22 Aug 14

We had a lovely, still night last night and slept like logs. The weather was cool and partly cloudy and we were away from the anchorage before 09:00 and had a very nice sail from there via Whaleboat Island and about 1000 lobster pots, to Eagle Island, where we picked up a mooring ball to visit the Maine State Park. Eagle Island was the home of Admiral Robert E. Peary, the commander of the first expedition to reach the North Pole. He was quite a man; the story of his final, successful assault (after 4 or 5 unsuccessful attempts) on the pole in April 1909 is fascinating. After this success, he pretty much retired and lived on Eagle Island, though they spent winters in Washington, DC, until he died in 1920. Definitely worth a trip if you are ever up this way. After lunch, we dropped the mooring and sailed a couple more miles up to Potts Harbor, between a couple of fingers on Harpswell Neck. On the way, we passed Upper Flag Island, where Peary used to keep his sled dogs during summers between Arctic expeditions. The story is that the dogs would howl at full moons and Peary would shut them up by swearing at them in Eskimo using a megaphone from Eagle Island, about 1/2 mile away. Dinner aboard: salmon tonight. 43-44.709’N, 070-01.462’W