Wildflowers 2024 Bartlett Lake Reservoir

Carol Freshley March 16, 2024

When it comes to photographing AZ wildflowers, Bartlett Lake is always a favorite. There are about 6 easy pull out spots along North Bartlett Dam Road that make it easy to safely pull over and within feet you have abundant wildflowers. The lake offers a nice background for wide angle photos.

Mid-morning along the road leading to campgrounds. Bartlett Lake is lower than I have ever seen it before.

A spent thistle! The geometry fascinates me!

My brother, Steve, setting up for some high speed sync macro photography.

H Barbed Wire 2 Point. Steve, like many photographers, is happy to find old barbed wire. The history of barbed wire is quite interesting. Look it up!!

On the road to the Cove Restaurant for lunch.

Looking north from the Cove restaurant at the marina.

Hmmmmm . . . . I suspect some major Tom Foolery going on here!

Wrapping it Up

Carol Freshley July 9, 2023

This is a wrap up post with a collection of leftover photographs that were taken ‘just sailing along’ of lighthouses, interesting homes, morning fog, etc. My hope is that they round out the feeling of sailing on the Mary Day. There are a few photos from the flight from Boston to Rockland on Cape Aire.

The Curtis Island Lighthouse, located at the entrance of Camden’s harbor is still operational. It is now owned by the city of Camden. What I found rather interesting is reading the history of the lighthouses we sailed by. The ones that are still operational have undergone many changes over the decades to modernize them with better lights, automate their operation and take advantage of the latest technology, such as powering them with solar panels. If you are a lighthouse aficionado you could head to the coast of Maine . . . it will take a summer plus of effort to see them all.

Same lighthouse as above and quite a different look in fog!

Indian Head Lighthouse is one of the larger ones we saw. When I returned home and looked up more information about Maine’s lighthouses I found that most all of them had similar trends of sporadic renewal, upkeep and modernization. This one is now privately owned by the Pattison family.

To reach the Rockland Breakwater visitors must walk 7/8 mile on the breakwater itself. It was built in 1902 and was automated in 1965. It is owned by the city of Rockland but operated by the Coast Guard. According to the American Lighthouse Foundation, “The lighthouse shows a flashing white light every 5 seconds from a focal plane of 39 feet above sea level that is visible 17 nautical miles. The light station is equipped with a fog horn that sounds one blast every 15 seconds.”

I hope I have identified this one correctly as Brown’s Head Lighthouse on the island of Vinylhaven. It was automated in August 1987, at that time, Captain J.E. Williams, commander of the Coast Guard group in Southwest Harbor, remarked: *“Soon the manned lighthouse, like the dinosaur, will be a thing of the past. With each automation and unmanning, a little bit of our nautical history slips away.”*

This is the Burnt Cove Lighthouse at the entrance to Swan’s Island where we stopped and walked around the lobster fishermen’s CO-OP. The lighthouse is still operational but has a unique feature in that the Keeper’s House can be rented by the week!

This is Goose Rocks Lighthouse. This spark plug looking structure marks a killer ledge just below the water’s surface. It was built in 1890 but in now fully automated and solar powered. It is possible to stay there for a night. Check it out on the internet if you are interested.

This is typical of the island scenery we saw.

There ware many beautiful homes along the way. I kept thinking, “Who lives there? How do they get there?

We are going to sail right under that bridge. Right? The Mary Day looked a bit taller than the space . . .

Whew! You caught it at the perfect moment, Gary.

There was some degree of fog early every morning. The cool mist added to the serene, very quiet and peaceful sense of being in the right place.

The fog developing behind us was growing into a fogbow (yes, there is such a thing).

A bit of a different image. This is the P2012 Traveler run by Cape Aire. It seats 10 and was our transportation from Boston to Rockland. From Rockland we took a taxi to Camden, about 10 miles. I have not flown on such a small plane in a long time.

Having wings above the windows allows much better photo-opportunities.

Soon I would be seeing such a coastline from the sea! I was sooooooo excited.

Thank you for sharing my 10 day journey. A special thanks to Diane for suggesting the trip and then keeping her good sense of humor as she battled a bad case of bronchitis the whole trip. Thank you Gary for your photo contributions. A very special thank you to the crew of Mary Day for making my time aboard so memorable. When I look back over my photographs I can almost feel the gentle motion of the boat, the taste of delicious food, of friendly conversations and the sights and sounds of Maine’s rugged coast.

Trips Ashore

Carol Freshley July 8, 2023

Each day all Mary Day guests were invited to go ashore. We were transported by smaller boats and usually had an hour to spend on shore. Our first shore trip was to a rocky beach in a quiet cove where we had our lobster boil. This was, of course, one of the meal highlights of our cruise. Truth be told, however, all of our meals and treats were spectacular.

Disembarking to head for our lobster dinner on the beach.

Pretty sure this was taken during low tide.

A lovely tablecloth across a paddle board made a great table to serve up our feast. In addition to lobster there was a salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn and potatoes. There was probably a dessert but I was so full of lobster that I did not have any.

The delectables were stacked on a bed of seaweed.

I ate two lobsters. I could have had a third! Leftover lobster was part of a dip later in the trip. It seemed like very little food was wasted.

Our second trip ashore was Swan’s Island, a fishing village located 6 miles off Maine’s rugged coast and only accessible by a daily ferry. Home to about 350 year round residents, the main industry is lobster trapping. We had a choice of hiking to the lighthouse or wandering around the dock where the lobsters were brought in. Diane and I chose to stick to the dock.

Lobsters are banded as soon as they are brought to shore. The are separated based on whether they are hard or soft shell (soft shell indicates a recently molted lobster). Hard shelled lobsters are worth more because they can handle longer transport distances. Breeding females must be returned to the ocean.

After their arrival inspection, lobsters are put in crates and lowered into oxygenated pools of ocean water to be kept until transported to the mainland.

Lobster traps, or pots as they are sometimes called, are designed to entice lobsters in with bait, usually a salted herring or other fish. Each trap has an easy exit so that smaller fish and lobsters can get out of the trap.

The trap is designed so a lobster enters through a funnel and the netting makes it more difficult for the lobster to get back out. However, quite a few do escape and I heard that up to 90% of lobsters may come and go from the traps! I have not been able to verify that number.

Lobster traps are weighted and then lowered to the ocean floor. They are suspended to surface buoys. Each owner has their own color coded buoy to identify the the trap belongs to them. As we sailed in Penobscot Bay, we saw hundreds of these colorful buoys.

We could see some lovely homes up the hill from the dock area.

Gary chose to hike to the lighthouse and shared a photograph of the cemetery he passed on the way. Nice view as a permanent resting place.

When one is on the deck it is not apparent just how beautiful Mary Day’s bow is. I also like how Steven capture both the anchor on the side of the schooner with the other one in the water.

Our third trip ashore was to visit the WoodenBoat School which is located in Brooklin, ME. The schools was started in 1981 and offers classes for wooden boat enthusiasts in how to design, construct, maintain and repair their own wooden boats. Their students come from around the world.