Sunday, August 9, 2009

Rockland - Mehaffeys Leave, Richard Arrives


It was another sunny, warm day and we had ham and eggs in the cockpit courtesy of Ann, a nice send off. I ferried them in and said our goodbyes. It was sad to see them go, we had a good time! We had tried to get a dock at Journey's End but they were full due to the boat show so we had to get a mooring. On the advice of another sailor we met on the way north, we gave Beggar's Wharf a try. They don't monitor VHF, to reach them you have to call via telephone. There are two numbers to call. The first one rings in Florida! He then calls his brother who's at the marina and forwards requests for moorings. The second number calls the marina directly. The word "marina" is used loosely. The total number of employees is one (the brother) who is occasionally supplemented by his mother who we met tonight. However, the mooring fee is a very reasonable $25/night.

As described by the brother running the marina, "It's a work in progress". To keep costs low, they have no one to receive mooring fees (the brother is seldom there, he's a diver and he's often out on calls), you just leave a note with the money tucked under the computer keyboard in the "office". Nevertheless, they have nice bathrooms and showers. The marina office is an open area containing a pool table, a poker table complete with cards, a bar (bring your own drinks), a dart board, table hockey and two terminals providing free internet access! They have no washing machines but you can leave your laundry in a bag with a note and have it washed and folded for $10 plus $1.25/lb. It's close to town, much closer than Knight's Marina where we stayed previously, besides, they charged $35/night. If you have a car you can park it for $5/day when you're not renting a mooring (it's free with a mooring). It's a unique place!

When Richard arrived (Ann cousin) we headed for Camden in search of lobster. We found a waterfront restaurant with the work "lobster" in its name so we thought we were okay. Upon sitting down we found that the biggest lobster they had was 1 1/4, some lobster place! We wound up ordering something else.

Walking along the wharf we saw all the windjammers loading passengers for their weekly cruise. They all load on Sunday night and it makes quite a sight with all the tall masks. Tomorrow we're headed east, depending upon the weather.






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