Portland to Bath, wall

While still hiding from the Atlantic as much as we could we skittered about the islands until we absolutely had to go outside. Thankfully, it was a little roll-y but mostly harmless (still settling from the hurricane). We only had to bear that for about an hour and, with the exception of having to steer around crab and lobster traps (I still call them "prop traps"), it was dandy.

Navionics, the mapping tool we use, took us on a small cutoff off the ocean, rather than continue a bit further to get into the main channel. It looked good on paper. But we told Highwind not to try it. Due to the tide/current/winds colliding it created some standing waves that were around 4 or 5 feet. We struggled against the current and it wasn't particularly deep there. At one point I saw 3.5 feet beneath us. It ended fine, but created a needless amount of fret.

Maine is glorious cruising.

Two years ago we'd been to Bath. That time we came from Booth Bay and went through Hell Gate to get to Bath. The plan is to do that in reverse when we leave; head to Booth Bay from here. That will be our northernmost point this year. We'll basically turn around and head back to Baltimore.

Also, last time we moored on a ball outside a boating museum. It was one of the more harrowing moors we've ever been on, with and out going current around 5 knots and a sketchy mooring ball. This year we're staying at the town dock, which is free. But we noticed the museum no longer has balls, and built a dock wall as well. Good thing! It seriously was terrifying. Our plan B was to stay there if this pier was full.

Lovely boating day.