Maine I Love — David Gillespie

When we moved from our home in Colorado and moved aboard Bel Canto, our Tayana 42, my wife, Sandy, and I had all sorts of adventures in mind, starting with a cruise south to the Bahamas. Afterward, we made New Bern, North Carolina, our new home port, but a trip to Maine was always on our nautical wish list. The thing I love about our cruising lifestyle is that you never really know where you’ll end up or what experiences you’ll have. When we set off on Bel Canto, we usually will have a general end destination in mind, with a few must stops along the way and just let the trip unfold. And so it was, one summer day we found ourselves anchored in Port Clyde—where lobster buoys seemed to adorn everything—to buy a doll! Yep, we sailed over 1,000 miles, for two months, to line up for the annual Port Clyde Fisherman Doll Fair. The dolls are hand made by the local ladies’ sewing circle, and each one is in the image of a local fisherman. This was truly that last thing I thought we’d be doing, but we found Maine to be full of quirky little surprises. A few days earlier, we’d bought lobsters from a local woman who ran a bookstore on Isle au Haut. The similarities between our mountain lake at home in Colorado and Maine made this part of the coast a very special place for us: brisk mornings and a hot mug of coffee; pine trees and rugged shorelines. The only things missing were some snow-capped mountains. Our cruise to Maine made for a fine summer.