Chesapeake to Maine - Summer 2024

[Blue Ridge]

We are planning a trip from the Chesapeake to Maine next summer and were hoping for some guidance on the stretch from Block Island to Camden Maine.

We want to do it in day long chunks where possible to avoid dealing with lobster pots at night (we've learned our lesson on crab pots in the bay!) and were hoping we could get some thoughts on best ways to round the Cape and good anchorages heading north.

We appreciate any input folks have. Thank you.

[MicHughV]

I did that trip some years back as crew on a friend's boat.
Boat was equipped with radar and we were night sailing.

Some ways offshore, we started to pick up a blip on the radar.
It was quite foggy and our visibility was barely 50' in any direction.

We did not know what the blip was, but it was stationary.
Tried calling on the vhf...no response.
As we got closer we slowed to a crawl.
We could discern no lights either.

Imagine our surprise to to see a long shaft on a floating buoy with a radar reflector on top, marking some lobster trap, come sliding by the hull.

We were a good ways offshore too.

A radar would be a useful gadget to have offshore in that neck of the woods, but having no radar, I would keep my travels to daytime, as fog will be your worst enemy...besides the 123,456,765,566 lobster pots you are likely to encounter.

[Blue Ridge]

Thanks! We're equipped with radar and AIS, but not sure if we can count on all pot markets to be so well marked! We're thinking shorter hops will keep the stress level down, so day time will be our best bet. I appreciate the reply.

[dlj]

I was looking at this earlier this year. I decided to just go fully off shore straight to Nove Scotia.

However, Block Island to Newport. Then through the canal. Then lots of places going up the coast. But for day sailing around the cape, go through the canal instead.

dj

[chris mac]

We just did that trip this summer. We went offshore from Lewes (cape Henlopen anchorage) to block island. Both were great places to stop, Lewes for convenience and good protection waiting for a window, and block is great to explore.
From there we went to Onset at the mouth of the canal. It was quite a nice town, we really enjoyed it. Plus it would be a good place to wait out weather.
Then thru the canal and a short run north to Warren cove. This was really just a convenient place.
Then to Gloucester where we spent a couple days. Again, a nice town to explore. Although not a bunch of anchoring option. Lots of mooring balls though.
Next was a long day to Biddeford, anchored by stage island. We just anchored to sleep but friends have told us town is nice.
Next was an anchorage between harbour Island and hall island. There's lots of scenic anchorages like this just before owl head cut. This was the day we really noticed an increase in lobster traps, although they are way more visible than the crab traps in the Chesapeake.
Next day brought us into Camden. This is a great town with lots to see and do. Also lots of mooring balls. It's also day sails away from many more great places to explore.
My main recommendation for places to see would be Acadia National park. It is beautiful, with great bays, hikes, beaches, towns, ect. And there is a free bus system through the whole park.
Lobster traps are abundant, you will be dodging them. However they are very visible and most will show up on radar. I found that if I reduced the radar range down to 1 mile, over 90% of them showed on the screen.
Speaking of radar, you will have fog, and often. If you wait for fogless days to move, you won't move much. We continued on to Nova Scotia and Bra Dor lakes. Probably 50-60% of our time was in fog. But it was a great trip!
You will see a ton of porpoise, seals, and probably whales. We also saw a couple dozen sun fish, and quite a few sharks
Have fun, it's a lot of miles but well worth it.

[Blue Ridge]

Thank you all for the replies so far. This is really helpful Information!

[Kettlewell]

I used to live in Camden and have done the trip a bunch of times. My route would be BI to Cuttyhunk. Cuttyhunk to Onset. Onset through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. Other nice places to visit include New Bedford for cheap fuel, Menemsha and Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard, Woods Hole, Hadley Harbor. Then offshore one easy overnight from P-Town to Penobscot Bay passing close to Monhegan Island in the morning. You won't have a problem with offshore lobster traps going that far offshore. Yes, you might see an occasional marker as mentioned previously, but the line from those goes straight down and you would be unlikely to snag it. If I had to make day runs I would probably do P-Town to Gloucester, then through the Annisquam Canal, then Isle of Shoals or Portsmouth, then maybe Biddeford Pool, then Portland/Casco Bay. From there you have your choice of lots of harbors and places to pop in heading up to Camden. I like to hit Tenants Harbor, then the Muscle Ridge Channel up to Owls Head, Rockland, Rockport, and Camden. Rockland is the easiest to enter, has anchoring room, moorings, and just about everything you need easy at hand. By the way, as you might guess, the further offshore you go the less trouble with lobster floats, whereas going in and out of harbors is where you will encounter them in droves. Once entering Christmas Cove we could not enter without brushing against floats on both sides of the boat. We would put it into gear in a clear spot and then coast through the thick patches. Bring a wetsuit, dive mask, flippers, and be prepared to go over the side if you have to. The further Down East you go the worse they are because they use long toggles with tiny floats that drift about on the surface trailing their lines. But, if you have the time it is worth it to get up to Roque Island Harbor, which is one of the most beautiful spots anywhere!

[MicHughV]

That area is undoubtably an extremely scenic travel area for a sailboat, at least I thought so.
But the inordinate number of lobster traps everywhere did me in.

If I were ever to return, it would be by car.

[Kettlewell]

That area is undoubtably an extremely scenic travel area for a sailboat, at least I thought so.
But the inordinate number of lobster traps everywhere did me in.

I anchored once to watch the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta and there was a nice breeze. One beautiful classic was heeled well over with full crew but barely moving despite the sails drawing perfectly and the crew all hiked out. Slowly it dawned on them that every boat was whistling by and I could see the skipper peer over the stern at the trailing lobster traps.

[CarlF]

We go to Maine every summer. My wife doesn't enjoy overnights so we've settled on this route of easy 50 mile days. Very low stress.

From Cape May:

Barneget Bay (anchor along beach on south east corner. Radio the local seatow boat that's always hanging who will happily give you directions around the shallow spots)
Sandy Hoook (anchor)
Through East River to mooring at Port Washington - restaurant dinner at L'Petite Framboise bistro near the dinghy dock
Port Jefferson (mooring) short day
Fishers Island (anchor)
Cuttyhunk (mooring) - get an early start as the moorings fill up by mid afternoon. In the evening radio the Cuttyhunk Raw Bar boat for oysters raised on the island.
Onset (anchor)
Gloucester (mooring - request "inner harbor")
Biddeford Pool (Dockwa mooring from yacht club)
Boothbay (mooring or dock)
Rockland (mooring at town "Rockland Public Landing" or anchor away from ferry wakes in southern corner and use Public Landing dinghy dock).

Unless you have a special reason to go to Camden, use Rockland as a base. It has provisioning, restaurants, even some great art galleries. Camden is a tourist zoo and often rolly. In Rockland have a splurge dinner at Primo's - a gourmet farm-to-table restaurant that's right at the farm. One of my 10 favorite restaurants I've eaten at in the world. Impossible to get reservations but if you line up at 4:30 you'll get seated when it opens at 5 - first come first served.

It takes a couple of days to get used to the lobster pots (there are more than you can believe) but it's all part of the Maine experience. We do usually snag 1-2 during the summer. Carry a hook-knife (see below) to cut them off (the lobstermen don't lose anything because each string of traps has a buoy at each end so if one buoy is gone, they just go to the other end. It's rare to have to go into the water to clear them but bring a wet suit just in case - the water is really cold. https://sailorssolutions.com/?page=P...ails&Item=CH01

Be sure to get a copy of Taft's "A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast". It is almost always sold out but a new printing should appear in the spring. You can often find a used one on Amazon which is just as good. Things change slowly in Maine so you don't need the newest edition. https://www.mainecoastguide.com

If you send me an email address I'll send you a short guide to Maine anchorages I wrote that I've given to many friends.

[Sparx]

This is great advice from CarlF

[SV Confianza]

In addition to CarlF's great suggestions:

The Long Island Sound has many anchorages on the CT side or the Long Island side to explore. We choose which side depending on weather usually.

Wood's Hole as a possible rest stop before the canal.

Salem Mass is a very nice stop if weather won't permit rounding Gloucester/Rockport

And I highly suggest not missing Portland! Wonderful city with live music and where you can't throw a stone without hitting a James Beard Award winning restauranteur.

[Blue Ridge]

Thank you! This is really helpful and greatly appreciated.

[AnsleyS]

Blue Ridge,


I wrote this a while ago but it still applies.


Many people think that sailing on the coast of Maine is challenging. The combination of challenges that confront the sailors in this part of the world appeardaunting to folks who normally sail in kinder and gentler waters. Large tides with attendant tidal currents along the Maine coast make some folks nervous. Numerous lobster trap buoys waiting to catch your rudder, propeller, and keel are intimidating. Impenetrable fog and unforgiving rocky shores are enough to give southern sailors nightmares. I am here to tell you that you have nothing to fear and that all of these conditions were put here for a reason and that you should consider them all to be personal gifts.

You can enjoy yourself in Maine knowing that there are large tides with currents that can reach four or more knots in some places. If you are used to sailing in places with tide heights of a foot or two, our tides of nine to twenty-four feet should fill you with feelings of reassurance. You can be assured that should you run aground at low tide that you will float free sometime tomorrow and if you run aground at high water you will have plenty of time to scrub and paint your bottom while you wait for the water to come back. Those of us who are used to the tides of Maine can not understand how folks who sail in areas that have small tides ever get their bottoms cleaned or for that matter how they get themselves off when they inevitably run aground.

The tidal currents are a gift for those of us who only travel at four to six knots but are always in a hurry. On a recent trip to Eastport for the fourth of July, Pacem was traveling up the Grand Manan channel, around the end of Campobello Island and down the Head Harbor passage doing ten knots. The incoming tidal current for the area’s twenty-four foot tides sped us along at such a speed that I would have been scared if it were not for the fog that kept me from seeing more that a hundred yards.

As I have told our crew, Ben and Brad ages 13 and 11, fog is like nighttime at home. You know that if you get up in the middle of the night and walk around the house without turning on the lights that everything is just the same as it was when there is light. So sailing in the fog is the just the same as sailing in the bright sunshine but you do not have to be distracted by the sights of islands with summer houses the size of castles, mountains with views over the sea, wildlife, and schooners with sails filled bearing down on you. It frees you to be more introspective and to pay attention to the numerous navigational aids that the friendly people of Maine put out in the water for you.

The United States Coast Guard does a wonderful job of marking the major hazards to navigation on the coast but with a decrease in available funding the job of indicating the flow of currents has fallen to volunteers. The lobstermen of Maine spend their lives putting little colored buoys in every conceivable place along the coast of Maine. They help us figure out the exact set and drift of the current by placing these beautiful little buoys in the navigable channels. The density of the buoys seems to be related to the amount of waterborne traffic expected in the area. The Penobscot Bay area has so many buoys that it seems that one could walk across some channels without getting wet. In some places from Muscongus Bay north, they even put on small additional buoys or toggles before the main colored buoy to help us determine the current by catching the horizontal line between the two buoys on our propeller or rudder. Though most of our boats mount anchors on the forward or pointy end of the vessel, these numerous lines help us practice the age-old technique of anchoring by the rudder. We should all thank these selfless volunteers and also try to support them by encouraging everyone we know to buy the critters that they catch when they are moving the navigational markers around our rocky coast.

The rocky shores of Maine are a great improvement over the sandy shores that cover some of the rest of the planet. The sand that one brings aboard from beaches gets into your bunk and your bilge and is impossible to get out of either one. The rocky shore also tells you when the water is getting too shallow to float your boat. I have run aground in many parts of the world and I can tell you from experience that when you run aground in Maine you will know it immediately. I have run aground in the Bahamas, Florida, and Nantucket in such soft sand that the boat just slid to a quiet stop without any notification to the crew. In Maine the notification of grounding is immediate and usually relatively noisy. The noise of scraping or fracturing of fiberglass from the forward part of the hull clearly sends the message that the water has become too thin.

The challenges that people associate with sailing the coast of Maine are really great gifts to all of us. Think of these gifts as lessons to be learned and events to be experienced. The coast is a tough teacher who thinks that you learn better when the lessons are difficult and the grading is demanding.
I want to assure you of the friendly and benign nature of the coast of Maine and encourage you to come up and sail with us. In few areas of the nautical world is the combination of conditions as conducive to relaxation and carefree cruising as the coast of Maine. Just watch out for the teacher.

[Kettlewell]

You could (and many do) spend a lifetime cruising Maine. IMHO it has the best scenery along the East Coast, many interesting small towns to visit, great seafood, nice walks ashore, and it is where the mountains meet the sea (Camden). The view from the top of Mt. Battie in Camden is not to be missed. OTOH, the water is cold, there are lots of lobster pots, sailing in the summer is not always the best because of lack of wind, there is plenty of fog, the water is too cold for extensive swimming, and the rocky and intricate passages with plenty of current can be tricky. One of the best parts of Maine for us cruisers is there are real boatyards with actual craftsmen all over the place. Hamilton Marine has several real chandleries too. If you can't get it fixed in Maine it can't be fixed.