Matinicus: Ten Miles Offshore
The closest land to the island called Matinicus is another island, Vinalhaven. Vinalhaven lies almost due north, but it is not how we got here yesterday.
We are about halfway from Portland to Roque Island. (Great Waas and Roque are just above "164" and "66" on the chart.) We have intentionally skipped over some beautiful anchorages and we intend to visit those places on our way back west after reaching Great Waas and Roque.
The cape that sticks out into the Atlantic in the lower left hand corner of the chart is Cape Ann. Our first night in Maine was in Portland, shown as 0006 on the chart. You can see where Bath is. Yesterday's trip to Matinicus left the mainland at Boothbay (unmarked) and came straight east to where the boat icon is now.
On this chart, which zooms in on the coastline, you can see Booothbay Harbor and our snail trail which threads through some small islands and then heads east to Matinicus where the boat icon is.
Today, we will head ten miles north to Vinalhaven, which forms the "bottom" of Penobscot Bay. Neither name is on the chart.
The chart below shows the boat icon, which is where we are on Matinicus. It also shows Vinalhaven Island, which is to our north.
We plan to thread our way through the islands at the southwest corner of Vinalhaven. There include Hurricane Island where Outward Bound first started. Then we will come up the west side and enter the Fox Island Thoroughfare that separates Vinalhaven from North Haven.
We will either head east past Scraggy Ledge and drop an anchor for the night in amongst the small islands of Merchants Row. Or we will continue around Vinalhaven to its east side and enter a remote part of the island that shows a green anchor at the head of an embayment. We will let you know which one we chose for tonight!
Going back to Matinicus, here is a video Jeff took from Andiamo's fly bridge last night.
There are moorings for the boater to grab. On each mooring there is a cylinder with a water-proof top on it. Inside the cylinder is a map shown below. It is also the visitors' practice to put in $20 to $40 to help pay for the mooring for a night. All operates on the honor system.
We're off shortly!
Cheers,
Andiamo
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