Long Cove, Tenant's Harbor 43°58.3N, 69°11.5W

So I met up with Max again in Rockland, Maine, after a good time in Miami with Kady, and a flying visit through NYC. Unfortunately, it was such a short visit I didn't have time to see many of my friends, but I did see Greg, and we're heading back towards the big city. Max and I were both keen to get out of Rockland, and left the next morning in fog and rain. Didn't matter: with a little help from the radar, and a boost from the engine, we cruised down the coast in white out fog, dodging the ubiquitous lobster pots, boats and some shipping traffic. Heading for home. (Wherever that is).

We tracked a big shape on the radar following us, but couldn't see it. Ultimately as the main shipping lane turned, a big boat appeared close on our port stern. It was the Sunshine, a big purse seiner from Rockland, heading for sea (its photo is above). They courteously slowed, turned behind us and crossed our wake.

If you look closely, you can see the little launch the use to 'close the purse'; it's pulled up on the stern. The drag a giant big net around a school of herring and then close it up. Paul Jacques Cousteau Maxwell explained that they vacuum up the fish! They also pump them out of the hold when they get back to Rockland. The seagulls go crazy, and the seals bob around munching on the scraps.

Reversing the steps Greg and I took on the way up through Maine, we anchored in Long Cove for the night, near Tenants Harbor. It's a very protected spot, but like the way up, it seems to be a fog machine: we couldn't see a thing, but seared some meat on the barbie anyway, and had a giant vegetable salad. YUM!

Max also winched me to the top of the mast. In NYC I was able to collect nearly three months of mail, kindly stored for me by my mate Henry, and in the pile was the long awaited LED anchor and tricolor lights. These are amazing looking things, and they do wonders for our energy consumption. You see, we almost always anchor out. This means that any power we use, we have to put back into the batteries (we can't simply plug the boat into shore power). We also almost always sail; as we're not using the engine, we sometimes we have to start the engine and fast idle it at anchor simply to spin the alternator and charge the batteries. I HATE running the engine when we don't need it. As Greg always says when I propose hoisting a sail "it's a sailboat isn't it?". Well, the LEDs plug into the same slots as the former incandescent bulbs, except they draw around one-tenth of an amp per hour. At night we fly an all-around white anchor light at the mast head so other boats can see us, and to fulfill our legal obligation. We can run the new anchor light for ten nights on the same amount of power the old bulb would use in one.

Great to be on the water again.