Marionette was on a single handed cruise in Maine this summer - this particular story starts in Bucks Harbor on Eggemoggin Reach where Jim Kurt (The Rachel K) graciously let your webmaster use his guest mooring nestled in the cleft of Harbor Island shown at the left. A short side trip to The Rachel K will show you what a beautiful spot this is. Click to go there. Click the back arrow on your browser to get back here.

The following chart is of Penobscot Bay to Bar Harbor/Mt Desert Island - arguably one of the best cruising areas on the planet - and the focus area for Marionette's cruising in the summer of 2008.. If you click here you will see a large scale version of this chart with Marionette's Aug 6-8 cruise lined out in red. Click your back arrow to get back to this page.

At 9AM, on an overcast August 6th, Jim cast off my lines at Bucks Harbor YC. I motored out the west channel intending to sail down the west coast of Deer Island and spend a couple of days in the islands off Merchants Row. but the weather forecast was not good - rain and thunderstorms later in the day - so I decided, despite the 5-10 knot headwind, to beat up Eggemoggin Reach to Center Harbor in Brooklyn, Maine. Normally, as the name implies, this is a reach but today the wind was from the wet and patchy fog east. These picture are close ups of the chart for the western and eastern sections of the Eggemoggin Reach.

Brooklyn is where Steve White's famous Brooklyn Boat Yard (BBY) is located, specializing in classic wood yachts and restorations. Also Wooden Boat Magazine's 'campus' is located just east of Center Harbor. Their boat building school is there and their anchorage is a favorite destination for the Penobscot Bay/Camden schooners and cruising sailboats.

As expected, it started to rain just as Marionette entered Center Harbor, and wrestling with foul weather gear commenced. A mooring from was obtained from BBY right next to a beautifully restored Friendship sloop. The weather was not cooperating for picture taking so I wrapped up my laptop carry bag in plastic and rowed my dinghy 'Teer to the Boat Yard docks. (Webmaster Note: one cannot tow an inflatable in this tradition bound area so my inflatable was sent home replaced by a proper wooden dinghy - for more on 'Teer, click here - click your browser back arrow to return to this page)

I walked about one mile in the rain into the village of Brooklyn - which has a small but nice library with wireless access! No rest for your webmaster as Dolphin.org and related matters need daily attention. As lunch was skipped, an early dinner was planned at the downstairs Pub Bar of the Brooklyn Inn across the street. Two enjoyable hours of conversation and libation followed with a guy from the UK who, with his 3 friends, had chartered a Hinckley Bermuda 40 for some cruising in the same area.

The rain had stopped and your webmaster walked back to the harbor, and with doubts about where this mini cruise was heading given the forecast for rain the next day, was asleep by 8:30.

The next morning with a light mist, patchy fog and no wind, your webmaster totally encased in foul weather clothing, Marionette slowly motored out of Center Harbor at 7AM, past the Brits sound asleep in their Bermuda 40. Instead of taking the prudent way out and around the Torrey Islands to the main channel, Marionette took the inside "Dolphin" route, board up and eyes peeled, rocks everywhere - following Rule #1 - where the lobster pot buoys are, no problem, plenty of water. Where there are none, watch out!

I know this is supposed to be a short story but we are getting there. The next destination was a couple of miles east - the anchorage out in front of the Wooden Boat Magazine docks and boat building school campus. This anchorage protected by the Babson Islands is a favorite destination of the Penobscot Bay/Camden schooners, and a kind of Mecca for cruising classic sailboats. A very good place to look at boats.

The mist was less misty and the anchorage was waking up so I picked up a vacant mooring and pondered rowing to shore. I still had not decided where my final destination was on this mini cruise. I wanted to go to Bass Harbor on Mt Desert Island and hook up with Gary deLong (Savili). Click here to go to Savili Click your Browser's back arrow to return to this page. I wanted end up in Blue Hill Harbor where I had stashed my car so I could get home for the weekend - maybe I would just go there directly and avoid another day in the rain.

Still not sure, I cast off the mooring and slowly motored out the anchorage. On my way out I noticed the familiar lines of a J boat, maybe a J29 or J30 on a nearby mooring. It had a light blue tarp over the boom to give some protection against the rain. As I approached I saw that its name was Ragtime. A J boat named Ragtime!!? This is one of the most famous names in our sailing world. Rod Johnstone, in 1976, designed and built a 24' one design boat in his garage in Stonington, CT, called it a J24, named it Ragtime, and proceeded over the next 30 years to revolutionize the one design keelboat racing world and shake up the sailboat world in general. Click here for a link to his story

As I passed by her stern a grey haired guy poked his head out from under the tarp. I vaguely recognized his face and said "Ragtime? You must be..." He responded 'yes". I had met Rod a few times over the years - we are both members of the Off Soundings Club - but to him I could have been anyone with all my foul weather stuff on and my Tilly hat pulled low. I told him who I was and I could hear his wife laughing. He asked where I was headed and I told him I was not sure given the weather, but east anyway. He said he was heading the other way - back home. Then he asked "was my boat an early Dolphin? "Yes, I said, hull #12".

Now, are we ready for the punch line? "SHE IS A BEAUTIFUL BOAT" he said as I motored away.

With that classic Dolphin morale uplift from one of the real design gurus of sailing, himself out there in a small boat under a boom tent, I decided to buck up and deal with a little rain in the forecast. With little or no wind, and actually little rain over the next 4 hours, I motored through Neskeag Harbor (with all its rocks) and out, into, and across Blue Hill Bay to Bass Harbor on Mt Desert Island. Somehow, the vodka and tonics with Gary that evening tasted better than usual.

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