maine | sailing the surprise

Getting out on the water is a vacation must for me, so I was really looking forward to some sort of boat trip in Acadia. Taking the highly recommended mail boat trip to Isle au Haut wasn't feasible for us due to its distance from where we were staying, so instead we booked a sail with Downeast Sailing Adventures. We got up early on Wednesday morning and ate tomato and cheese sandwiches for breakfast on the deck at the cabin. (And I may have had some Jim Beam-spiked hot chocolate, since we were going sailing after all...and hey, it's vacation!) Then we drove into Southwest Harbor and took some photos of the boats as we waited on the dock for our captain to arrive. So picturesque, so Maine...





Our captain, Andrew Keblinsky, arrived aboard a gorgeous friendship sloop (single-masted sailboat), the 33' Surprise, which was built from Maine oak and cedar, and originally used as a lobster boat. "Oh good, you two look young and fit!", the captain exclaimed after we introduced ourselves. "Rachel, you'll be driving while Larry helps me raise the sails!"


He wasn't kidding. We got out on the water, and after a quick sailing lesson, using terms I'd never heard before and assuring me "you'll know what to do", he left me to steer the boat.

I did so like a true drunken sailor (so glad I had that Jim Beam for breakfast...) and no, I didn't know what to do. But we didn't crash. Or sink. It was fun, but nerve-wracking.

After Larry and the Captain got the sails up, I relinquished my position behind the wheel and we let the wind guide us around the islands off the coast of Mt. Desert Island. It was a perfectly gorgeous day out on the water. We saw lighthouses, and learned about the lobster industry and Maine's rich and famous (we even saw Martha Stewart's boat).















Larry had to sail back:

Anyone else have the theme song from The Voyage of the Mimi stuck in their head? (And how did I just learn that the kid in that show was Ben Affleck? Mind blown!)

After our morning on the water, we returned to the Cranberry Island Dock, and then set off for lunch and some afternoon adventures...

To be continued...

maine | exploring schoodic point

I mentioned that Acadia National Park is made up of many pockets of land, and some of them aren't even located on Mt. Desert Island. On Tuesday, we decided to explore one of the outlying areas of the park: Schoodic Point. To get there we had to drive off the island and onto the mainland and then down to a peninsula east of Mount Desert Island. Not many tourists make it over to this part of the park (which is one of the reasons we went!), so it felt private and secluded.




After checking out the views, we set out to hike the Anvil Trail. Or at least, we started on the Anvil Trail. Several miles later, I'm not sure what trail we were on, but it was a fun and scenic hike nonetheless.

I definitely didn't expect so much climbing and rock scrambling, but later found that this is pretty common for trails within the Acadia.

Thankfully, I was hiking with my own personal tow rope, Larry:

#teamwork

It was a very up and down trail, but the climbing was worth it.













The whole trail was dripping with Maine blueberries. I had certainly heard of the famed Maine blueberries before (and eaten them in blueberry muffin mixes!), but I never knew what made them so special. They actually looked pretty puny compared to the blueberries we're used to around here. But one mouthful and I discovered why: those tiny berries were the sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted. We picked handfuls and stuffed our faces as we hiked.



After a full day of hiking and exploring, we headed back to the cabin for the usual: reading, relaxing, and walking down to the lake in our pajamas and hiking boots with mugs of beer.


Using the rocks as a tripod, I attempted to take some long exposure pics of the stars over the lake in the dark: