New England Trip

The sky was clear blue today, with puffy white clouds. Our first adventure was a morning sail on the Margaret Todd, a 151 foot four-masted schooner docked in downtown Bar Harbor. The wind was light, but the six sails, four of them gaff rigged, caught what little wind we had, and a park ranger pointed out islands and wildlife to be seen along the way. The highlight of the trip was seeing a bald eagle perched in the top of a bare tree on one of the islands just off Bar Harbor. The eagle sat still in the same tree for a long time, so we had lots of time to look at him through the binoculars and take pictures. It was really wonderful to see his huge size, his white head and gold beak so clearly. There is an eagle nest on the island which the ranger had spotted, but although he showed us approximately where it was, we weren’t able to see the nest clearly from the boat. The sail lasted about two hours, and went around the four Porcupine Islands that skirt Bar Harbor. There were three huge Newfoundland dogs aboard who are mascots of the ship, one named Maggie, and another, her pup, named Schooner..

After the sail, we drove back up Cadillac Mountain (it’s just a three mile drive from the park road) to enjoy the clear view and take pictures. Then we returned to the campground to pick up Wicket, and drove to the Bass Harbor lighthouse at the farthest south tip of Mount Desert Island. There weren’t as many spectacular photography stops along this afternoon’s drive, but we enjoyed it.

A picture of the SV Margaret Todd and of a view from the summit of Cadillac Mountain follows.