September 14, 2013 Day 115 East Penobscot Bay
Mooring ball at Eaton’s Boatyard, Castine Harbor
Castine, Maine
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| Sun is rising on Eggemoggin Reach at WoodenBoat School |
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| One of the sailboats we saw today! |
We
left the lovely setting of Eggemoggin Reach in front of the WoodenBoat School
at 9:45 and ventured further into this pretty expanse of water. It is known as a favorite sailing area, and
although we did see sailboats, some even large, the calm breeze did not make
for good sailing. However, we liked it!
The scenery is beautiful here with islands, hills, large homes on the
rocky and yet tree lined coast, and lighthouses all making their contribution
to the view.
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| Again, the incredible scenery here |
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| There are no shortages of lighthouses here! |
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| Entering the Castine Harbor |
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| Carried Away on a mooring ball in Castine |
We
continued on to East Penobscot Bay and arrived in Castine Harbor at 12:30. We
picked up a mooring ball (reserved in advance) from Eaton’s Boatyard. They
maintain five mooring balls but we have recently been aware we are coming to
the end of the season here and we did not need a reservation. Many boat owners are having their boats
pulled out for winter storage. Many marinas are also starting to remove their
floating docks. By mid-October, it will
be quite different here in Maine!
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| Eaton's Boatyard is a 200 year old building |
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| One of many early homes |
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| Next to Maritime Academy - may be President's house |
After
we got secured on the mooring ball, we had lunch on board and then took the
dinghy to the dinghy dock at Eaton’s.
The boatyard building is over 200 years old. We paid the owner for our dockage and talked
to him about Castine. He gave us a good
walking map of this historical town and we used it all afternoon. Castine has a long history dating back to the
1600’s with settlements of France, Holland, England, native Americans, and
Colonial America. It became a town in
1796. There are many historical homes in
Federal and Greek revival style. We saw the Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Church that dates to 1790. It had a Paul Revere bell from 1802-1832 and was replaced
by a larger one made by Revere’s son.
The Post Office is the oldest US Post Office continuously in service
since 1833.
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| The State of Maine training vessel |
Another
major presence here is the Maine Maritime Academy. One of its training vessels
is the 500 ft. State of Maine, a
former mine sweeping ship. The schooner Bowdoin, which we saw in Halifax, is also part of the fleet but was not in port today.
After
our walking tour, we stopped for ice cream and then came back to the boatyard.
The owner gave us two free lobsters he cooked and saved for us. How nice was
that! He has several lobster traps and
these were caught today. Since we had
lobster for dinner last night Joyce cleaned these and froze the meat. She had
already prepared chili for dinner.
After
dinner we watched some college football and Bill worked on his bird carving.
Tomorrow we will go to a marina in Rockland, ME for two nights.
