It was a lovely evening, with clear skies and a big, bright moon. The forecast tailwinds hadn't fully arrived just yet, so the water reflected the stars and lights ashore like a slowly undulating mirror.
Calm ocean waters made for an easy passage (and brief opportunities to sail)
When the wind finally did arrive, we were already well clear of Grand Manan. We hoisted the spinnaker for about half an hour, before the wind went back down to less than one knot. We waited around for another half an hour before deciding it wasn't coming back soon and fired up the engine again.
Our day pretty much went like that. Sail for half an hour, bob around for half an hour, and then motor until the wind resumes. In the end, it took us over ten hours to go twenty-five miles and we had an engine running for eight of them. I reassured myself by thinking it was at least not into headwinds.
Roque Island had been one of our favorite anchorages in Down East Maine, so we decided to make it our first stop this time. The last time we were here, Begonia was the only boat, and I remember being struck by the complete lack of artificial night at night.
This time, there were several boats scattered through the big anchorage, as well as a group of lobster boats at one end of the beach enjoying a family get-together on their day off. We don't know if the extra boats were because it was a weekend, it was later in the cruising season, or that there are more boats generally than there were the last time we were here eleven years ago.
Still, Roque Island is a beautiful, pleasant place, even if there are more anchor lights about. Since we have the electric dinghy motor now, we spent the next day exploring the surrounding archipelago as much as we could and having chats with the other boaters over the rail as we passed by.
Roque Island is private, so we can only go ashore at one (beautiful) beach, but we also managed to explore about the shorelines of the various inlets near our anchorage. The last picture is a large fishing net snagged on the rocks (we reported it to the island owners, so hopefully they can safely remove it)
[Maryanne]Note:We have both a 2024 DTOPS sticker for Begonia (DTOPS = Decal Transponder Online Procurement System) , and the CBP ROAM app (CBP = Customs and Border patrol, ROAM = Reporting Offsite Arrival – Mobile) - these mean that we can simply call in by phone to register our arrival, sometimes with a video chat, and so far never needed to actually see Customs and Immigration in person. This makes it really easy to arrive in the USA (as a USA boat) and not have to go direct to a marina/major city to clear in. We love it. On this trip we were prepared to go to Cutler if requested, but grateful that we didn't need to.
Anchorage location >> On google maps
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