A Barrel of Salt Pork

Learning to sail on Eggemoggin Reach

Camden was close, the weather had broken, and amazingly the wind in our favour, so we decided to take the scenic route via Fox Islands Thorofare.  This convenient and scenic east-west 8 mile passage across lower Penobscot Bay made us feel we were really “doing Maine”.  Anchorages abound, bays are not all filled to overflowing with (expensive) mooring balls, seals search for their dinner, so it is still possible to experience remote Maine as it may have been 100 years ago.  Except for the lobster pots!

Outer Harbor Camden

Windjammers however, were in our sights.  Camden’s well protected inner harbour was packed with ‘em, by crikey….  Camden has done itself proud.  The harbour, though compact, has been well planned and great care taken to be transient sailor friendly.  The place was head to toe with windjammers and day trippers; the little village catering to every need, including a nice little greengrocer.  Supplies, and access to them, are important when you need to restock regularly.  (We can only keep 3 to 4 days of fresh goods at a time.)  The Cap’n found a good bookshop to resupply his dwindling stock of Mark Twain books and GS was able to pick up Kaffe Fassett’s latest really, really cheaply (compared to aussie prices anyway).  Other than that, Camden is just steeped in nautical history.

Camden's Inner Harbor bursting with Windjammers

Down on the harbour, our Cap’n took a tour over Schooner Lewis R. French, a 65 footer launched in 1871 and currently Maine’s oldest.  She’s taking just 21 passengers for multi-night cruises of the Maine coast.  Sounds romantic and so it is; windjammers look just stunning out on the water under full sail.  Mind you, we discovered that “windjammer” was a disparaging term once used by steamship seamen to describe a sailing fleet then considered old-fashioned.  We didn’t dare tell WJ3 – no ruffled feathers on our little (fibreglass) gal thanks!