On Sunday, July 31, Monica and I filled Robin's tanks at a Rockland marina and headed toward Owl's Head Lighthouse, on the point of land reaching out from the southern side of Rockland Harbor..

We had decided to chance going through an inside passage to save a few miles leaving Penobscot Bay and to see some new territory. The passage runs between the mainland south of Rockland and Owl's Head and a string of rocky islands just offshore. The chartplotter made us more confidant than we'd been in the past, and just the day before, Tom Gilmore had negotiated the same passage.
Sunday morning was picture perfect -- temperature in the 70s and a clear, blue sky and bright sun. There was no wind should our engine fail, but we were pretty confident.
I'd taken John to the Manchester, NH, airport on Friday morning in a rental car and met Monica's flight there that evening. We'd spent Saturday provisioning Robin and getting settled in. Now we were aiming to get as far as Monica's two week vacation would allow.


And so we headed down the passage with the foreboding name Muscle Channel. I was glad to have Monica aboard and not all that sad that we were heading home instead of cruising north past Bar Harbor. The stress of the trip to Rockland was still gnawing at me, and although I'd dropped some earlier thoughts about selling Robin, I wanted to complete this voyage before determining the extent of our future together.
We had tentatively chosen to head for Seal Cove this day. Tom had spent a couple of days there and recommended it highly. On an earlier trip to Maine, I'd sailed up the Damariscotta River as far as a small cove without a name on our nautical charts. Seal Cove was a couple of miles upriver from that cove, and the cruising guide said it was also past a narrows where, on the ebb tide, the water "boiled" around a red buoy.
Once we were out on the ocean, around Burnt and Allen Islands, we picked up some wind, and we had a strong breeze when we rounded into the Damariscotta. We also had many, many lobster pot buoys. I wanted to sail up through them to avoid the risk of wrapping a line around our propeller, but Monica was concerned with the threat of the boiling water ahead so we doused the sails and began motoring.
About three miles up the river, we rounded the point near the cove where I'd stayed once before. In another mile or so, we were approaching a big, red buoy and the current was swift. And then we were beside the buoy, which leaned downstream under the thrust of the river pouring through a narrows just above.
Robin's speed dropped rapidly. Beside the buoy, we were making about 2.5 knots. With it off our starboard quarter, we were down to 1.5 knots.
We stayed at that speed almost all the way through the narrows and were still very slow when we were abeam of the point of land to starboard which marked the entrance to Seal Cove.
And then, quietly, we were in the cove, where the cruising guide warned of all sorts of hidden rocks and ledges. Emotionally exhausted, we set the anchor -- we had a debate concerning how far down the cove to go, and Monica won the contest. We knew there were seals to be seen near the head of the cove, but we put that experience off until morning and settled in for a quiet evening.