Our Second Day in Camden

Day 24:  July 22, 2015

Although last night the wind was calm in the cove in which we are anchored, it is situated so that the swells from the open waters of the Penobscot River rolled in and caused the boat to rock all night long.  Sleeping for me wasn’t the best.  However, a nice batch of blueberry pancakes with bacon revived my spirits and started the day off well.

The morning view from our anchorage

The calm winds lasted until about 10:00 when a blast northwest wind blew away the fog and opened up the brilliant blue sky.  We had planned to go back into Camden and check out the sights but the wind was brisk enough that we were concerned about the anchor dragging.  So, we hung around the boat until the middle of the afternoon when the wind finally decided to back off a bit.  The anchor was holding well, but we didn’t want to be off of the boat and have it take an unplanned solo voyage onto the nearby rocks.

Young kid sailing a Laser in strong winds

The brisk winds didn’t bother the kids in the Optimist Dinghies, however.  They were out in full force again having a grand time in the winds.  I saw only one kiddo capsize but in no time he had his boat righted and was madly throwing out the water with a bailer in each hand.  They were fun to watch.  In this strong air, these little boats really fly. Later in the afternoon, the older kids came out again and their instructor got them all together in their boats and had them all capsize at one time in a drill to teach them the most effective way to right their boats and get back aboard.  Let me tell you, the water here is  cold and the winds were blowing, but the kids in bathing suits did not seem to be effected.

We read, ate our Spam/tuna lunch and enjoyed the sunshine.  

At around 3:00, the wind backed off and so we

Getting ready for the capsize 

climbed into Dink and headed for town.  On the way, we flagged down the instructor of the sailing class and got a bit more information.  The older kids are 12 and 13 years old and the younger ones were 8 and 9.  These older kids were her experienced racers and as I have mentioned are quite skilled sailors. This young instructor said that she was in the class and sailed these dinghies until she was 18 and then took over teaching.  She didn’t appear to be over 18 now.

One of the big guys moored in Camden Harbor

In town, we walked the streets visiting some really interesting shops.  We stopped at an antique book store that was packed mostly with old books but also had many interesting small antiques, posters, and paintings.  We spent quite a bit of time browsing the titles.  She had hundreds of books related to the marine industry, many written back in the early part of the 20^th century.

 

From there, we stopped in at a high end craft shop that had amazing paintings, bronze castings, and fancy art stuff all priced way beyond our means.  For instance they had beautifully crafted pigs carved of wood and finished with milk paint.  These guys were probably three feet long and sold for $2,000.00. 

The water falls in Camden

 

We were impressed that the majority of shops that we saw were of a higher caliber than we had seen in other towns.  For instance, in Bar Harbor, most of the shops sold souvenirs and trinkets for the tourist trade. 

We walked through a part of Harbor Park at the side of which is located the waterfall that we discussed yesterday.  We finally settled down in Cappy’s Chowder House

.  Cappy has a literal corner on the market.  His establishment is right on the main corner in town where a number of the main streets converge including the main road leading to the harbor.  If you are in Camden, you have to pass Cappy’s.  He also has a bar, a bake shop and a store.  The gal who waited on us was an amazingly good waitress.  She was chatty, efficient and personable.  She rattled off a long list of specials which included a lobster slider with clam chowder that caught Janine’s attention.  I settled on a bowl of seafood pie.  All were excellent.

Back down at the harbor, we shared a dip of ice cream while we sat on a bench watching the schooner taking folks of 2 hour rides pulled back into her mooring.

The Dink carried us back to the boat at about 7:00.  We read a bit more and then called it a night.