THE MAINE EVENT

August 23, 2007 (our 2006 arrival was August 24!) - September 19, 2007

We tied up to the eight ball (mooring #8) at The Eddy Marina in the late afternoon. We gave Willis and Merry a “we're glad to be back” blast from our big ship's horn. Our full day trip over from Castine was pleasant with nothing out of the ordinary happening. The two hour passage up the Sheepscot River, loaded with lobster buoys, seemed less difficult than last year. I think we had good buoy dodging “practice” going up and down the New Meadows River and our back and forth passages on the Sheepscot last year. So, we know what to expect now, and just deal with all the dodging in and out, side to side, and back and forth. This is the Maine way, and it is worth the aggravation.

The following represents our activities during our month's stay in The Eddy. If you are a new reader you can scroll back to the posting from last year to learn some of the interesting historical information about this area of the Maine coast since I haven't included it again this year.

Checking out the 'hood

We were eager to revisit our favorite walking route, Shore Rd., a 2 mile dead end woodsy and hilly, minimally populated, residential street with little traffic. Several of the homeowners were so used to seeing us last year (the people with the little black dog); they waved a cheery hello again greeting and inquired how long we would be here this year. We were eager to investigate any changes.

The Mail Wheel

Charlie and Priscilla were still sanding off the old paint from their shingle siding and putting on a primer in preparation for the final painting which they hope to complete next spring. What a laborious job that has been. They are both avid gardeners, so it is fun to stop and chat with them about Maine horticulture. At their garage sale last year, Wayne bought two Maine plant themed tee shirts which have proven to be his favorites.

Sandy's flower gardens are the talk of the town, and we were once again treated to showy displays of rainbow colors and varying sizes and shapes of so many different species of flowering annuals and perennials. I get a chance to see flowers that I've only seen in books, since in Florida we are so limited in what will grow because of the high heat and humidity. Walking through the gardens is a treat to the eyes and nose.

The house whose foundation was just being constructed when we left is now completed and occupied. It was the only construction site I have ever seen where a Bible radio station's music played! We noticed some land clearing and flagging on several vacant parcels-soon to be, new neighbors!

We found some wild blackberry bushes and picked berries for our breakfast cereal. The ancient apple trees are bearing small apples that no one wants to bother with. I pick some and make apple crisp and an apple/squash casserole.

Blackberries

Fall Harvest

One of the residents with a big vegetable garden puts “excess” produce out along the road for people to take for free. We always check out what has been set out and have helped ourselves to tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers.

Walking late one afternoon an approaching car pulled over by us. The driver rolled down his window and identified himself as a detective with the local police department. A squad car stopped behind him while he spoke to us. Since we were almost to the end of the public road he said “I can see you are out for a walk? Don't go beyond the turn around at the end. There was a body there today, and it is a mess” Despite this being such a small community it took a couple of days to find out that a 22 year old son of one of the Shore Rd. families had killed himself with a gun. Having left no note, verbal reason, or behavioral clues, the poor family was devastated. Since we had had a friendly conversation with the young man's mother last year, we were sympathetic for her loss.

The Edgecomb Congregational Church sits at the top of the hill. Last year we put all our recyclable glass and plastic into their collection bin. They take it to local Redemption Centers whereby they collect the refund monies and use it to support their charitable ventures. Last year I kept seeing road signs that pointed to so-called “Redemption Centers”. I thought that it was some sort of Maine religious “thing” until one day we actually went by one of the centers and I was able to see all the piles of glass and plastic around a tiny little shack of a building. Then I realized what the redemption part of the sign meant! We still laugh about that today. And to think that people make jokes about the backwardness of some Mainiacs!

We went to the church supper one Saturday night. For $6 we were able to try all kinds of local homemade dishes and desserts. There were so many people we had to wait to get seated, so we browsed their thrift shop and picked up paperback books for 2/$.25. Everyone likes a bargain! Since the proceeds were going to benefit the local volunteer fire department the (one) fire truck and fire fighting gear was on display for people to see and ask questions about.

Field of Wildflowers

A side path off Shore Rd. takes us up through the Singing Meadows. This 16 acre parcel of land was formerly part of an old saltwater farm and is now managed by the Boothbay Region Land Trust. The open fields support a variety of wild flowers which in turn provide food and cover for grasshoppers, cicadas, crickets, and katydids. The wet areas of the meadow provide habitat for frogs. Several species of birds are attracted to the amphibians and insects; thus the meadows are always full of one kind of “singing” or another. I always marvel at the sounds, many butterflies, and the wispy seeds that sparkle in the sunlight as they are blown about by the wind over the meadow.

Construction and Demolition

No time was wasted getting going on construction of a new floating dock for the marina. Willis already had the lumber, tools, and building plans in hand. The project moved along swiftly with many helping hands. The new dock won't go into the water until next Spring when the marina opens for the boating season.

Floating Dock Project

In with the new dock, meant out with one of the old ones. Cutting up the old water-logged dock into small enough pieces to be able to handle and load into a truck to take to the dump is not easy work. But with everyone helping, and our experience from last year, that nasty job went quickly.

Willis had built a new lobster tank, and Eddie jumped right in to give it several coats of paint to help better preserve it .These work projects earned Eddie a new name: Chief Fulabul Takabrak (translated is Full of Bull Take a Break. The reasons would be obvious if you had been on the job site).

We all enjoy going out with Merry & Willis to watch them pull up their lobster traps. While I'm always hoping to see lobsters of legal size I also like to see what else may be in the traps: crabs, starfish, and mollusks. All the new things just mean poor Merry & Willis have to put up with more questions from me, but they are always nice about sharing what they know!

Passing Time in The Eddy

Time always passes quickly moored on the eight ball at The Eddy Marina. Even if you stayed on FLUKE all day you would be treated to a 360 degree panoramic view that continually changes throughout the day and doesn't allow you to be bored. The swirling currents in The Eddy keep FLUKE moving, and the 9' tide makes the shoreline alive with activity.

We go into the marina every day to: walk, help with marina business, kibitz with Willis & Merry and the locals, and work on special projects. If Willis is helping a customer with lobsters, we go out and help fuel up boats or even airplanes. Yup, we were witness to the first airplane dropping down over the trees into the river “valley” and pulling into the dock for fuel: a 1957 2 passenger Piper Super Cub, a cute little toy plane by my definition. It took several pairs of hands to secure the plane to the dock and safely get it off again with the current racing by. Carrying 2 heavy people, the pilot has to be very cautious how much fuel he takes on (only about 10 gals.) so that the plane will not be too heavy to be able to get airborne.

Airplane at Eddy Marina

Willis & Merry got a new computer, and Wayne transferred all the files off the old one onto the new one and set up the new one to do all they wanted. That project took several days between making the on line purchase, transferring the files, and getting the bugs out of the system to be compatible with their existing printer, hardware, and software.

Merry cooked up one of her lobster and clam fest guest feasts for us and two other couples who also reside in Vero Beach during the winter months. Her overloaded table is a blaze of reds between the steaming lobsters, napkins, tablecloth, and traditional plates and bowls decorated with lobsters.

I have to talk about Fast Eddie. He keeps his Sea Ray motor yacht here during the summer months, so we had the joy of meeting him last year and were looking forward to seeing him again this year. He is a man lost in time, a throw back to the 50s, and he is genuine, vintage of that era in heart and soul. Somehow he managed to find a woman to marry named Sheri, and all that I can think of is that song, “Sheri, Sheri Baby . . “ every time I see them together. For a while he ran a drive up restaurant called Fast Eddie's decorated with memorabilia from the 50s and waitstaff on roller skates to take your orders from the car. He wears muscle man tank tops or sweatshirts with the sleeves cut off . He restores and sells old vintage cars (even hangs dice on the rearview mirror!), so we are always on the look out to see what car he will bring to the marina. His dinghy has flames painted on the side!

After the church supper last weekend he took our Eddie over to the local stock car races. As cheerful and gregarious as he is though, we suspect he is trying to kill us by bringing us the most delicious eclairs in the world, just like we remember eating when we went to the local bakery as kids in the 50s. I can just envision the crew of FLUKE being found adrift with dried eclair cream on our lips, having lapsed into a blissful state of unconsciousness from sugar overdose!

Speaking of which, Maine is one of the states with the highest rate of obesity, and it's not from eating eclairs. By my observations it is because of ice cream, as strange as that may sound, this being a state of the north, where by my Florida standards, it is just too cold on some days even in August to eat ice cream. It doesn't seem right to have to turn on the heat to eat ice cream. I have never seen so many places to buy ice cream as there are here. The serving sizes are gigantic. You eat it spilling out of a bowl, on a cone, on apple crisp, on pie, with cake, and shakes. Maine kids don't go out behind the woodshed to smoke any more, they go out there to eat ice cream. Last year, Merry & Willis took us to an ice cream shop that served the biggest banana splits we have ever seen, at least 5000 calories by a conservative estimate. Hey, I love ice cream, and have some in deep storage on my thighs, but when I saw the first one being served I knew there was no way I was going to safely eat one of those things, opting instead for two extra large scoops with lots of whipped cream (you couldn't see the ice cream) in a dish. Of course my fearless crewmates ate theirs. I heard “I can't believe I ate the whole thing” You would think after having me berate them for an entire year they would have sense enough not to go there again. But, no, what cries do my calorie challenged ears hear, “When do we go for banana splits this year?” “If you are going to eat one of those things, you are not going to get any dinner” “We'll have the banana splits” “Fine, pigs, it's your arteries!” “Hey, wait for me to get my sweater on! Can we turn on the heat in the car” I say as they are getting ready to go. Geriatric sugar addicts.

Eddie Willis Merry Wayne at "dinner"

Charles & Louise, my brother and sister-in-law, from Niantic came for a 3 night visit. We were happy to see them and have access to their car. We went over to Boothbay Harbor to eat lunch at a roadside fish stand (gigantic whale sized portions of tasty haddock) and to get, what else, but ice cream, in town. Boothbay Harbor, while still a working harbor for fishing and marine industry, is also a real coastal tourist town with many shops that sell everything from Chinese made tourist trinkets, tee shirts, fudge and candy, to fine pieces of art and jewelry from crafted Maine artisans. Even if you don't want to shop for anything, on a sunny day, it is nice to walk around the picturesque village and have some ice cream for a Maine energy boost.

Louise Charles Carol at Haddock Feast

Thumbs Up for Bet's Fish Fry

Downtown Boothbay Harbor

Footbridge across Boothbay Harbor

One windy afternoon Wayne, I, and Ursa took the dinghy over to Wiscasset to go to the post office to mail some things and buy some stamps. On the way back the $15 worth bag of stamps blew out of the dinghy. We dropped Ursa into the cockpit so we could look around in the water to see if the bag might still be floating, but we couldn't find it. When we got back to FLUKE we saw that Ursa had eaten the pecan/corn flake topping off a squash casserole that I had taken out of the refrigerator and put on the cockpit table to warm up before reheating it. It took her a full 2 days to completely poop out all the topping. Oh, we ate the topless casserole anyway.

Downtown Wiscasset

We were invited over to the lovely Wiscasset home of Dave and Sharon Nichols, another one of Eddie's old shipyard buddies. Dave also invited Sam, another co-worker, and his wife to visit for a great cookout feast. The guys had a real gabfest rehashing the old days, and Eddie was able to fill them in on his meetings with the other guys in CT. Dave is now a selectman for the town and was able to make arrangements for us to take FLUKE over to the commercial dock and fill up with city water. We had Dave and Sharon out to the boat for lunch one afternoon so they could get a feel for the cruising lifestyle.

A Fair Time

Like one evening last year we made a return trip to the Windsor Fair, but this time I took my camera to better share the festivities with our readers. Willis reminded Eddie to be on the lookout for a nice BMW (Big Maine Woman), one with more than 2 teeth, to bring home, but the Chief didn't have any luck.

Rotten to the Core

Pick a Target!

The night's featured event was the demolition derby which by my observations was mostly a lot of noise, flashing lights, and acrid smoke. I guess the country Mainiacs must like it though since the grandstands were full. I liked the tractor pulls from last year better.

The well-organized exhibition hall exhibits are always interesting: produce, homemade foods, country crafts, and Maine art. While the quilts had their own category, some of them were so beautiful I thought they could be in the art section.

Beautiful Quilts

Home Grown Winners

Take Your Pick

Beans, Beans, Beans...

We just happened to show up for the two crusted apple pie baking award. To the crowd's complete amazement, the second place award went to a man, Stanley. The presenter said he believed it was the first time in the fair's history a man had ever won a pie baking award. Stanley didn't look like a baker to say the least; a short rugged-looking man that I would have guessed should be working from a lobster boat. Obviously you can't judge a pie by its crust! I was disappointed to find out we wouldn't be able to eat the losing pies, with or without ice cream.

Maine Pumpkin Growers Humor

Big Winners

Speaking of which, Eddie and I talked all day about going to the fair and being able to have some soft serve ice cream even though I have spent the last year reminding Eddie about the server who sold Eddie the ice cream at the fair last year: he was a RBMM (Really Big Maine Man). When he bent over to scoop out Eddie's ice cream his pants slid so low on the back side I thought we were looking at the Continental Divide! “Hey Eddie, get a look at that before you take a lick. Yummy!” When we got to the stand you can imagine my disappointment at seeing a woman server. To make matters even worse, they were out of vanilla, and I had had my heart set on having a twistee of vanilla and chocolate. None for me thank you, I have specific requirements.

Midway Lights

Fair Prizes

A trip to the livestock barns helped get my mind off the ice cream fiasco. Seeing the odd-looking fancy chickens and feeding the goats is always good for some laughs. Also, it's hard to think about eating when you are weaving in and out of wheelbarrows full of manure.

What a Do

Carol's New Friends

The Wormers

My fascination and desire to find out more about collecting marine worms began last year when I would see diggers digging for worms at low tide in the big mud flats at The Eddy. Plus, Jim, a local digger, kept his excess worms in the water here off the dock, and I would see him coming by to put worms in or take them out of the boxes, as I called them.

Worming in The Eddy

Some of you coastal fishermen are already familiar with the sandworms or bloodworms because they are a popular bait for coastal fishing from Maine to Virginia on the east coast. I fished with them in CT years ago and best remember trying not to get pinched by the sandworm's strong, pointed jaws. You've probably gone to the bait shop and picked up a styrofoam container filled with seaweed and one type or another of the worms. However, I'll bet you know little about the hard work involved in collecting either type of worm.

A Handful of Sandworms

Despite my feeling that Jim seemed like a shy man, generally avoiding talking to people on the docks, I decided to make it a point to strike up conversations with him during his visits and find out more about the “business”. Once Jim knew I was truly interested in what he did, he graciously tolerated all my questions and even shared some personal insights into the worm world. His hands and tools are in the close-up pictures. Since Jim doesn't dig in The Eddy I couldn't get a shot of him in “action”.

Digging at low tide, a wormer has to wear heavy hip boots and wade through gelatinous mud. I can see where it would be easy to fall flat on your face. Using the long pronged hand tool seen in the photo, the wormer continually bends over driving the tool into the mud and turning up the heavy mud looking for the worms. Skilled wormers know which ones to grab first as the long worms quickly try to burrow back into the mud, and you have to be careful not to break them in half. Jim says a good stick will yield 6-7 worms at a time, but that is not the norm. Digging for a 3 hour period, before the tide comes up too high, a really good day will yield around 1500 worms, and some wormers may dig two tides in one day. Not wearing gloves, they have to be careful of the other things they uncover, such as broken bottles and shells. Plus, both types of worms can inflict painful bites.

The Digger's Tools

Jim currently gets $.15/worm when he sells to the wholesaler he and 5 other wormers supply. His wholesaler ships worms to bait shops on the east and west coast of the U.S. as well as overseas to England and Spain, where the demand is very high.

The worm storage boxes are called worm cars and are used to store the worms when the wholesaler has more on hand in a given day than he needs to ship out. The cars float in the water and have mesh bottoms to allow good water circulation to keep the worms in and the predators out. Sandworms and bloodworms have to be kept separated as the more aggressive bloodworms will readily kill and eat the sandworms. The worms can remain in the cars for 2-3 weeks.

A Worm Car

During one conversation Jim reached into his pocket for his wallet asking me if I wanted to see his license. I thought he was joking, but he showed me his 2007 Marine Worm Digger license. Assuring him I wasn't working for a warden, I asked him what the license allowed him to do. He can collect all the worms he wants, provided they are in the correct size category; undersized worms must be returned to the mud flats. He can sell the worms for profit. Collecting on Sundays is prohibited, but any other day, all year long is okay. You can try to collect up to 125 worms for your own bait, that is if you want to go through all the hard back breaking work and think you won't get pinched! Worm diggers are secretive and protective about their prime areas, so be careful where you dig.

Hints to Depart

Merry's vegetable garden has gone by. Our favorite flower gardens have mostly gone to seed. I haven't seen a hummingbird in a week. The leaves on the trees are changing color, and some are even dropping on us as we walk our favorite road. Acorns drop loudly, and squirrels are crunching nuts on other trees. Pumpkins and mums are being placed on front porches. Willis has logged 40 degrees the last couple of mornings, and we have run the heat when we've charged the batteries several times over the last week. We have blankets on the bed and sleep with out sweats on to try to keep warm, and no one likes getting up in the cold, damp boat. We know it's time to head south.

We've checked the weather forecast and see a window of opportunity to get us safely out of Maine waters. So, we'll say our goodbyes, post to the blog, and take the early morning tide down the Sheepscot River on Sept. 19.

We need to be in Solomons MD by Oct. 4 for the annual Krogen Cruisers rendezvous, a 4 day affair with lots of food and information exchange. This year is extra special because the event will also celebrate 30 years of Kady Krogen boat building and the manufacturer will be co-hosting. 100 Krogens are expected to be there, and many more people will arrive by car. We are looking forward to meeting new cruisers, hearing about their adventures, and learning about their boats.