Southwest Maine Coast - Part 1
- Sean A.
- Sep 17, 2021
- 3 min read
While we were in Portsmouth we tried to pick the brains of any other boaters we could find for some good Maine destinations. Portsmouth Yacht Club was a bit of a bust, but the marina staff on Badger Island clued us in to a few alternatives to making landfall in Portland. We set off headed North with a strong breeze intending to anchor at a place called Chebeague Island, ME. A mostly great downwind sail got a little dicey when we entered the narrow approaches to Portland where the wind and currents funnel and intensify. Our reefing system (designed to haul in some of your sail to reduce power) is a constant source of pain, and it jammed like clockwork here requiring some troubleshooting on the fly. But, as this was happening we got our first look at some Maine wildlife as a whale popped up to take a look at the boat.
It's a little stressful sailing to a place you've never been, not knowing how empty or full the anchorages will be when you arrive after a long day at sea. This time we were lucky and the southern cove of Big Chebeague island was wide open. Our guidebooks said to anchor off of a stone pier, but we could see none. As we milled around a local boater let us know it was gone and we were about to drop the hook right where the ferry would be arriving. He suggested a spot with good holding and we got settled in for the night. Chebeague Island is really two islands, connected by a small shoal which only appears at low tide. It is somewhat less remote than Cuttyhunk but still only accessible by boat and ferry. There is a shop, an inn, and one cafe restaurant that becomes a bar at night.
We had also been clued into a place called Snow Island by the folks at Badger Island with the sales pitch being that it was completely remote, totally quiet, and largely undeveloped. This sounded exactly like what we had hoped to find when we made the decision to continue North of Boston, so we weighed anchor and made our way after a few hours sail east up the Maine coast. Snow Island is a seasonally inhabited island in the middle of the pristine Quahog bay. You can't make a landing there (or just about anywhere else in the bay...) but the island is owned by a wealthy philanthropist who founded the conservancy that provides sewage pump-out services, garbage cleanup, and an oyster farm in the bay.
We were running low on water but planned to refill at the Safe Harbor marina in the bay, until we learned that they had none available (???). They directed us to Dolphin Marina a few hours away, so we decided we'd spend a night on a mooring ball, visit their restaurant and take on water while we were there. However, there too we found "no water available". Yikes. At least the restaurant was good... This appears to be a pretty common thing in Maine, and something no book or person had really warned us about. Most of the Maine islands don't have municipal water supplies, and are served by wells or trucked in water. Thankfully we were able to sneak ashore with our jerry cans and take a meager water ration after the dock hands let us know where we could find a spigot.
As it turned out, plenty of water was on the way as Hurricane Henri made his way up the East Coast, looking as if it would smack Maine right on the nose. Quahog Bay is supremely sheltered from all directions, so we headed back there to ride out the storm along with some other folks we had met at Dolphin. We arrived pretty early to find the anchorage mostly empty, but as the day went on a parade of boats arrived with the same idea. In southern Maine I think you would be hard pressed to find a better place to hide from a storm, and all we got was a free boat wash with torrential rain.
This was just the first of two storms that pinned us down in Maine for weeks, but we'll talk about that one next time.
-Shiloh Crew
Happy to hear that all is well after the storms! 😅
Stay well and safe!!
Uncle M