MITA Under Sail

I made it out on Incorrigible.  I had been planning this trip all summer but was waiting for September for the more consistent weather, and more importantly, less bugs.  This was going to be a test.  Incorrigible is a 23’ Pearson Ensign, a small sailboat mainly used for day trips and is the racing class at the Buck’s Harbor Yacht Club.  I grew up with this boat, and have sailed it many times, but never spent the night on it, surprisingly.  Once we got the Emilie Belle, that commanded all my attention.  Until now.

There is something I am drawn to about cruising on a sailboat rather than a motor boat.  There is so much more planning, more connection with nature and the weather, and most importantly, a present-moment mindfulness required due to the nature of the travel.  You go where the wind takes you when you can actually go.  Plans go out the window with weather changes, wind shifts, etc.  Mindfullness is something I have been cultivating in my life with mediation and yoga, and setting out for a few days in Incorrigible.

And although I have completed the 30 in 30, there were still some more local MITA islands I wanted to include in my 2018 list, so the journey had a practivcal purpose as well.

I set sail down Eggemoggin Reach in a Southwest breeze that allowed me to beam reach most of the way down.  The wind was light but steady down past the Deer Isle bridge, but became quite variable after that, and I had to use the engine a few times to get out of gunk holes.  I was hoping to be at Campbell Island to camp on another MITA site, and would need some help to get there and get setup, especially since I’d never stepped foot on the island.

I could not have been happier on the sail down the reach.  No engine.  No noise.  No cost.  Powered by nature.  I wondered why I had not started cruising on the sailboat earlier in the summer.  There would need to be more of this.  A lot more.  It only deepened my desire to get a sailboat, live on a sailboat, maybe even make my living on a sailboat, whatever that looked like.

Campbell looked like a cool island, and is perfectly situated for a stopover when heading down the Reach, especially in a sailboat on a light air day when you are unlikely to make it all the way to Merchant’s Row and the tip of Deer Isle.  There is a deep water passage into Greenlaw Cove, or Fish Creek, really somewhere in the middle, and the MITA Guidebook indicates a good anchorage off the northwest tip of the island.  I was hesitant about the anchorage as I always am in a new place.  The tidal current is strong in and out of the cove, but there is less to worry about with the  Ensign than the Emilie Belle, so I set the anchor and prepared to go ashore.  I camped at the northwest site since it was close to the anchorage.  It as a good site with soft, level tentsites, with room enough for 2-3.  It was right on the shore, and had nice sunset views.  The only issue were what the guidebook describes as downed trees due to a blowdown, which I assunme is a microburst.  There were a large amount of large, dead, downed trees to the east of the site, and although unsightly, they were not in the way.

I set up camp and went to bed early, opting for cold Tinderhearth leftovers rather than firing up the grill.  I was beat from some long, fun nights in Brooksville, and needed the rest.  And my mind was elsewhere and I wanted it to be there.

I awoke to expected fog, which was a theme of the trip, and had decided to spend the morning hiking around the island since the MITA guide had indicated there was a trail around the island.  And I wanted to see the other campsite to compare.  I walked the island and it is beautiful.  The trail is as you’d expect, clear, but sometimes hard to follow and requires paying attention.  It is a big island, and has some cool history I want to learn more about.  Apparently there was an archeological dig here after they found the remains of a European settler in full body armor alongside the body of a Pentagoet Indian.  Would be amazing to know the story there!  And I must say, I have to give the MITA guide credit.  I have been singing the praises of the Cruising Guide, which I will defend to the death, but the MITA guide does this island and cove justice in it’s descriptions while the Cruising Guide does not.  The CG doe not even have an entry for Campbell Island, and describes the area as essentially a wasteland, which could not be less true.

After the walk, I broke camp, stowed all the gear and rowed back out to the Ensign.  The wind was light, and there was a strong current since the tide was coming in, so after getting gear stowed, I fired up the outboard and motored out of the cove, and through the channel back out to the Bay.  Once out in the reach, the wind had picked up a bit, so I cut the engine and prepped and raised the sails.  This was the second time I had set the sails this trip, and each time I was learning about the order of operations and how to most effectively get the sails up, especially by myself.  None of it is hard, you just don’t have enough hands so need to prioritize and do what needs to be done at that moment, and in the right order.

My plan was to check out MITA’s Buckle Island, right at the East entrance to Merchant’s Row.  I was surprised there was another Buckle, since there is what I consider the original in the Casco Passage.  It is also accessible to the public, although I’m not sure which organization stewards it.  The number of organizations is confusing and a bit overwhelming.  This Buckle is a bit smaller, but has two campsites, a nice beach at high tide, and a sand bar to explore at low tide.  The campsite on the shore is the better of the two, the other is just a clearing in the woods.  The only negative with the shore site is it is wet, and there seems to be a spring right there so it appears it stays wet