Portland

Underway from Birch Point with BZ and WD aboard at 9:30 AM.  We headed down river with BZ at the helm and headed out the New Meadows between Flag Island and Long Ledge.  Then we headed west between Ragged Island and the White Bull.  We had started a little later than we wanted to and were hoping to see some of the lobster boat races in Portland Harbor.  After that there were supposed to be Tugboat Races!  We were traveling along nicely with no wind to speak of so we decided since we were late anyway and in no real hurry, we'd go out to Half Way Rock.  We had never done that before.

We found Half Way Rock Light to be in a state of disrepair for the most part.  The light tower looked okay, but the boat house and access ramp were not in good shape at all.  However. there must have been 25 or 30 seals swimming around out there, so the fishing must have been good.  BZ had yielded the wheel to WD because she wanted to take photos.

From Half Way Rock, we headed for Ram Island ledge light.  That is in a state of disrepair also but it is privately owned, so perhaps there is some hope for that one.

Across the bay at the mouth of Portland Harbor is the poster child lighthouse for the State of Maine, Portland Head Light.  That one still stands tall and is in pristine condition.

I was concentrating on getting a photo of Portland Head Light with the light blinking when, BAM, we hit a pot bouy!  Pieces of Styrofoam came flying out the stern of the boat and we were slowed down by the weight of the trap at the end of the line, which was not cut by our cutters!  We finally got rid of the trap, but we still had line wound around our shaft and if we sped up, we got a severe shimmy in the boat.  What to do?  We decided we would head slowly for home at 6 knots!

I did take a photo of the Portland Breakwater Light before we turned around.

We turned eastward and came along between Mackwith Island and first Little Diamond Island and then Great Diamond Island.  We crossed Hussey Sound with Long Island to our right and passed between Long Island and Little Chebeague where there is a State Park and plenty of boats were anchored enjoying the beach on Little Chebeague.

We came through the passage between Great Chebeague and Long Island and went between Hope Island and Great Chebeague.  We passed between Hope Island and Sand Island and went out into Broad Sound.  We came across Broad Sound into Potts Harbor.  All of this at 6 knots so we had plenty of time to plan what we were going to do next!  We came out of Potts Harbor into Merriconeag Sound.  We headed north to the Cribstone Bridge.  We went under the bridge at pretty near low tide, but not quite.  The depth sounder alarm went off so it would not be a good idea to go under the Cribstone at dead low water!  From here, we headed east again across the bay and up the New Meadows River.  We stopped for gas at Watson's on the way home.  We arrived at Birch Point at 4:45 PM.  A good time was had by all in spite of the rope on the propeller shaft.


WD called Jimmy Kohling and had him dive down and get the rope untangled.