Day Two

Day Two

The next morning we got up, had a breakfast of Merry's delicious home-made granola and then imposed on Rob to take us on his boat around Booth Bay Harbor.  Rob had a very seaworthy 25 foot-or-so outboard.  We paddled the dinghy out to the mooring, cast off and then motored into Booth Bay.  We saw porpoises breaching the surface and a large boat reminiscent of Rodney Dangerfield’s yacht in “Caddyshack” leaving the harbor completely ignoring the "no wake" regulations in the harbor.  Booth Bay looked exactly as it had 45 years ago but I imagine the stores were a little fancier and the food a little more upscale.  Rob pointed out some houses owned by fellow Clevelanders, including the Norwebs, Marshalls and Newells.

Rob offered to dock for a few minutes at Squirrel Island for a walk down memory lane.  He dropped us off at the dock and Ann and I spent a quick half hour walking around the island, which eventually I was able to put into the perspective of my 12 year old brain (the last time I had set foot there).  We saw lots of islanders walking past us staring vacantly ahead and were reminded of “Children of the Corn”, a movie neither of us had seen that we believed involved some sort of mass mind control.  We discovered later that they were going to the dock to meet the ferry.

Squirrel Island, Maine

Rob then cruised through South Bristol and then back to Christmas Cove where we packed up and skedaddled--we had a 2pm boat out of Rockland that we could not miss.  We had a leisurely drive up the coast to Rockland and had time for lunch so we went to the old school Rockland Cafe where they served us seafood chowder, fried clams and shrimp salad.  Totally legit, as my kids would say. 

We then went to the grocery store to get provisions for Matinicus (there is no store on the island).  Our shopping list was wine, beer, ice, a cooler, and a bunch of produce.  I made the mistake of challenging Ann to a shopping smackdown--the produce included a lot of items and sounded very complicated and my stuff seemed easy--wine, beer, ice.  Seemed like a guaranteed win.  Sadly, Ann crushed me by showing up at the register while I was still wandering the aisles in a confused state looking for beer.  Apparently all the produce is in the same place.  Who knew?  Never challenge a woman at grocery shopping.  No upside.

We got to the marina with our luggage and groceries in plenty of time and met our captain, George, who welcomed us aboard the Robin, a 40 foot steel and fiberglass diesel power boat that seemed like it could handle anything mother nature threw at it.  We powered out of Rockland and got to Matinicus in about an hour and a half. George led Ann to believe we would likely see whales on the way out.  On the cruise, I told Ann we were doing the punching game (as in your kids see a Volkswagen on the highway and punch one another) but with whales.  Unfortunately, no whales.

As we approached Matinicus we saw a big party underway on the beach.  There was a good sized tent, music, beer and a couple of grills.  We got to Matinicus harbor a few minutes later and saw Peggy (Ann's sister) and Peggy's husband Alan on the dock waiting for us.  We said goodbye to Captain George, threw our luggage and some blueberry bushes that Peggy had ordered in the back of Alan's Ford pickup and headed off down a dirt road, the girls bouncing in the back of the pickup with the luggage and the blueberry bushes.  A mile or so later we pulled up to their beautiful little cottage on Condon Cove.

Alan's Pickup

Peggy and Alan's daughter Grace rode in on her bike a few minutes later.  She had been at the beach party and saw our boat come in.  Apparently, the party on the beach was a wedding.  When Grace left the beach the wedding had not yet begun (two hours after its scheduled start), the guests had already drunk two kegs of beer and the groom had not yet shown up.  The groom may have still been recovering from a bachelor party that was the talk of the island involving several strippers flown in from the mainland.  All of this will make more sense to the reader after tomorrow's installment which will be a short primer on Matinicus Island, its people and its culture.

Alan and Peggy's House

We got settled, took a walk around the property and met a couple of neighbors.  The setting was spectacular--they had a commanding view of Condon Cove and looked East over the Atlantic--next stop Portugal.  We had a glass of wine on the deck and were treated to a delicious lobster dinner.  We stayed in a guest bedroom above the kitchen that was accessed by steep stairs.  Ann looked at the stairs and concluded that death or severe injury was imminent.  She spent the night with one eye cocked on me in case I should get up to go to the bathroom and fall to my death, while I kept one eye cocked on her to make sure she didn’t get up and sleepwalk and tumble down the stairs (I am not making up the sleepwalking).  Nobody got hurt but nobody got much sleep either.