ortolancat

Pemaquid Point lighthouse as we rounded the point

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.

New Harbor on Pemaquid’s eastern side

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.

Looking out away from the marina toward Oar Island

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.

A lobster boat arrives with the day’s haul.

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.

Do you think Ortolan is maybe just a wee bit lighter? A new waterline not seen in years 🙂

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 much stuff!! Kayak and isotherm for sale- and we’ll stuff a bus with the rest!

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”? 🙂

Finally! A seal photo – taken between Boothbay and Pemaquid

No offense Plymouth, but Pemaquid has the real deal. Pemaquid was the site of early Native American settlements and the name means “point of land.” We visited Fort William Henry, a Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site tucked into the western shore of Pemaquid Neck (Maine has many “necks”, those being what I call the long fingers that reach out from the coast into the ocean or a large bay).
M/Y Rena (destination: Somewhere Sunny) was anchored off the fort and we could have done the same but opted for a more scenic and protected spot across John’s Bay behind Witch’s Island.

Notice how the boat’s colors mirror the landscape?

The site features a museum/visitor center, the partially reconstructed Fort William Henry, Fort House, village, Burying Ground, boat ramp and pier. The site has an amazing long and varied history and is the last of many forts we’ve visited by boat. One of the brochures is a detailed time line of events starting at 1605 with the capturing of five Native Americans and ending with a planned village excavation in 2009 (Looks like that was done).
Here’s a few dates of interest.
1614-John Smith explored and mapped the Pemaquid area 1621- Samoset, a Native from the Pemaquid area, welcomed the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation 1622 – area fishermen gave the Pilgrims supplies 1625-ish- a permanent, year-round, English settlement was established at Pemaquid 1677 – Fort Charles was built and the settlement named Jamestown was reestablished having been destroyed a year prior 1689- Fort Charles and the settlement destroyed – again by Native Americans 1692 – Fort William Henry built to prevent France from expanding its territories southward (we had to remind ourselves just how close to the Canadian border we are) 1696- Fort William Henry destroyed by a French and Indian force 1729 – Fort Frederick built on the ruins and a new settlement established
By 1775 the fort was decommissioned (1759) and smartly the town of Bristol voted to dismantle it. You perhaps can guess, this being 1775 and who would want the British to occupy the fort? Not again that’s for sure.
The Fort House was built in the 1790s and a farm established. Beginning in 1869 efforts were made to excavate the site, inventory the gravestones and promote historical Pemaquid. Finally in 1993, Colonial Pemaquid was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark. At some point after the first fort, the huge rock was subsequently enclosed within the walls of the next fort, taking away the “boost up” invaders would use to gain entry. This photo does not do it justice.

Now, did you know any of that? Why is Pemaquid a sorry second cousin to Plymouth? Geography and lack of shops, eateries, parking and all that good stuff that draws in visitors.
The tiny rocky beach offered up a handful of sea glass. One of the displays at the museum showed old pottery pieces and one looked exactly like pieces I’d found at Burnt Island, but still jagged, the ocean and rocks not yet having worked their magic.