27 Jul 16

We got out of bed before 07:00 when the wakes from lobster boats out in the channel got too persistent to ignore. The anchor was aweigh just after 08:00 and we motored west in a very light northerly breeze, out through Merchant Row, across Isle au Haut Bay, and through Fox Islands Thorofare between North Haven and Vinalhaven Islands. The town of North Haven looks to be a booming area and the town mooring field was full of pleasure boats. To the west of North Haven Island, we turned NW at Drunkard Ledge and headed for Camden, ME. Camden is a classic New England (or Down East) yachting center; there are hundreds of boats tied up to mooring balls outside the main harbor. We were lucky enough to score a Camden Yacht Club float at the upper end of the inner harbor, right in the heart of town, to which we tied up before noon. The south side of the harbor is completely taken up with the Lyman Morse boatyard/brokerage/canvas shop/service center, whereas the north side of town is full of shops, restaurants, hotels, condos, art galleries and wine bars. At the upper end of the inner harbor, the Megunticook River falls over a sill into the harbor. The river has been controlled through town by a series of dams and channels, and was obviously used to power the mills back in the industrial hey-day. The launch took us into the CYC dock and we went for lunch at Waterfront. Then we had a lovely walk around town, did a bit of shopping at the Wednesday afternoon farmer’s market, had a refreshing beer (hey, it was hot outside) at The Drouthy Bear (run by a charming Scotsman), and then got the launch back to the boat. After a refreshing swim in the harbor, followed by a transom shower and a quick happy hour, we rowed “Swallow” about 100 m to the town dock at the head of the harbor, right next to the falls, and attended a performance of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, performed by a very talented summer-stock troupe at a lovely outdoor amphitheater maintained by Camden right next to their wonderful library; it is visible from the cockpit of “c’est le bon” about 200 m astern. Afterward, neither one of us was hungry enough to go to dinner, so we walked around town for a while and had an ice cream, before rowing back to the boat in the dusk at about 21:00, in time to listen to a few of the DNC convention speeches. The harbor is even prettier in the evening than it is during the day. I can’t believe we did not discover this place until now. A long, busy day.

44-12.575’N, 069-03.727’W