mussels for dinner, check out different coves, watch the seals sunbathing, check out other boats in the harbor, hike of various islands are always in order. Dodging lobster pots is not as much fun and we have picked up a few but not on our prop and we have been able to extricate ourselves one way or another. John has had to go swimming a few times in the fridgid water, but once he catches his breath, he has been able to untangle us. We continue to marvel at the number of other cruisers that we are able to connect with and have over to catch up on their comings and goings. Everyone chips in with food or drink and good conversation to make the evenings more enjoyable.
In between guests, we were able to go further East to Roque Island. This island is part of an archipelago of islands and is about 70 miles east of Rockland. The main harbor of Roque has a crescent one mile long and very deep white sand beach that reminded us of Cape Cod. We spent the morning walking the length of it and beachcombing for small speckled granite rocks for my "living" Maine trough garden that I have on the boat. The weather was calm and glorious for the whole trip. I was nice to be just the two of us and to enjoy this beautiful spot. For our return trip back to Rockland, we decided to go outside of all the islands along the coast as to avoid most of the lobster pots. This worked well and we were able to briefly spot two whales along the way! The tides are serious up here and we were able to use the current to our advantage to save ontime and fuel both ways. This saving fuel stuff is new to us.
Now we are waiting for some more guests and are planning our next few weeks of time still left in our Northern Paradise.