GL: New England Cruising.

[Bob McLeran]

I'll defer to Jeff Siegel regarding your plans; he lives in a beautiful 
area of Maine and knows of what he speaks! His advice is right-on.

We've cruised from Florida to Maine two years (last year beyond to New 
Brunswick, Canada). We'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's difficult to 
believe that anything can be as spectacular as the verdent hills (some 
might call them mountains) rising beyond the cold, deep ocean and 
rivers; the cruising grounds and spectacular anchorages are simply 
unlimited. And that only describes Maine!

Between Chesapeake Bay and Portland, Maine, you have over 750 miles of 
more incredible cruising: Long Island Sound (two sides), Rhode Island 
and Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape 
Cod from Cape Cod Bay, Boston, Cape Anne, the Isle of Shoals, 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and suddenly you're at Portland, Maine. You 
still have another 150 or so miles to go down east before getting to 
Penobscot Bay, Northeast Harbor, Bar Harbor, and another day or so to 
get further east to reach Cutler, then Eastport and finally cross over 
into Canada (New Brunswick) and visit beautiful St. Andrews! Wow, makes 
me want to change our cruising plans for this summer.

Take your time, see some of the sites; this is a real opportunity for a 
sight-seeing cruise not just a plan to reach a destination and return 
(you could do that in a couple of weeks). You won't have time to see 
everything, but be selective and stop at the spots you think you might 
like. There'll be next year and the year after to go back and see some 
of the places you passed up this year.

We live in Florida , so our perspective is a bit different than Jeff's 
regarding cool weather, but I'd recommend departing Portland west/south 
bound no later than the first week of September if you're going to take 
your time and see some places you missed on the way down east.

I'd be happy to send you the logs for our trips so you can get an idea 
of where we stopped between Chesapeake Bay and New Brunswick.

Heed what Jeff said about lobster pots and fog/radar! Last summer we 
traveled in fog or rain at least 50% of the time we were in Maine and 
New Brunswick. On our previous trip we never had to turn on the radar. 
You can also gain a lot of experience with your radar anywhere north of 
Chesapeake Bay during the summer.

We found "A Cruising guide to the Maine Coast" by Hank and Jan Taft and 
Curtis Rindlaub to be an invaluable resource.

<><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><>
Bob McLeran and Judy Young                  Manatee Cove Marina
MV Sanderling                               Patrick Air Force Base
DeFever 41 Trawler                          Melbourne, Florida 
Blog: http://sanderlingcruise2009.blogspot.com/



On 5/12/2009 10:15 AM, Frank Arndorfer wrote:
> Greetings all.
>  
> My wife and I have been "On the Loop" on again/off again since late 2005. We
> left Lake Michigan, travelled the river systems south, across the Gulf,
> Keys, Bahamas (two winters), up the Atlantic ICW numerous times. Our boat is
> currently on the east shore of the Chesapeake in Oxford, MD. where we've
> been wintering it while we return to the frigid land of Wisconsin. Go
> figure.!!
>  
> We're laying plans for our summer cruise 2009 and are looking to leave
> Chesapeake early July and travel northeast to Maine, likely going up as far
> as Portland/Freeport, and possibly farther north east, depending on
> schedule.