June 24, 2025

Today it is warm. The sun is shining and by shear consequence the harbor woke up. Lobster boats that have been sitting moribund at their moorings are suddenly covered with traps. Carrie Rose is a bit like a lobster boat but I doubt I could pile fifty lobster traps on the stern and she’d still be floating. Lobster boats have been growing in the 12 years we have spent on the water here in Maine. It is not unusual for them to have massive 700 to 1000 hp engines. To put in context, we have 210hp. 

While in the fog and cold Charlotte was reading me lobstering statistic to pass the time. And though, last year’s catch of 87,000,000 lbs. of the squirming crustaceans was down from the previous year, it was leagues above 10 years ago. There were several factors attributed for the drop: overfishing (the fisherman will never concede this), the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine (don’t even mention climate change around here), different invasive crabs (of course, they all seem to be from China), etc., etc. But let’s move on. 

 

As we are wont to do this time of year, we are attending the Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance in Bar Harbor. There are many Canadian artists, teachers, students, and guest present from Prince Edward and Cape Breton Islands, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. The young man in charge of the event (a fiddlier himself) made a point to welcome the Canadians and apologized for our present government’s disrespect. He got a big round of applause.

 

So today, as the temperature rose, we shifted from wool and fleece to t-shirts and shorts. I put the sunshade up over the pilothouse windows. I dug out the jury rigged (I know, not again) cords for the 12 volt fans. There is enough sun to charge the batteries, run the fans and the frig, and as a bonus, charge the dinghy’s lithium battery. 

 

The shift from the isolation of cold to the exuberance of heat is taxing. An old fart now, in denial concerning the value of change, I keep trying to mix up my surroundings. It is good that Charlotte is a good sport . . . 

NE Harbor, Maine