Casco Bay !!! Amazinger!

       Paul and Tim! Tim made his Kayak from a kit.  Nice job and Paul has a kayak that can come apart in 3 sections!         Seals, sunning themselves.  Look at how cute the one has her feet in the air! just like a ballerina!        Look at us. Pinch us we are sailing through islands and rocks and we are in MAINE! Who would have thought it!?         This is a typical dock (well without the crapper seat on it... we thought that was funny and have no idea the story behind it) since the tide can swing 12 feet or more their docks need to beable to go up and down!         Ben is cooking mussels.  We are so Salty now don't you think.  One step closer to the sea.         You know they are done when they crack open.        Here is my first bit! Oh My will I spit it out? nope! it was really good.       The broth is excellent.  I forgot spoons so we used the shells as spoons and excellent idea - even more Salty I'd say!       Sweet campsite the only problem with this picture is that I am on my phone.  Well I had to call my dad!  Hi Dad!!!        Note the cat, bird and proximity. Lila is not paying attention or the picture would have been way funnier.

Casco Bay!

Amazing! I know you keep hearing me say that but imagine the BWCA supersized! It is called MITA (Maine Island Trail Assc. Which we are now membes of!). All through out Maine’s coast is MITA stops, some places you can camp other are just for day trips. You get to them by boat and you leave no trace, not even your poop.  I’ve heard about places you have to pack your poop out but now I have camped on a poop free island.  I had no worries I just went back to the sailboat and easy pooping there. (although it was a good ½ mile kayak)

MITA is everything like BWCA.  Ben and I had some shore leave where we camped on Little Snow island! When we got there two guys pulled up in their nice kayaks.  They are Tim and Paul, the nicest guys you will meet! While Tim showed Ben how to harvest Mussels Paul was teaching me about the area.  We wanted to take Tim and Paul back home with us for Saturdays in the winter where people sit-in-a-circle for a few hours and think deep and light thoughts.

We ate our first mussels and they were really good.  The next night we decided to eat some more but it thundered and stormed so neither one of us wanted to cook them so in the morning I decided to make them for breakfast.  You-know you can’t waste them.  Well mussels to me, taste better when you can’t see them very well.  Funny, in the morning you could see all the veins and fatty tissue and weird mealy stuff… I still liked them but not as much.  Funny story!  I’ll get used to the looks… someday… I think? Oh it is quite the trip to harvest quahogs (co-hogs).  They spit. Well they don’t spit but the way you find them is you look at the mud (from which the water just is receding)  you will see a small fountain of water spurt up about 6 inches to 2 feet.  I really looks like the mud is spitting.  Then you dig under about 4-6 inches and there is a shell creature. Ben and I tried a quahog and they were good too, more tougher I guess.  I’d rather have a good chew than a squishy mushy texture.

The last two nights on the MITA campsite is just like a day in the BWCA complete with … waking up in the morning for an early morning dip (brrrr same chilliness), having quiet read time and devotions, drinking coffee from our cute espresso camping maker, making a camp fire, going on a day trip (we went looking for seals but the wind, and the current were against us and I just didn’t have 6 miles of none stop upstream paddling in me, Ben could have done it easy) so our day trip we just paddled near some cool islands and took Lila for a little paddle. We ate our normal gorp mix of nuts. We played card games. It was all good. The only thing I missed was being able to dip my cup in the “lake” and drink clear clean water.  Sea water is not so good.

Tonight we are in what is called a hurricane hole.  It is called the Basin.  There is a cut out narrow path in the valley part of the land mass to get in from a boat.  I mean narrow for a big boat like us.  Once inside you are surrounded by hills/”mountains” trees, islands etc… you are completely 360 degrees covered around you where there are no openings to the Atlantic or bad weather.  The holding is mud which is good if it is hard enough.  Remember the Chesapeake? That was mud that was bad for holding, it was too gooshy!

The tide swings are 12 feet cuz we are at a New Moon.  So the lows are lower than normal (neap tide) and the highs are higher.  So every hour the tide rises or falls about 2 feet! That is a lot! This morning while swimming (and it was not that long) we put our towels on the rocks and just as we were getting out I noticed that Ben’s corner of his towel was in the water.  Then we sat there and watched the water rise.  It goes pretty fast! It’s better than watching wall paper dry.

Lila got to mouse all night long. I don’t think she caught one.  She also likes to hide in whatever she can crawl into.  When we were ready to leave she decided to hide.  But after a while she came.  She saw the kayaks in the water ready to shove off and down she came running.  She was not happy to go but she was happy to have us with her.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!