Askari Sailing: Boothbay and Harpswell Harbours

Boat yard party with Crystal Blues and Supertramp

Friday (18^th August 2017) was an early start at 6am, which after a night out with the CBs and the Tramps was a bit tough, but we were keen to get to Boothbay Harbour before a South Westerley wind and rain arrived. As it turned out we only got a bit wet coming into the harbour and finding our mooring ball – it turned out that there was heaps of moorings but knowing the weather was going to be a bit rough we had booked ahead with the Tugboat Inn. What else to do on a rainy day (and this was torrential) but chuck on our fowlies and head to the pub! We had fantastic local food at the Inn – I tried Finnan Haddie, a smoked haddock and hard boiled egg creamy dish which came with red potatoes, absolutely delicious. Then we retreated back to Askari and waited for the rain to pass.

Full Foulies coming into Boothbay Harbour

Pedestrian Bridge in Boothbay Harbour

Beautiful Boothbay

Schooner from 1894 being rebuilt

Saturday turned out to be a glorious day and we went to explore the town and foreshore before meeting up with friends Tim, Nicky and their boys who were holidaying in Maine from Rhode Island. Tim dreams of going cruising today and Nicky is learning to sail so when we invited them out to see Askari in beautiful Boothbay Harbour they were pretty excited, but not as much as there boys were when Andrew gave them dinghy driving lessons and finally let Hunter have a whizz on his own. It was a really fun time with this beautiful family.

Andrew with the boys

Hunter whizzing along on his own

Andrew shows Shep the controls

Us with Nicky & Tim

Sailing to Harpswell

Sunday morning had a leisurely start on a lovely sunny day with light winds and actually got a sail in on our way to Harpswell Harbour, about 30 miles away. We thought we might spend a few days around Casco Bay, but when we arrived in a great anchorage spot with only a few other boats on moorings and Ospreys swooping all around we decided to stay and relax while the next wind came through on Monday. We ended up spending 3 days here and caught up on our maintenance, gave Askari and good wash and did all the laundry. We took the dinghy over to Bailey’s Island where we went for a nice walk and enjoyed a fantastic Lobster Roll whilst watching the eclipse. OCC members, Steve and Jodie on Ena Vigo also came on on Monday and we enjoyed a great sundowner with them and the strong winds didn’t end up being as bad, although there was still a really big swell running when we left on Wednesday afternoon.

A local guy lent us his welding mask to watch the eclipse

Watching the eclipse at Cooks Lobster House

At Cooks Lobster House, Bailey Island

Bailey Island

Bailey Island Wharf

Osprey returning to her nest

We were now starting to run up against our schedule a bit so left Harpswell and headed out to Biddeford Pool on Wednesday – it was a day that was just yuck! We tried to sail but the wind and sea was just awful, so in the end we just yanked the main sail down in the centre and powered into it for 25 miles – I have nothing nice to say about this trip and all the way we weren’t sure if Biddeford Poole was going to be a good choice – it looked like it could be rolly from the charts in the area we could get in to. However, when we arrived and grabbed a yacht club mooring it turned out to be just perfect. There’s a totally stunning white sand beach, a really friendly yacht club and a small store/restaurant in this upscale enclave at the end of the peninsular on the South of Saco Bay. We were sad it was only a pit stop as we certainly could have spent a day on that beach…. We had our last lobster roll in Maine and watched an incredible sunset as the tide rushed out leaving rocks and sand banks all around us. We forgot all about the yuckie passage to get here.