29 Jul 16

The Olson House does not open until 12:00, so we were in no rush to get out of bed. We had a leisurely breakfast and spent the morning reading and playing guitar in the cockpit. About 11:15, we unlimbered the dinghy and rowed back over to John Olson’s dock, tied up and walked up to the Olson House, which is now owned by the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, which is the home of many Wyeth (N.C., Andrew and Jamie) paintings. Many of Andrew’s most famous paintings, including “Christina” and “Wind from the Sea”, were inspired by and painted at scenes from the Olson House, which was originally built in the mid-1700s. Andrew met Christina and her brother Alvaro when he was a young man, spending summers in Port Clyde, which is about 3 miles away, by boat, across the St. George River (about 18 miles by car). We had a guided tour of the house, which has a fascinating history itself; the tour guide filled in many of the gaps in our understanding of the relationship between Wyeth and the Olsons and his fascination with their place. We got back to the boat, got the hook up (10 bucket wash-down) and left Maple Juice Cove about 14:00. We motored down the St. George River for about half an hour, when the wind freshened from the SE and we turned off the iron genny and got the sails up. As we sheeted in the jib, the electric sheet winches did not work; not a disaster, as they can be operated manually, but one more issue that is likely to require some maintenance. Unfortunately, the wind only lasted for about 45 minutes, until we were in serious breach of the “5 knot rule”, so the iron genny was fired back up and we motored past W. Egg Rock, left Pemaquid Point to starboard and turned north up into Johns Bay. As we were going right past it, we turned into and took a quick drive-by tour of Pemaquid Harbor, then continued on up the Johns River for another mile or so to turn to port into Poorhouse Cove, which is a totally enclosed bay on a tidal tributary to the Johns River. We were settled in just after 17:00 and enjoyed a very quiet evening watching a couple of very active ospreys hunting until dark. During happy hour, I spent a bit of time trouble-shooting the issue with the sheet winches. It turns out the generator start battery is dead as a mackerel (8.8 V). The sheet winches are powered off of the generator start battery, but I thought (apparently incorrectly) that this battery got re-charged by either shore power (120 V charger) or the main engine alternator (at the same time that the house and engine start batteries were re-charged. We have not run the generator since Fredericton on 5 Jul; it started fine then. We have not had shore power since RKYC on 19 Jul; and it was only 15A there, although I know that kept the house batteries charged up. It is possible that the daily use of the sheet winches has discharged the generator start battery, if it is only charged by the 120 V charger on shore power. Unfortunately, I do not have a set of jumper cables on board. I suspect 8.8 V means the battery will need to be replaced; it is an AGM battery not quite 4 years old. Ah well, something to dream about tonight.

43-53.45’N, 69-33.32’W