A Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast - Softcover

Bildner, James L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071453288 ISBN 13: 9780071453288

Verlag: INTL MARINE PUBL, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

WHEN YOU NAVIGATE THE COAST OF MAINE, A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

A Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast takes the guesswork out of navigating Maine’s intricate, reef-strewn waters, ensuring that your next voyage through this coastal paradise will be picture-perfect.

Inside you will find more than 180 full-color aerial photographs that provide "by-the-picture” navigational guidance for Maine’s treasured harbors, difficult passages, and hidden approaches. Author James Bildner has added chart segments and recommended course lines to these low-altitude photos, giving you a unique, at-a-glance guide to sailing around Maine. It’s like cruising with a masthead lookout to point the way.

• Text descriptions of area with piloting instructions

• Labeled approach lines

• Low-angled photos with key navigation aides labeled

• Chart segments from high resolution NOAA charts

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James L. Bildner is a sailor, helicopter pilot, explorer, and summer resident of North Haven, Maine. Together with his wife, Nancy, Jim has sailed the coast of Maine for more than a quarter century, most recently aboard Windward, a Hinckley 52-foot sloop.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

A Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast

By JAMES L. BILDNER

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2006 James L. Bildner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-145328-8

Contents

Chapter One

REGION I SOUTHERN MAINE —ISLES OF SHOALS TO RICHMOND ISLAND HARBOR

* * *

Isles of Shoals
Piscataqua River
Little Harbor
Portsmouth Harbor
Pepperrell Cove
Portsmouth and Kittery
Back Channel
York Harbor
Perkins Cove
Wells Harbor
Kennebunkport
Cape Porpoise Harbor
Wood Island/Biddeford Pool
Saco River
Richmond Island/Seal Cove

From the unprotected waters off the Isles of Shoals to the gracious shorefront homes and landscapes of Cape Elizabeth, the southern Maine coast is, for cruisers approaching from the south, the shakedown phase of a summer adventure. The waters are a little milder than those Down East, the tides smaller, the high summer days just a bit balmier, the fog less frequent. When you're heading east, it's an opportunity to test your boat's rigging and hardware as your mind slips into cruising mode.

This is also the most populous stretch of the Maine coast, and its miles of sand beaches and comparatively uncomplicated coastal geography, while simplifying navigation in some ways, also put a high premium on berths in widely separated anchorages. Easy highway access to beaches and harbors sometimes creates a frenetic layer of watercraft activity on hot July weekends, and with many of the prime anchorages in estuaries—especially in the Kittery-Portsmouth approaches—river and tidal currents pose their own challenges. But these occasional inconveniences are offset by the many amenities within walking distance of the dinghy docks along this part of the coast.

Many cruisers regard this stretch of the coast as miles to be transited en route to or from the islands and passageways east of Richmond Island. But look again. There are charms aplenty here for those who take the time to find them.

ISLES OF SHOALS

WHEN you approach from the south, the Isles of Shoals provide your first glimpse of Maine. This cluster of nine islands straddles the state line, with five in Maine and four in New Hampshire. As you round Cape Ann, the islands beckon from the distance, some twenty miles north. Below the horizon at first, they materialize as you draw closer in clear weather, their mysterious allure somehow in keeping with their bloody, legendary history. Though they lie just six miles off the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor, the islands impress you first with their stark remoteness. As you approach, the 82-foot lighthouse on White Island, the most southerly of the group, becomes ever more prominent, guiding you in.

On a sunny day, light may reflect off the massive structure of the old hotel, the Oceanic House, on Star Island. As you get closer, the passageway into Gosport Harbor becomes more obvious, with the lighthouse still providing your clearest marking to port. The islands' distant aura of brooding remoteness will be replaced by a vision of wild beauty as you leave Anderson's Ledge to starboard and see more clearly the outlines of the Oceanic Hotel. Leaving White Island to port, you shape your approach so as to leave Lunging Island immediately to port. You have plenty of deep water on this route. As you get closer to Halfway Rocks, nun "4" comes squarely into view.

Leaving the nun to starboard, you will see immediately in front of you the channel marker bell where you turn east into the centerline fairway for Gosport Harbor. Once in the harbor, Star, Cedar, and Smuttynose Islands surround you on the south, east, and north sides, respectively. Some moorings may be available depending on the time and day you arrive. The harbor is well protected from everything but a westerly blow. In a westerly you can make your way around Smuttynose to find shelter east of the bar between Smuttynose and Cedar. Star Island, where the hotel long ago stopped accommodating overnight guests but once again welcomes visitors to its gift shop and restrooms, is a functioning community—with restored buildings, tennis courts, gardens, recreational facilities, and an obelisk that is a dead ringer for the Washington Monument.

PISCATAQUA RIVER (Approach to Portsmouth and Kittery)

AT the mouth of the Piscataqua River, which defines the boundary between New Hampshire and Maine, is a complex of inviting and well-protected anchorages. Channels and entrances are well marked; your chief navigational challenges will be the currents, which can reach as high as six knots due to the influence of the river, and commercial shipping approaching and leaving Portsmouth.

Little Harbor

Located immediately west of the Portsmouth Harbor entrance, Little Harbor is the first significant mainland anchorage north of Newburyport. Green bell "1," about one nautical mile southeast of the harbor entrance, provides a good approach path when you're coming from the south or from the Isles of Shoals. The entrance channel is clearly marked with cans, nuns, and a beacon on the breakwater that juts south from Jaffrey Point. At high tide the entrance breakwaters may not be readily apparent, but stay between the navigation aids and watch for currents and small-boat traffic, and you'll be fine. Little Harbor is remarkably well protected, and in rough conditions it makes a wonderful place to spend the day or night. Once you leave the breakwater on Frost Point to port, turn west to follow the buoyed channel in. There is deep water on the north side almost as far as the bascule bridge that gives road access to New Castle Island. The Wentworth Marina offers full facilities and 170 slips, and overlooking the harbor from New Castle Island is a new Marriott Hotel refurbished from the historic but long-defunct Wentworth-By-The-Sea hotel. In the summer, Little Harbor becomes very crowded with yachts and all manner of small craft, and there is no room to anchor and few if any rental moorings.

Portsmouth Harbor

The entrance to multibranched Portsmouth Harbor and its offshoot anchorages is marked first by flashing red whistle buoy "2KR" and then by the 59-foot lighthouse on Whaleback Reef, both of which you should leave to starboard to bypass the rocks and shoal waters bounding the east side of the entrance. The buoyed channel runs north between Wood Island to starboard, with its abandoned lifesaving station, and New Castle Island to port. Shape your course to the right of Fort Point, which juts prominently from the northeast corner of New Castle Island. This is the site of Fort Constitution, a Revolutionary War-era fort, and the bright white Fort Point lighthouse should stand out in clear weather.

As you pass northward through the entrance, Garrish Island will be on your right. After leaving Fort Point to port, you'll glimpse to the west the highway bridges that span the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth and Kittery. You can either continue north into Pepperrell Cove, or turn west toward Portsmouth and Kittery or Back Channel. Along the way, you'll see many possible anchoring spots, but the swift currents make a mooring or slip preferable.

Pepperrell Cove (Kittery Point)

Continue north from Fort Point to approach Pepperrell Cove. Leaving nun "4" off Fishing Island to starboard, swing slowly to starboard to enter the cove. The entrance is easy, but the cove is exposed to the south, subject to crosscurrents, and busy with commercial and recreational traffic. Moorings are available from the town of Kittery and the Portsmouth Yacht Club, and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: INTL MARINE PUBL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071453288
• ISBN 13: 9780071453288
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar