With all the windjammer cruises on the bay I was to frequently see classic craft sailing among the islands.
 

Here is the Victory Chimes sailing on Penobscot Bay.  She is a three masted, centerboard "ram schooner" built in 1900 for the Chesapeake.  Engineless, she uses a yawlboat for auxiliary power.

       Approaching mid-Bay the fog begins to darken and I encounter ocean swells of several feet.  It's the Penobscot's reminder to me to treat it with respect.  By evening my GPS leads me safely to the White Islands.  These granite lagoons are among the prettiest on the Bay.  The Nature Conservancy owns big Garden Island and you're welcome ashore.  With the light fading I pass up some Pintail sized pools to anchor in the main lagoon.  Later I pay for my haste.  The islands face the Gulf of Maine and that night remnants of the ocean swells work their way in to have fun tossing me about.

Sailing South and East Vinland

     Morning arrives with sounds of foghorns, guillemotes (small diving ducks) and lobstermen.  I gunkhole my way to a noon stop at Carver's Harbor on Vinalhaven where fishermen dominate the community life.  The Harbor's crammed with lobster boats and lobster companies on spindly pilings line the shore.  It's a likable place to walk about.  I tie up at the town float and learn to come alongside only to off load then to tie up bow-on leaving more room for others. It's a great logistics stop. I fill my gas can at the co-op but pass on the live lobsters.  The "Fisherman's Friend" has 2-cycle oil, there's great bread at the grocery store and some lamp oil at the hardware store.  "The Wind," an island weekly, announces a chamber music concert at the Union Church..
      Although my cruising guide warns that the SE part of Vinalhaven is "a lee shore to the Atlantic with no safe refuge", SWSers can comfortably duck into Roberts Harbor, Arey Cove or Smith Cove.  Under fair, sunny skies, although waves occasionally grumble on a rocky shoal, I safely make the downwind trip around to Winter Harbor.  This spot has complete protection and is popular with cruisers.  I head into the shallow headwaters of Seal Bay, only later at low tide do I discover it's a buggy area of mud flats.  While my screens keep the big guys out they're only a welcome mat for the gnats that party ‘till midnight.  The next morning while rowing around the eastern end of Penobscot Island I find the southernmost cove to be an ideal SWS spot.  You have to pick through some rocks to get in but it has scenery, privacy and you're welcome ashore.

The North Haven and the Northern Islands

      A yacht calls out "Hi Dovekie" as I sail north to the Barred Island group. Unlike the rocky White Islands these offer Robinson Caruso-like beaches to explore. Sandbars between Escargot and Bartender Islands form a SWS lagoon with a foot or two at low tide if you don't go too far in.  Open to the breeze coming across the bay it gives me a cool and bug-less night.

This was the outer limit of my cruise.  The forces of my life, like gravity, were drawing Pintailand me back in.  In the town of North Haven I check in with the office and Bobbie.  The North Haven community is dominated by "summercaters" from Boston and the tiny town is filled with gift shops and art studios.  It's on the "Thoroughfare" a main channel for "windjammers" and yachts that go up and down the coast.  Two cat rigged North Haven dinghies sail in with me.  This local boat is the oldest class still racing in the US.  The ferry dock, yacht club and proudly ramshackle Brown's Boatyard define the town waterfront.  You can tie up at all three.  Foy Brown was building a traditional wood lobsterman.  He's said to have built a "radical lobster boat" of a (you guessed it) Bolger design.  The Browns also have small market nearby where for $3 you can get a hot shower: the best buy of the trip.
      The harbor was busy now with a steady stream of yachts, fishermen, and launches driving in between.  Smack in the middle a large yacht from Boston has anchored and, to add to the havoc, a young woman is on deck sunning without any covering to speak of.  Sailing by I mean to point out this navigation hazard to the owner but her mother calls out  "what are those things on your sides?"  It was my first leeboard conversation of the trip.

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