Since we really hadn’t had a chance to see Boothbay we decided to stay another night at the yacht club and spend Monday walking around the bay to town and seeing what there was to see. Mostly a tourist town full of trinket shops and ice cream shops it was still a beautiful walk through old homes and businesses, across a footbridge and back to find the palm ball bowling alley we had heard so much about shut down due to the owner passing away. We then wandered back to the yacht club exploring dead ends while enjoying some ice cream cones we found along the way. We retired to Libra, enjoyed a quiet dinner and crashed early while listening to the sounds of thunder in the distance that eventually became a torrential downpour, lasting throughout the night. Good thing I’ve re-bedded everything and we have little to no leaks!



Our plan Tuesday was to get going slowly and head over to the Damariscotta River and up to Cavis Point where some friends of ours, Chris, Lissa and Sean Kelly from the PNW are vacationing at their family’s property. As the morning’s fog burned away, we set the 170 and soon wished we hadn’t as the wind piped up to 15 to 17 knots and we flew along on a tight reach at 6.5 knots (kinda fast for Libra). But soon we were around the corner and had her poled out, then jibed behind the bluff and into its’ windshadow in the Darmariscotta River. Soon under power due to lack of wind, we motored the last mile escorted by Chris in their family runabout to a mooring off their property. A very protected river with about a knot of current on the ebb and flood, a nice settled mooring for a couple of days. We enjoyed walking the grounds while MacIntosh wore himself out with their family’s dog Aspen, a female yellow lab that enjoys swimming and chasing tennis balls even more than Mac does. I know, hard to believe. Needless to say they became best buddies and when we tried to take everyone out to the boat later Mac had to go to her rescue!



Jennifer, Mac and I led the group out in our dinghy and were halfway out to Libra, not more than 50 yards from the dock when Chris was trying and failing to get Aspen into the other dinghy. Seems the two dogs aren’t fully alike and Aspen has a fear of boats. She wanted to come but just wasn’t sure and when Chris reached out and grabbed the scruff of her neck to give her a little pull into the dinghy she let out a small yelp. Well that was enough for Mac and he immediately launched himself out of our dinghy and into the water to defend Aspen. He was sure she needed his help! He swam hard for shore to stay with her on the beach while we all went out to the boat. Funny stuff what labs do, seems Mac found a great friend. We spent the evening relaxing at their waterfront home enjoying lobster and steak over red wine and stories. A fun evening with old and new friends and two very tired labs at our feet.



The night on the mooring was very calm but cold. One of the first cold nights we’d had in a long time where we never opened up the front hatch. By morning the winds were ripping down the river and with the sun out we spent a very pleasant morning getting ourselves together before I took MacIntosh ashore. Onshore, I met up with Chris and noticed it was low tide - we should try for some clams on their beach. No luck on the clams, everything we found was empty shells, but we did find a good amount of Mussels at the low tide line. We gathered up enough Mussels for a good side at dinner and returned to the beach house. What to do next? It’s always tough when you don’t have a plan. “Well, the place across the river has good bloody mary’s. How ‘bout we hop in the runabout and give ‘em a try,” smiled Chris. Good idea! So we gathered everyone up and loaded the group of 8 and one lab in the boat and motored across the bay to some great bloody mary’s before crossing the river again to South Bristol and walking up to the small local store for ice cream. A very strenuous afternoon I assure you.