Bath to Quahog Bay, anchor

Two things made us start the day later than we typically do. Firstly, tides. Which is funny since we totally screwed that one up, more later. The second one was really wanted to go to the Maine Maritime Museum. Having bought a membership to the Mystic Museum waaaaaay back in June we could tour this one for free.

Like Mystic's museum, this was a live museum. Unlike Mystic's, this one used to be completely real. Established from the old Percy & Small Shipyard, builders of large wooden ships, the museum simply used all the buildings for their exhibits. The result was outstanding -- not only were the buildings original, but all the tools used were there as well. Huge sawmill, joinery, blacksmith, paint making, rope --  all there in life size. Right on the ground you're exposed to the scale of ships they made. A life-size scale sculpture of the Wyoming is one of the first things you see on the grounds.

Scale sculpture of the Wyoming, built here in 1809.
Build on that exact location, as a matter of fact.

A model of the Wyoming

If you click to enlarge you'll see the sculpture, but
below it are the tracks she was launched from.

An idea of how they made the museum.
This is the mill. Even the lumber remains.

Too long to keep the model of this is the building they
made line in. It's over 2 blocks long, so they could 
create long lines for the ships.

A ship play yard, and inQuest on the water.

We spent a few minutes talking to a docent that was also a teacher there. The museum has 5 schools that offer "boat building" classes that he teaches. The students are bussed to the museum from their schools. They learn safety, how to use the tools, and by the end of the year, they've built themselves a toolbox, a stool, and, collectively, 2 small boats. One boat is donated to the school, who use it to fund the following year, the other to the museum, who also use it to fund the following year. Kinda brilliant.

Our speed in in the top left hand corner.
5.6 knots. Sometimes as low as 5.2 knots.
Usually we got 8.5 knots.

Around noon we headed back to inQuest. The tide was still coming in and high tide was around 1:30. So we knew we'd be battling the current a bit getting to the Atlantic. We had no idea  -- it was a huge battle. At times we were only going 5.2 knots. Good thing fuel isn't crazy expensive or we might have been frustrated by that. 😅

The Kennebec River is not to be trifled with! The current there is scary strong at ebb. We clocked around 3 knots. We've been told it can be close to 5 with the right conditions.

THIS is how I like my oceans.

Once we hit the Atlantic we got back to our normal speed. While not a clear, blue sky day there was zero wind. Almost made me want to run all the way to Portland since the water was so lovely.