Although the Maine Lobster Festival officially went on for four days, we only spent any real time there on two of them.  After all, how much lobster and Festival is enough.  Friday 7/31 was our primary day at the Festival because we had tickets to the Tower of Power concert that evening and that included our Festival admittance during the day. 

In the morning we met up with Vaughan and Linda for breakfast.  The dinghy dock was packed and we had a hard time finding a place to tie up.  When it is just cruisers, people tend to leave their outboard motors down so that you can pack the dinghies tightly without damage.  But here most of the people are on seasonal moorings and their dinghy is at the dock for long periods of time.  So they leave their outboards up to

Next we met up with Richard and Lorraine. It was a beautiful day in the harbor and we headed into the Festival. 


First we checked out the Maine-specific art tent.  These were either Maine artists or writers or things that were made in Maine. 

One of the best things about living aboard full-time is that we can study and admire art, but very little of it actually comes home with us.  There is no room for nicknacks on La Vita and the walls already have art, so something must go for anything new to be purchased.   Stephanie and Lorraine met some Maine authors and looked at some books;  Richard and Drew found a bench to sit on outside where they met some of the locals, including Mrs. Knight, owner of several marinas in town.

There was a clay sculptor working on a fish.  He had just completed a mermaid to add to his collection but complained that she was drying too fast -- it was just “too dang hot”.  It might have been 80 deg. 

Finally, lunch time!!  Single lobster dinners (corn, a roll and cole slaw) were $16; double lobster meals were $30 and triple lobster meals were $36.   Considering how many people were eating here, the operation was very efficient and the lobster were cooked well.  Not as good as Colin used to cook on Pier 15 New Year’s Eve, but still good.  They were also serving steamed clams, fried fish and some other stuff. 

avoid growth on the props and we had to be careful not to tie up behind them. 


After breakfast we walked through the local bank that was hosting an art exhibit.  Then we said goodbye to the Legacy crew for now; they were headed back to the boat to move on.

Tried to get Drew and Richard to pose with King Neptune and the pirate kids, but they declined. 

There were lots of options for desert, but we choose the fresh-filled cannoli.  Stephanie had hers with chocolate drops on the ends.  Yummy yummy!


Every year the Navy sends a ship into Rockland Harbor for the Maine Lobster Festival and conducts tours several times a day.  This year the ship was the USS Tortuga, a 610’ dock landing ship.  While we have been on a lot of military ships in the last four years, we had not been on an active Navy vessel so we jumped on the tour boat that was taking visitors to the Tortuga. 

It took about 20 minutes for the tour boat to get us out to the Tortuga; she was anchored at the far end of the harbor.  We boarded through the rear cargo doors. 


The Tortuga had a huge cargo bay and inside they had large “combat rubber raiding craft” (CRRC). 

Then we climbed up the loading ramps to the main deck.  The Tortuga can land and launch helicopters from this deck but none were there today.  But there were soldiers anxious to show off their guns and humvees. 

Lorraine got into the spirit of things and posed with some kind of automatic rifle and the soldiers.  The Tortuga has a crew of 350 but during deployment may also carry up to 400 marines and their equipment.

We were pleasantly surprised that the tour didn’t end there; next we climbed up several flights of stairs to the rocket launchers, guns and the bridge.

The quarter-master was at work with her charts and the XO even came by to answer a few questions.  A most excellent tour!

The tour ship that the Navy chartered to bring us to the Tortuga was coming back to collect us so we had to leave.  The tour ship sure looked small from the bridge deck of the Tortuga!

When we got back to the Festival, we made our way to the north entertainment tent to listen to some bluegrass music.  They were okay but we were anxious to get to our seats for the evening’s main event, Tower of Power!


Everyone at the Festival could watch the TOP concert, but we paid a few dollars extra to get a seat to sit it.  Turns out we didn’t sit much.

Even King Neptune showed up for the concert!  Our warm-up entertainer was a comedian, Nancy Morgan.  Must have been female humor because Lorraine and Stephanie thought she was funny but Richard and Drew were bored.

But what a great concert from Tower of Power!  The band has been together for 47 years; there are still three of the original members on stage.  Everyone was especially glad to see the bass player back on stage after a kidney transplant.  The lead singer, Ray Greene, is new; in fact, he may not even be 47 years old, but he energized the band and was a phenomenal vocalist.

TOP played straight through for about two hours.  After the concert, Lorraine and Richard had to drive back to their B&B but we had to take the dinghy out into a dark mooring field and find La Vita.  The day before we had just been discussing how we had not seen any harbor police in Maine.  Harbor police and/or Fish & Wildlife constantly stop dinghies in Florida and Texas to check for safety equipment and sobriety.  Tonight we found out they do exist in Maine; we got stopped on the way home.  They were very polite, checked for our life jackets and lights and told us to have a great evening.  Since they don’t serve alcohol at the Festival, sobriety was not even an issue.

The next morning the lobstermen were busy fishing right in the mooring field.  The sun comes up about 5 am so these guys are out working by 5:30, waking everyone up and creating a wake.  But worse for us, we worry about getting the pots wrapped in our prop when we are coming or going from the field.  We really don’t understand why special anchorages are not off-limits for lobster fishing but assume it is because the commercial fisheries lobby is stronger in Maine than interests representing pleasure boaters. 


We decided to take a break from the Festival on Saturday morning and go for a road trip since Lorraine and Richard had a car.  This way we could see some of Maine we wouldn’t otherwise see.

Our first stop was Rockport and the Graffan Bros. Seafood Shack.  This was recommended to us by Charlie the diver.  We sat at comfy picnic tables and split a lobster roll (only $13 out here in the country) and fried haddock.

We had heard from Vaughan and Linda that the anchorage in Camden was too rough (southern exposure) and the harbor floats would not accept boats larger than 40’ so we decided to visit Camden by car.

You can certainly see how tight the inner harbor is!  The harbor floats line the channel, each having a boat tied to each side, along with the constant parade of larger boats coming in for slips, schooners taking out passengers and lots of little boats zipping around.  Camden was certainly a good harbor to visit by car!  Town was very touristy.

We did some shopping, tried some chocolates and headed down to the schooner dock.

These schooners were not new construction; most were built in the early 1900’s.  So they don’t have auxiliary engines to motor in and out of the harbor.  They use their small yawl boats to push them out of the harbor, then tow the yawl boat while they sail, before using it again to push them back into the harbor.  We had seen a couple of examples of this in Rockland.

Next we drove to Lincolnville; there is a public beach at Lincolnville and lots of families were playing on the beach.  But it was cold -- we had on jackets and were huddled on a bench together.  Some of the beachgoers were wrapped up in blankets -- this is not the summer beach weather we are used to!

So we kept going, inland to the Savage Oaks Vineyard.  Seems like every state has some vineyards but most bring in their grapes from other places, like California or Washington.  But the Savage Oaks Vineyard grows their own grapes for their wines (except two and one of those is made from blueberries). 


We went in for a tasting - never had blueberry wine before so at least needed to try that!

The owner was very nice and we learned a lot about Maine wines.  Turns out she sails on the schooner Mary Day out of Camden often.

Most of their wines were sweeter than we like but we did find a dry Chardonnay to take home.  And by the way, wines are made out of grapes not blueberries for a reason.

What a wonderful day with great friends!  The crowds were packed in their seats for the Saturday night show when we got back to Rockland -- Don McLean was playing.  We headed back to the boat and listened to him from the cockpit.  The music was great and we were already home when the concert was over!


Lorraine and Richard were headed home the next day and they had to drive to Portland to get their flight.  So we met for breakfast before they headed back.

In 2005, the Tortuga was the first Navy ship to reach New Orleans Naval Station after Hurricane Katrina and used these CRRC to rescue residents of the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

We went to the Home Kitchen Cafe.  There was a wait, but the food was worth it!  Richard was sure that the short order cook looked like Drew and that was why the food was so good.  Lorraine’s blueberry pancakes looked great!

But all good things must end and we bid them goodbye (after we had them run us to the grocery store).  Now it was time for us to eat the stores we have on board for a few days and recover from having company!

The mooring field in Rockland is very rough, primarily due to wakes from the ferries and the watermen, but also from other pleasure craft.  We hadn’t noticed it much when we were gone all day but now it was really a problem.  Especially since on Monday the wind was blowing over 20 kts. constantly, causing even more waves and making it too rough to get off the boat.  The Rockland Municipal Marina does not have a launch so to use the Rockland Yacht Club launch is $20 each for a round trip. 


Tuesday morning we were ready to head out, even though the weather was not perfect.  First thing we took our laundry to town, walked the three blocks to the laundromat and got that chore finished.  Just one of the “non-romantic” things about cruising that has to be done.  Then it started to rain so we didn’t actually leave Rockland until after noon.


Our next stop was Carver’s Cove on the island of Vinalhaven, only about 13 nm away. 

We wanted some-place quiet and without so many lobster pots.  Carver Cove has a straight forward approach from the Fox Islands Thoroughfare. 

Turns out that a straight forward approach was good, as the fog built in after we left Rockland.  But it cleared again as we entered the western end of the Fox Islands Thoroughfare.  A ferry runs several times a day from Rockland to Vinalhaven so there was a nice avenue down the middle of the lobster pots.

We will stay here a couple of days to unwind and catch up on some boat chores.  There is a little town about two miles away called North Haven that we can take the dinghy to and explore.  Our next stop after this will be Isleboro, another island in Penobscot Bay.