As par for the course, when we departed Somes Harbor, we had only a small idea where we would end up by the end of the day. We were aiming for Seal Bay, but we weren’t sure if we would take one or two days to get there. With Wil at the helm, wind and currents happened to be in our favor, and we ended up at Seal Bay. Along the way, I did some “house” cleaning, and the kids got to work on their necklaces.
Seal Bay was the first anchorage we found that’s large, protected from the all wind directions, and secluded. It is also it’s own little world. As we neared Seal Bay, there were seals on the rocks basking in the sun. An occasional seal would also swim past. We have found the seals to be quite shy, and they quickly dive as you get near.
seals just before we arrived at Seal Bay
basking in the sun's warmth
For our first two nights in Seal Bay, we anchored away from any other boats. We had a ton of laundry to wash, and we would be strewn with clothes on every line. The whole team was involved in the clothes washing routine. As I stood on the transom with a bucket of salt water and a bucket of fresh water, I washed the clothes. The rest of the crew would either bring more clothes to me, or hang the wet clothes out to dry. I washed until there was no more room to hang anything else. Later, Colin’s favorite pair of blue jeans escaped from the clothes pins, so Wil “fished” for a couple of hours trying to catch the two-legged item. No such luck.
While in our first location in Seal Bay, we all had some simple fun. We circumnavigated Penobscot Island in the dinghy, a feat that must be done at high tide. While letting the dinghy glide without the engine we’d listen to the silence until it was broken by the osprey’s cry. We watched a pair of osprey fly overhead. We explored the most incredible rock faces that rose high out of water.
incredible rock formation
incredible rock face
horse muzzling an eagle ~ can you see it?
On another day, Wil and Colin explored a small rock pile island, and discovered just how stuck your feet can become in the incredibly thick mud. Colin brought out his BB and paintball guns, and both kids had fun firing at the rocks behind us. (the paintballs are biodegradable and turn to powder after they dry) I stretched out a lot of muscle soreness with some yoga on deck while enjoying the solitude and beauty of the anchorage . . . after the kids were done shooting.
Soon the weather would be changing with the possibility of thunderstorms, and we needed to decide whether to move further into the anchorage, or head out in search of a new anchorage. After a long day of school, we decided to move further up the bay where we knew we wouldn’t have to worry with any strong winds. Fortunately, we only had rain.
We would say good-bye to Seal Bay the next morning . . . or so we thought.
