I made it to Monhegan… barely. I was on Squirrell for the night, and planned to leave the next day after a quick Johnson family boat trip, but the fog was thick. I ran around the path on the island, and when I got to the south side it was pea soup. It was clearing, and there was enough visibility for our quick trip out to Damricove Island (which is really cool and a place I want to return), but as we headed back to squirell, the fog was rolling in again.
I was determined to get out of there sine I didn’t want to spend more than a day or two with the Johnsons since it was their annual family trip. But I also just wanted to keep moving. I was further south than I’d ever been, and I wanted to see as much as I could.
I say I barely made it because the fog was thick for the second half of the trip. It made the radar absolutely essential, and it saved me twice when I encountered lobster boats out working in the fog. I was glad I had it and thankful for the opportunity to practice using it.
Monhegan feels like another world, and having it apprer out of the fog like an oasis made it seem even more so. I entered the harbor and was guided to a mooring by a fellow crusier, who indicated someone had just left it and had been given “shermie’s” blessing.
Shermie Stanley is the harbormaster, and is notoriously difficult to get on the phone. I had been warned of this fact, but still tried numerous times to contact him in the days leading up. Monhegan has limited moorings, and is not a safe place to anchor, firstly because it is out in the open ocean and very exposed, and number two, the bottom in the harbor is rocky and not very good holding ground. It I were not able to get a morring, I would’ve headed home or turned back around to go back to Squirrel.
But I got a mooring, and had a beautiful first day. I knew the weather was going to turn, and that I’d likely be stuck for a few days, so I explored the island, and figured out what would be my eating and drinking options for the next few days. I even thought about getting a room for a night because there was a small craft advisory, and as I mentioned, the harbor is exposed.
There are two very nice inns with full service kitchens serving meals. The classic and historic hotel is the Island Inn which serves three meals a day, and theother is the Monhegan House, which serves breakfast and dinner. The Island Inn is also associated with the Barnncle, which is down on the ferry dock and more of a café with sundries like beer and wine. The Monhegan House has the Novelty, which is just behind the hotel, which serves really good pizza and icecream, and has a great selection of beer and wine, with a selection of great beers from Portland and Maine that rivals any good liquor story.
There are also several stores on the island that sell most things you would need for a visit, and almost all sell beer and wine since it is illegal to sell and serve in the same place. So basically the whole island is BYOB, which is very important to know if advance of leaving the mainland if you want to save a buck and have your favorite beer, wine and spirits on hand. In fact, if you want any spirits at all you need to bring from the mainland, so keep that in mind.
As I suspected, the fog was thick on Sunday, but Sunday might was much calmer than I expected. Originally the small craft advisory was supposed ot go from Saturday afternoon to Sunday midday, but the storm was delayed and made Sunday night the more rocky. I was rocking a rolling all night, but it doesn’t really bother me. It did affect my dreams, however, and the car I was driving in the dream was moving all over the place ineplicably. Anyway, so I was here on Sunday, beached the boat at high tide, and spent the next ten hours on the island taking advantage of all the places I’d discovered the day before. Monday turned out to be beautiful, and I went for a run/hike around the eatern tip of the island. I was palnning to go around the whole things, but ended up taking a wrong turn and did a 3 mile loop. It was probably best since I’d tied up to the ferry wharf, which you are really not supposed to do.
So now I am waiting until the small craft advisory ends at 2AM tronight, and taking off at the crack of dawn tomorrow to make it back to Brooksville for my Tinderhearth dinner with Merrill. I can’t believe she’s never been there. Looking forward to introducing her