12 Sep 14

It was cool enough this morning, that we felt obliged to turn on the heater to knock the edge off of the chill in the salon. After settling the bill with the marina, we pulled out from the marina in a 20 knot breeze and motored over to Hinckley’s to pump out the holding tanks. Then we motored up Somes Sound, against 20 - 25 kn on the nose, the 5 miles to Head of the Somes, where we picked up a mooring ball at Abel Marine. Just as we shut down the engine, another unusual rattle emanated from below. Upon investigation, I found a machine screw lying loose under the engine; it had previously kept the fuel filter support bracket attached to the engine block. The machine screw was stripped, but we managed to find a replacement at the hardware store in Bar Harbor. After lunch, we caught the free Explorer bus into Bar Harbor, where we did some essential shopping (see previous sentence), and had dinner at Cafe This Way; very nice - worth a repeat visit. We got the late bus back to Somesville, and were back on the boat before 21:00. 44-21.430’N, 068-18.563’W.

13 Sep 14

Another cold night in paradise. This morning, we started the generator so we could run the heater for an hour. We again made the trek to the bus stop and were in Bar Harbor by 10:00. The Park Service offers free busses all over the island, so we took the run down the east coast and back up the center of the island. We had a couple of good hikes and saw some of the most beautiful coast-line on the east coast. The forecast for late afternoon/early evening showed a high probability of rain, so we came back to the boat early, arriving just after 17:00.