Day 3: July
1, 2015
We awoke to a cloudy cool morning. The temperature in the boat last night was 72
when we crawled into bed but about 65 when we awoke. We have a new “topper” pad on our v-berth which
makes the bunk softer and much more comfortable. Under the down comforter, we both slept
wonderfully well.
We fired up our little one-burner stove and made a
pot of coffee and prepared a wonderful breakfast of sausage gravy on
toast. The coffee was a bit strange
because, at the end of the last trip, I had not drained the water tank so the
water as well flavored from sources unknown.
We finished preparing the boat for launch and made a
quick trip to town to pick up a few supplies which included 3 gallons of
bottled water that we can use until we find a source of fresh water that we can
use to refill our water tank.
The tides in this area are high and the route we
plan to take to our next destination is quite narrow in spots which makes for significant
current as the tides are rising or falling.
High tide was predicted for 12:00 so we planned our departure time for
10:30. At either high or low tide, the
current becomes zero and so we will be planning our trip accordingly.
About the time we left, a light rain began to fall
and there was a breeze of about 8 mph so we put on our rain gear and headed
out. The city of Bath and our launch
ramp is on the Kennebec River so once in the water, we headed north towards the
entrance of a small narrow Sasanoa River that.
Just across the mouth of that river is located the HUGE Bath Iron
Works. It is where destroyers are built for the US Navy. As we passed we could make out two new
submarines and one other ship
that appeared to be near completion along with
several other boats in various levels of completion. The ships are constructed in sections in huge
shops and then moved outside with massive cranes for final assembly. The tour book says that the Bath Iron Works
is Maine’s largest employer.
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| Huge Dry-dock at Bath Iron Works |
As we entered the Sasanoa River, we began to
encounter about a 2 knot current on our nose and, as we progressed, the
passageway got narrower and the current became much faster. The area through
which we were passing is known as Upper Hell Gate. The water was rushing towards the
Further down the Sasanoa, we encountered the Lower
Hell Gate which at the time of our passage had very little current due to the
fact that we had arrived at high tide.
Lower Hell Gate enters into Knubble Bay, the lower end of which is
located the Robinhood Marina.
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| New Submarine |
Robinhood is where we spent the remainder of the day
and night. We were both cold and wet and
it was a relief to be able to tie up to a dock and dry out. I called our friend, John, and he hauled us
back to Bath to pick up our truck and trailer which we left at his house for
the duration of this trip.
Back at the boat, we drained our water tank and took
on a full load of sweet fresh water. The
young kids who were working the dock had assigned us a mooring ball on which to
tie up so we took off for what frequently turns out to be a Chinese fire
drill. Luckily, this time we snagged the
slimy mooring line on the second pass.
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| Fog coming in at Robin Hood Marine |
On our trip to the grocery earlier, we had bought a
steak which we planned to grill for our evening meal, however, the weather was
still not very nice so we prepared a gourmet meal of cheesy macaroni and
hamburger “Hamburger Helper” meal. After
supper, we read and messed around the boat until bed time which came at about
9:00. The temp in the boat was 65
degrees and it looked like that would be the high temperature for the night.
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| Lobster-man at Robin Hood |
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