What’s round and broad with a hog in between? Our last stops and adventures in Maine. Round Pond, where we’d looked out upon the boats from shore over four years ago, was the perfect spot to spend a couple of nights. Padebco Custom Boat Co offers moorings and we got one with enough swing room. The snug harbor is protected every which way except east with room for pleasure and lobster boats alike. As you might guess Round Pond started out as a working harbor; in the 1800s residents quarried granite and hosted pirates like Captain Kidd. Even Joshua Slocum stopped here in his Spray during his round-the-world trip.
A few miles before Round Pond sits New Harbor (also located on Pemaquid Neck’s eastern shore) where Shaw’s Fish and Lobster Wharf offers an outside deck and bar as well inside dining. We’d heard that several scenes from 1998’s Message in a Bottle were filmed here. The harbor is narrow and laden with pot floats and moored boats so we only stuck our noses in far enough to take a few pictures.

Bob, the 84-year-old captain of s/v Vintage, required some assistance when a seldom used troublesome sail refused to be furled in.

Thursday we moved north up Muscongus Sound all of 3nm to anchor in Greenland Cove which happened to contain precious few pots and moored boats; we had a huge space all to ourselves in 11-20ft. Hog Island which lies across the narrow channel to the east of the cove’s entrance was our afternoon destination. The entire island (2 miles long) is a preserve and the site of an Audubon Society center for education. We walked several trails (footpaths really) that led us down the island’s eastern shore, crossed over to the west shore and back up and over to our starting point at the north end.
We came upon huge wigwams built over the trail in a few places. The woodlands changed in composition every few hundred yards but pines, dead, tall and new ruled the island. The island contains one of the oldest forests in Maine as it hasn’t been touched in over 150 years.
Our final stop on this one way trip is Broad Cove Marine in Bremen, Maine. I breathed a huge sigh of relief; not one lobster pot was snagged this entire trip. Whew! We knew the worst area would be right at the finish line and while the coverage didn’t appear quite as extensive as in June 2010, this last stretch of just a couple of miles was a mega lobstering zone.

A mostly working marina, Broad Cove also offers dockage and moorings to pleasure craft, fuel, a teeny, tiny grocery and the requisite fresh lobsters and a small snack bar with oysters, crab, lobster 5 different ways and sides. What more could we want for the next five days? Maybe laundry ? Careful what you wish for right?  In this case, a decent front loader and two dryers; whodathunk?

Fog rolled in for a  two-day visit and we just went about our business as did all the lobstermen.

The nearby island residents use the marina as their base for coming and going which is good business for Broad Cove and how convenient to pick up a few fresh-caught lobsters on the way.

Packing and cleaning consumed a ton of time and every single bag, box and container was placed into service. Maine Cat would be coming soon after our departure to fetch Ms Ortolan for her spa treatment-which every woman deserves no matter what her skin is made of.

A few phone calls assured us our U-Haul would be available and all we had to do was get it and so a taxi was scheduled. Sun filled the skies; could you imagine us making 12 trips in, the dinghy filled with stuff, then lugging it in a cart up the ramp and through the parking lot in the rain?? I shudder to think of it.

So long, farewell our home for four years. No more trying to sail on yesterday’s wind; the wind has shifted and well, it darn sure better be a kinder, gentler wind from now on!

Our adventures are not over; there’s a whole country waiting to be explored, donut shops to be discovered, trails to hike, scenery to ooh and aah over, people to meet and the list goes on…..have you seen Robin Williams in the movie “RV”?  🙂