Fog and Tide

So this is Rockland Harbor - if you got out of the Harbor and make a right you are right out in the North Atlantic Ocean. I may have mentioned the fog that envelopes Rockland from time to time.  Well this is one of those days - although not nearly as dense as we have seen it.  I may also have mentioned that the fog always wants to settle in on the day that I am off and able to go sailing!  Pretty sure Mother Nature is conspiring against me.  That is the downside of sailing to great places and then working while you are there - the work then interferes with sailing once you get to that great place. 

There are several seals that live in the Harbor - one in particular that is quite large.  They hang out by the working pier where the lobster boats come in and unload.  Always looking for something that might end up in the water - leftover bait, fish pieces.  We have taken the dinghy to see if we can catch them out of the water sunning themselves but have had no luck yet.  

 The working pier is right behind our boat - its very entertaining watching the lobster boats come in and unload.  Or load their boats with bait as they are getting ready to go out.  Quite colorful!  Occasionally, they will get into shouting matches with the seagulls.  They yell and cuss at the birds as though they are really going to listen.  The birds just swarm and squawk - oblivious to the frustration of the lobstermen.

Here we are - the second sailboat (the one with the red sail cover).  If you look at the posts you can see the water mark from the tide.  The tide is going out but will drop further still.  They have 12 foot tides here!  The ebb and flood of the tide will rock the boat, sometimes vigorously.  Add some wind out of the east or a large ocean swell to that and it can get pretty bouncy.  So much so that my vase went flying off the table in the middle of the night.  Flowers and water everywhere.  

 This is the ramp up to the marina office at low tide.  The base of the ramp is on wheels so it can move with the tide.  It is a steep climb up at low tide but good exercise.  Pretty early on Michael decided to only use the portable pumpout station at high tide.  Once the machine is full its pretty darn heavy.  Needless to say pushing it up that ramp is something you would only want to do once.  One day he told the marina owner he was waiting for high tide to come get the pumpout machine and he replied "It took me three years to figure that out".  Hmmm.....Funny guy!