I am indebted to my friends Jon and Sharon for introducing me to the carriage roads in Acadia National Park.  Most everyone knows I love to ride bikes.  My friend Jon encouraged me to rent a bike and explore the carriage roads.  My friend Sharon loaned me her book, Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads: The Untold Story of Acadia’s Carriage Roads and Their Creator.  So I read the book and then went for a ride.  The book was written by John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s granddaughter who is a landscape architect.  She started doing research for a graduate school project and ended up writing an intriguing book about the development of Acadia National Park as well as the roads.  While I knew that Rockefeller was a major financial contributor to the park, I had no idea how hands on he was in the development of the roads.  He worked directly with the crews who built the roads and spent a great deal of time picking scenic routes through the park.  You can read a short history of the carriage roads on the National Park Services website.

I packed a lunch, rented a bike, and loaded it on the special bike shuttle run by the Island Explorer Bus service.  I started out at the Eagle Lake Entrance to the roads and rode first up to Aunt Betty’s Pond.  I have two wonderful Aunt Bettys so it seemed a great way to start.  Generally I followed the Around Mountain Road which is a longer loop.  It is very scenic and it included crossing several of the beautiful stone bridges.  I had lunch at the waterfall bridge.  I finished the day with a trip down the western side of Jordon’s Pond and Eagle Lake. The roads are engineered to blend in with the Park’s natural beauty.  Even the drainage for the roads is blended carefully into the surroundings.  I probably wouldn’t have noticed how subtle this work was if I hadn’t read Sharon’s book.  The gradual grades make for pleasant uphill climbs and easy downhill runs.

Hemlock Bridge

A view of the Western Way from the Carriage Road

I can help but think about the foresight of people like Dorr and Rockefeller who recognized the natural beauty of Mt. Desert Island and took action to preserve it for the public at large and for future generations.  Their thoughtful philanthropy has created a truly unique experience for any visitor to Acadia.

Our good friend Dana from Alexandria sent us an email introducing us to his best gal pal, Sharon, who lives in Maine.  We made the connection and we had no idea just how much we were getting in Sharon.  She has lived here forever, is an artist, a builder, a custom furniture maker, a caretaker, a professional skier, a sailor, a woman who knows a lot about all aspects of Maine and, in fact, beyond.  She is the quintessential tour guide and we totally scored by having her in our court.  Thank you Dana.  Sharon has ferried us all over Mount Desert (pronounced dessert) Island, particularly Acadia, and beyond, taking the backroads and showing us the Maine that the tourists don’t get to see.  On our first day with Sharon we went to Thuya Gardens and Lodge near where we were moored in Northeast Harbor.

In the Thuya Gardens

Utterly spectacular.  Then she took us to the nearby Asticou Azalea Garden which stood in stark contrast to the first.  This place was entirely green, lush with moss and low hanging trees and a frog pond and stepping stones to cross.  It must be fabulous when the azaleas are in bloom.

Asticou Azalea Garden

We lunched at the bakery with the crazy good donuts and then drove to the peak of Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the US Atlantic coast.  Stunning 360 degree view of Acadia. Thank you Sharon for a great day.

On top of Cadillac Mountain: Matt,Graham, Amy, and Sharon

The next day we moved up to Somesville and anchored in the blowy, windy anchorage of Somes Harbor and stayed aboard to watch the anchor all day.  That night Sharon came to Troubadour for Matt’s homemade pizza.  She loved the woodwork and brought us more fabulous books and magazines on Maine and Acadia National Park to study.

View from Somes Harbor looking back down Somes Sound

The next day we met up at the Somes dock at noon and off we went to climb Beech Mountain to Fire Tower.

Beech Mountain Summit

Matt and Graham took the steeper but shorter hike and Amy and Sharon took the less steep, but longer path.  Wow.  A workout either way but well worth the view once you got to the top.  Incredible views on the way of Long Pond.

Long Pond

Because she is a local and so well connected, Sharon took us so many places that we would never have seen without her.  She showed us a home she is working on which was right on the water.  It is very small but has a million dollar view and the windows she installed are big enough to hand the kayaks through.  We took another hike at Wonder Land to a rocky beach with an incredible view.  It was almost unreal; we wanted to pinch ourselves to know that the beauty was not a painting.  Sharon described the different foliage and fed us rosehips.  Graham said they tasted like a tomato and a pepper had a baby.

After that we had a quick trip to Sharon’s estate to pack a picnic dinner.  She has a barn which she built where she keeps her studio.  There is everything in the world you can imagine in there.  She is truly a jack of all trades and a master of many.  Her home is next door, painted in the same comforting yellow.  Windows everywhere, and books, and art and marbles, and clocks, and colored glass fired onto copper.  Somehow your senses are completely tantalized by being there yet not overloaded.  Sharon made crab salad sandwiches and packed the sweetest peaches we had ever tasted for dessert and off we went to a her friends’ cabin for a sunset picnic.  This place was so off the beaten path that we would never, ever have seen it, much less had the privilege of going inside.  We enjoyed our feast on the deck at sunset – couldn’t have asked to a better end to the day.

Sunset on the deck

But it didn’t end there!  Earlier in the week, we decided we would like to see Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None at the local theater.  Knowing it would cost $60, it was going to be a special treat.  Just one more thing that was amazing about Sharon is that she had 18 free tickets to the show compliments of a friend so we ended a great day with a great whodunnit that was enjoyed by all.

We are finally in Maine and, well, I do like the change in weather.    I really can’t believe we are in the second most northern state in the continental US.  My mom and I have never been here before but my dad has been here once.  We are all loving it.  our cruising friends, Jon and Jill urged us to get here in June and we didn’t make it here till August 20^th.  They said the more time you spend in Maine, the happier you will be.  Boy were they right and we only got here yesterday.  We are tied to a mooring in a beautiful harbor in Falmouth.  The marina has free launch service so we don’t even have to splash the dink which is great for me because that is my job.  And they have the nicest newest showers and bathrooms we have seen anywhere in 11 months of cruising.  My mom has been to the restaurant at the dock which is fancy and has a 180 degree view of the harbor but all of us are going to go for lunch tomorrow when my dad’s friend from high school drives here from where she lives in Maine.  After she leaves, we will make another passage – this time to Acadia National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi River.  Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park is the tallest mountain along the eastern coast of the United States. During certain times of the year, it is the first place in the U.S. to see sunrise.  We can’t wait!

At the helm with my dad

We stayed in a beautiful harbor in Casco Bay, our first stop in Maine.  We had perfect days and crisp night air.  The scenery is not to be believed in Maine.  Their license plates boast “Vacationland” and the bumper stickers say, “Maine, the way life is supposed to be” – both true.  We had a mooring at Handy Boat Marina with a free launch boat to bring you in and back – such a luxury not to have to splash the dinghy.  The showers, laundry and bathroom facilities, all brand spanking new, were the cleanest we have seen in a year.

We restocked here in hopes that we could just live off the boat fridge for our next passage and beyond as we went up to Acadia National Park.  We walked a few miles to get to the grocery store and Walmart (which I mention because it usually conjures images of strip malls and highway) and it was one of the most beautiful treks ever taken.  Tall, tall trees on both sides, sometimes we walked over water that spread wide beneath us, kayakers galore.

Troubadour on her mooring in Casco Bay

As we sat in the harbor and watched the sunset, Graham and I counted all the different colored hulls.  In Georgia, I wrote about the ANN-KRISTIN, a red-hulled boat, notable for its name and its color.  In Falmouth, on our mooring, we saw at least 5 red boats and several that were green and bright blue.  Maine is full of beautiful, brightly colored boats.  People are very into the water here.  Matt was on shore running an errand and came across a Yoga class.  Nothing unusual except the class was on paddle boards!

Yoga class on paddle boards

Before we left for Acadia, we had lunch with Shelly, Matt’s high school gal pal from Iowa who lives an hour south of where we were anchored.  She is a kick in the pants and we all enjoyed our time at the restaurant at Handy Boat which has a 180 degree panoramic view of the harbor. She came out to the boat and loved it; of course we had fluffed our throw pillows for her arrival.

Amy, Shelly, Matt, and Graham after a relaxing lunch on the water.

I have written before about green flashes.  A green flash is a phenomenon that happens when the sun sets on the water and for a second appears to flash green.  We always sat around in the Bahamas, or really anywhere we are where the sun is setting on water, holding our collective breath and waiting for the green flash.  In our passage to Maine, I called Matt and Graham to the cockpit at sunset because I was certain we would be able to see a green flash on this perfectly cloudless night.   They came, they watched, they saw.  I had my head down and missed the whole thing – ugh!

Sunset on the passage from Provincetown to Casco Bay

On watch Graham and I stayed up till 4 am and read a book aloud from beginning to end.  It was great, a cherished moment to be sure.  It was a teenage book but not science fiction or fantasy.  It is unlike the books he tends to read and deals instead with real life issues and feelings.  How great it was to read the whole book together and flounder through the spectrum of emotion as the plot crescendoed and then resolved.  I know these days of reading books aloud together won’t last forever but I will treasure them always.

Just as we stumbled into the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, we changed courses after Block Island (RI) to spend more time with Godpoppy, Jamie, and his partner, Luiz Diniz (yes, it rhymes, making him all the more fabulous) in Provincetown for Carnival Week.  As usual, we planned only to spend a day or two and ended up there the whole week.  In fact, this morning we started off for Casco Bay in Maine (a 20-hour crossing) and got three hours away and had to turn back because we were going to continue to be beating into the wind all night.  Not fun when you are alone in the cockpit at night; not fun when you are trying to sleep during your offshift and you are bouncing off the bed.  Basically not fun for Amy or Matt but Graham can sleep through anything.  So we headed back to Ptown Harbor.

Jamie and Luiz with Graham in the background

We arrived in Ptown on Monday of Carnival Week and things were already in full swing.  Jamie thought it would be a good idea for us to come to Carnival

http://www.ptown.org/carnival.asp.

in order to expose Graham to different lifestyles.  I guess he thought that living on a boat, sailing from place to place and being boatschooled wasn’t different enough 😉

We anchored in Ptown Harbor near a beautiful houseboat which we passed twice daily on our way into shore.  We took the dinghy in daily to MacMillan Pier

Houseboat in Ptown

Fishing boats at the Ptown Pier

and each day promised ourselves that we would not come back at night and each night, once again, we’d be out there searching for Troubadour.  Fear not Aunt Betty and the like, Captain Matt always knew right where she was and  we always had two sets of dinghy lights, a flashlight to make sure we didn’t run over any mooring balls or lobster pots and 3 life jackets.  We would have loved to go whale watching but it cost an arm and a leg to do so.  One night there was a coastguard warning to all vessels in the area between Long Point and Provincetown Harbor that there was a right whale spotted in the vicinity right where we were anchored.  That was as close as we got to a whale sighting.  So far…

One night we had a big storm and Amy and Matt (mostly Matt ) had to be up in the middle of the night waiting out the storm.  Matt, dressed like the Gorton’s fisherman, stayed in the cockpit while sheets of rain blew sideways and thunder and lightning cracked all around.   On another night, we went to bed anchored in 46 feet of water and dragged in the middle of the night waking up in 9 feet of water.  We were right next to a shelf.  The anchor alarm was going off each evening when we arrived back at Troubadour – it got a good workout and we are glad to know it works.

The theme for Carnival 2012 was “PTOWN:  A SPACE ODYSSEY”.  Many people were painted silver, wore rockets, NASA or should I say, the NASAettes were there, and Amy even had her picture taken with Billy and Jean Klingon.

She also had her picture taken with the famed Hat Ladies of Carnival.  They wear different matching costumes and hats every day and then, of course, go all out for the Carnival Parade.  They actually look like what I picture Click and Clack, the Car Talk brothers to look like, though.

Internationally Famous Hat Ladies

Hat Ladies in the Parade

We were able to hook up with Amy’s friend Mark and his partner, Tom, on the day of the parade and we enjoyed a tour of their lovely home and shared a nice meal, including Jamie and Luiz, with them at the former Howard Johnson’s, now the HOT L, as in Hotel without the “e’ lit up.

Us with Mark

What is fun about Provincetown is that anyone can be anything and there is no judgment to be found.  You can wear anything (or nothing!), you can dance in the streets, talk to yourself, men hold hands with men, women kiss women, heterosexual families of four stroll down the street and everyone is just doing their own thing.

CAPE—a point of land projecting into water; a sleeveless garment worn over the shoulders

Our family loves to talk about capes.  Not for the reason you might think but for those of you who saw the Disney Pixar movie The Incredibles, you may remember the line, “NO CAPES!!!” said by the Superhero Costume Designer, Edna ‘E’ Mode.

Edna 'E' Mode "No Capes"

As we are on our way through Cape Cod Canal to the Cape Cod Bay on our way to Provincetown, it occurs to me how many capes we have sailed around so far.  Growing up I spent many summers near Cape May, NJ and took a trip to Cape Cod as well but I guess I thought they were the only two of their kind.  Since we have returned to the States from the Bahamas, we have sailed around Cape Canaveral (FL), Cape Hatteras (NC), Cape Fear (NC), Cape Henlopen (DE), Cape May (NJ), and Cape Cod (MA).  Later in the week we head to Maine and will pass Cape Neddick, Cape Porpoise, Cape Elizabeth and beyond – we’re not stopping till we round the Cape of Good Hope, then we’ll conquer Cape Horn and …..  oh, I guess I got a little carried away.

We said goodbye to Jamie as he took the ferry back to Boston and we left the marina for a much cheaper mooring.  We spent two more nights, did some walking around town, Matt did some dinghy repair because, well because something had to break, and Graham and Amy grocery shopped in the single most expensive grocery store on the planet but, we were happy to pay their exorbitant prices.  Not really.  On the eve of our departure, there was much excitement.  The mooring field was as crowded as a drive-in movie.  It was different from the anchorages we have been to because there has always been more distance between us and other boats.  In Block Island, we were on top of each other.  Anyway, it was Saturday night and every body was out and about – either on deck or at the marina for happy hour.  The DJ was an amusing mix of mostly 70s, some 80s.  Amusing to Amy, that is; enough to make poor Matty’s stomach turn and he had to be outside as he was fixing the dinghy by last light.  Amy showered and put on her party dress, literally, and brought her newly acquired bean bag chair up to the cockpit so she could listen to Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and Van Morrison.  As the boat shifted in the wind, the sound of the music would fade and return and it was as if Amy got to play a big game of music trivia because you could only hear certain parts of the songs.  Matt and Graham will never play this with Amy so she had a ball.

As the night wore on, Matt made pizza from scratch and we settled in only to be awakened by what, at first, sounded like a marital spat on a neighboring boat.  Graham and Amy went above to discover the husband was on the large fishing boat off our bow and the wife was in their dinghy off our stern.  He was yelling her name and telling her what to do to get back to him as she was drifting out to sea.  She could not keep her motor engaged.  Our dink had already been hauled for our early morning sail else Matt would’ve just gone out to get her.  Finally, the husband sent the local help boat after her and, after circling her and not seeing her dim dinghy light, they finally found and towed her back to her mooring.  By that time, her husband had left the mooring and motored off in the direction she had floated screaming, “JOANIE!  JOANIE!”  (Name has been changed to protect the innocent.)  All was resolved in the end.

Word of the Day

pelagic \puh-LAJ-ik\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans.
2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms.

I was reminded of certain kinds of pelagic birds that move at ease in the air or on the ocean, but have a hard time walking.
— Ross MacDonald, The Blue Hammer

However, the real slaughter, the one that all the maritime nations of the world opposed and strove to abolish, was pelagic sealing, the kind that Schransky particularly enjoyed and from which he profited enormously.
— James Michener, Alaska

Pelagic is derived from the Greek word pélag which meant “the sea.”

Our first guest blog!  From Jamie:

I took to the sea for 4 days as a 4th class mariner on a 40 ft boat named troubadour with a family whose name is fit for the sea.

(really six days but 6 doesn’t fit by 2 with this 4 theme I’m working)

The Gillman family reunion complete, we launched from annapolis, kissed by lynn, who thankfully skipped busting the champagne bottle since it warn’t inaugural and a waste of champagne. We cut east from the naval academy and north up under the spans of the bay bridge. I had been an overer many times but was a virginal underer. Then a hot path up the chesapeake past lord baltimore hon’s namesake and anchored down where the bohemian river turns to bay for one hot night.

By morning it cooled. We upanchored and started a nonstop squiggled 76 hour line towards block island. In marinerese; a passage.

We cut through the chesapeake and delaware canal which was planned with the blessing of ben franklin in 1788. When completed in 1824, it reduced the sea travel distance  between philly and balmore hon by 300 miles and saved us probably an extra day or two at sea.  Hats off to our engineering ancestors.

You can just see Jamie's head on the bow as Troubadour passes through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal

At canals end, we turned right on to the delaware river and waited for river to turn to bay to turn to ocean, or, fresh to salty.  12 hours later that all had happened.

Wind power and nuclear power in contrast on the Delaware River

But so did day turn to night. Poor tiny troubadour sneakin around leviathan tankers chuggin ill gotten goo towards the philadelphia refineries.

Still we harrowed through and watch turned to sleep and morning brought by chart, not chance, atlantic city, tiny, portside.

The day motored on and watch swung back and newbies at the helm, in their inaugural concert, had a boating lesson from a crab chasing rainbows and a bad onboard teacher. Still we survived and then a minefield of buoys, an indoor rainstorm, and day turned to night and watch to sleep.

Waves lapped. Hours rolled, and a gentle sea heaved us northward.

Morning brought the radared promise of long island as a thick fog reminded us of our human vulnerability, and made us appreciate capt ahab’s less technological skills.

Mattie at helm, mother and child asleep, and 4th class seaman on bow, we picked through the soup to have block island burst forth from the fog a quarter mile from harbor. All hail capt matt. Destination dead on. (Child joined 4th class seaman on bow for the presentation of the island while mother joined capt the same in cockpit)

we splurged for electricity and showers, lunched like royalty, and patted down for a guaranteed cool night.  Block island fulfilling its quaint promise.

A million ahoys to the gillmans of troubadour- Matt amy and graham.

Notwithstanding, it being hot as bleep for a good portion, it was for me, a lifetime memory; confirming yet again our blessed friendship and its connection to the sea.

(As provoked by interesting boyfriend turned father turned husband with dreams enough for all of us)

Jamie

PS to the casual reader we did not have chateaubriand for breakfast. It is simply an authors license.

From Cambridge, we sailed to Annapolis where it all began.  This is where we purchased Troubadour and lived on her last fall until we sailed to Hampton.  On our way there we heard several shout outs from the Coastguard.  As you may know, there are three levels of threat and they are, in ascending order:

1)      SECURITE, SECURITE, SECURITE

2)      PAN PAN

3)      MAYDAY

Normally we hear “SECURITE” messages all day long but we heard quite a few “PAN PAN” messages on this trip.  Then we came across a situation ourselves.  We sailed up onto a smaller craft, a Flying Scott sailboat, which was swamped with water.  Two men were aboard and we circled them several times asking if they needed help but they couldn’t hear us over the wind and our engine.  At first we tried to tow the boat, hoping that the bailers might drain the boat.  Ultimately, Troubadour is not much of a tow boat and we hoped a power boat would come along and take over.  Not only would it be faster for them but we were on a schedule to get to Annapolis.  Finally, they decided the boat should be abandoned and come aboard Troubadour.  We tossed them a line and they followed it in the water to our boat while Graham got the ladder ready.  They were shivering pretty badly by the time they were resting in our cockpit because they had been in the water awhile.  Not a whole lot of body fat on these guys either to keep them comfy.  Matt reported the abandoned craft to the CoastGuard and we took them to shore.  We found out a few days later that they did recover the boat but that it had drifted five miles.

Finally to Annapolis, we met up with our friend, Jamie there for his fourth visit to us during our travels.  We returned to Davis Pub for their crab dip and then anchored out for what we thought was the hottest night on record.  Little did we know what the next night would bring.  Now I will let Jamie take over, for he is a far better writer than I.