Askari Sailing: Tenants Harbour, Maine

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Tenants Harbour, Maine

31^st July Andrew got up at 4.30am and motored Askari quietly out of Portsmouth Harbour, it was a light wind day however we were keen to make some progress ‘Down East’ so decided to see how far we could get with a few options for our final destination. We ended up motor sailing for the whole day but were treated to one of the most amazing displays of wildlife we have ever experienced despite sailing over 40,000 miles.

The first thing was a huge shark – Andrew saw come right alongside us; its likely to have been a great white, it was mostly underwater but the shape was unmistakeable. Then there were lots of seals and what we thought was an injured seal but as we got closer we could see it was an Ocean Sunfish (Mola Mola) – it just blobbed along on the surface with a floppy fin surfacing.

The whales were the most amazing (about 11 in total) we had both fin and hump back whales all around us, at one point a fin whale surfaced right alongside Askari leaving us both a bit shocked – we love seeing them bit this was a little close given it was almost as long as the boat. The hump backs gave the best display just cruising and arching with the occasional tail splash but not breaching.

Over the last year we have got used to spotting boats built by Austal (the Company Andrew used to run) but hadn't expected to see any on this coast of US, so when we saw Alakai appear on our AIS during this trip we were kind of excited. She was one of the first boats built by Austal USA for Hawaii Superferry - her story is the subject of an interesting book and she ended up being owned by the US Government now leased to a Canadian operator.

Alakai

We dodged lobster pots all day and finally made it into Tenants Harbour, about 90 miles, around 4ish in time to walk ashore and explore this beautiful quiet spot. We found the Quarry Tavern after being caught sneaking through a pile of lobster pots and the owner asked us if we were lost!?! We had a fantastic dinner that night after watching the sunset on the deck of the hotel.