Natural Splendor

Soames Sound, Maine
N 44 22.002 W 068 19.980

Yesderday was rainy and gray again. We didn't go anywhere. We just sat in Moore's Harbor and explored via dinghy. I found the mother lode for mussels. I found a rock in the middle of the harbor that was only inches below the surface at low tide. It was covered with a thousand or so jumbo size mussels. I didn't harvest any though. We're temporarily musseled out.

Moores Harbor

This morning we got up to blue sky, dry air, warm, no fog. It is a spectacular day. We navigated out of Moore's Harbor, destination Soames Sound.

Navigation was tricky. And that's an understatement. As we wiggled our way through a narrow passage between Isle La Haut and another island, we saw a very cute osprey nest right beside a green day marker. We angled in close and snapped the picture below. That was a big mistake. Just seconds after snapping that picture there was a BANG BANG noise as Tarwathie bounced off rocks on the bottom. We grounded in the channel despite the tide being 4 feet above low. 15 mintes later in another channel, and BANG, we struck another rock. Add two more groundings to our score. If we had a boat with a fin keel we might have really done some damage. For a W32 however, we probably only scraped off some bottom paint.


After passing the danger zone, we came out in Jerico Bay. Oh what splendid beauty. It looks like the Swedish archipelago in the Baltic near Stockholm. There are hundreds of small rocky islands everywhere. I suspect that it looks like Lake Huron too according to my friend Dave on Neverland.

As we approached Desert Island and Southwest Harbor, we encountered boat traffic. Lots of boat traffic. Understand that it is a Sunday in August, and probably the nicest weather in weeks. Of course, all the boats were out.

This is Hinkley territory. We saw Hinkley boats everywhere. In case you don't know, Hinkley is to American yachts as Rolls Royce is to Brittish cars.

Soames sound is billed as the only fjord on the Atlantic Seaboard. I think that's cheating. There's an even more spectacular fjord near Quebec City. I think the Gulf of Saint Lawrence counts as part of the Atlantic Seaboard. Anyhow, Soames sound looks like the Hudson River near West Point, or like Lake Champlain near Basin Harbor.

Soames Sound

We wanted to anchor in Valley Cove tonight and to start from there in the morning to hike on a trail that is supposed to be excellent. As we entered the cove, three other boats zoomed ahead of us at full speed and they grabbed the only free mooring and the good anchoring spots. I hate that. Anyhow, we tried twice to anchor there but we could not get the plow anchor to bite. We abandoned that, and came up here to Somesville for the night.

We are very concerned for Chris and June on Albion. They are on a mooring in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. They are waiting for hurricane Fay to strike there Monday night. They plan to ride it out on the boat. We wish them the best and we hope that Fay will choose to go somewhere else. I'll let you know how they fare.