23 Jul 16

We were up at the crack of 07:45 and realized the wind was hardly blowing at all and it was otherwise a pretty good day, contrary to yesterday’s forecast of very high probability of rain all day. Anyway, we got going by 08:30 with the intent of getting as far as Mudhole. We departed Lakeman Harbor, crossed Roque Harbor and exited via the very narrow and somewhat shallow Thorofare, successfully dodging the two shallow rocks on the chart. Then, across Chandler Bay, which had a pretty good SW swell left over from the last several day’s blow, over to the eastern entry to Moosabec Reach, which runs past Jonesport. Unfortunately for us, the bridge across Moosabec Reach from Jonesport to Beals Island only has 39 feet of vertical clearance, so we cannot pass that way. This forces us to go around the south end of Great Wass Island, which is totally open to the Atlantic Ocean. So, we turned south through Eastern Bay and enjoyed its many navigational challenges. We looked in at Mudhole, but to get in, we would have had to wait an hour for the tide to come up. As the wind was still relatively light - SW 10 - we decided to push on round the corner and head either all the way to NE Harbor or Tibbetts Island anchorage. After transiting the Mudhole Channel, we turned to starboard (SW) at Freeman Rock and headed into the large 4 - 6 ft SW swells. We sailed for a bit in WSW 8, but due south of Great Wass I., we got a couple of 90 degree wind shifts and then it went light and variable, so we put the engine back on and motored. After 3 miles of slopping through the swells and against 1 kn of foul tidal current, I exercised executive authority and decided I did not want to do that for another 30 miles, so we turned to starboard between Great Wass and Fisherman Islands and headed NNW toward Western Bay, past Stevens I. and then to Tibbetts Island, where, with the approval of a friendly fisherman, we picked up a mooring ball. We anchored in here about 5 weeks ago on the way east on our first night out of NE Harbor. After lunch, we did a bit of boat maintenance and cleanup and then settled in for the afternoon to watch the development of thunderstorms.

44-29.826’N, 067-42.619’W