Dorian came close, but although the wind and rain kept us inside all Saturday, we had no troubles to report.
At least we had time to do some research. Southwest Harbor is on the Southwest—duh—corner of Mt. Desert Island. “MDI” to the locals. The island got its name when that same Sam de Champlain of whom we’ve previously written grounded his boat nearby and remarked (somewhat inexplicably) that the mountains made it look like a desert. But of course the French pronunciation sounds like “dessert,” setting the stage for confusion and a debate that’ll not be resolved in our lifetimes.
The majority of MDI is filled with Acadia National Park, which used to be owned by the Rockefellers. The park is loaded with excellent hiking trails and other stuff. Like ticks.
Another Maine debate relates to the point where sunlight first hits the United States each day. Some claim it’s the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia. We side with the side that believes it’s the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, not because we’ve done a scientific analysis with prisms and mirrors and Foucault’s Pendulum but because we watched the sunrise from the lighthouse a few years ago and told everybody it was first.
Southwest Harbor is where Hinckley Yachts has been building boats since 1928, which explains the huge number of Hinckleys in the marina. We also encountered batches of them in Spring Cove, Michigan and Palm Beach, Florida. Go figure. Anyway, they’re pretty impressive—and absurdly expensive—boats. Not for us. We wouldn’t mind going a bit faster from time to time but we also love our stand-up shower.
We wasted a bunch of time trying to find info on Fort Prentice, solely because of a small plaque mounted on a wooden retaining wall. The plaque looks legit, but finally we gave up in defeat. Not a hint of explanation or confirmation to be found.
If it’s an April Fool’s joke, we don’t find it funny.
Despite the weather, we exercised regularly by climbing up and down a 45° slope every low tide. Oscar hated it. Especially in the dark.
Tomorrow morning we’re heading down to Rockland. October 10 is our target date to close the Down East Circle Loop back at the Statute of Liberty. Since periodically we seem to be stuck somewhere for a week, we gotta move when we can.
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* We’ve previously quoted Jeff’s pearl of boating wisdom but Hurricane Dorian makes this a great place to use it again.