2022 Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous

17 Rosboroughs anchored off Birch Island in western Penobscot Bay.

            Our boat was an RV in the           
Osceola National Forest.

We trailered from Maine last February with most details finalized and registration full for the Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous.  Our last blog post in May 2022 had us pulling Salty Paws out of the water in Daytona Beach after an almost 2-month cruise along much of Florida’s East Coast, the Abacos and North Eleuthera.  Fellow Rosborough owner Dennis Robbins was kind enough to let us store our truck and trailer at his business.  We then used our boat as an RV coming back to Maine, staying in parks and with relatives, arriving at our Maine home on Sunday, May 22^nd.

Baby alligator in the Nat'l Forest.

You may remember that Molly broke her left wrist on our last day in the Bahamas, but now she was only a week away from having the cast removed.  Unfortunately, on the 2nd of her daily walks back in Maine she made the mistake of letting our dog Tory bring along a tennis ball.  While stopped to talk with a neighbor, Tory dropped her ball and proceeded to chase after it, pulling on the leash and causing Molly to tumble down an 8-foot embankment and hit a tree with her head.

I took our family minus Molly
 to Sequin Island in July.

Now she had two broken wrists, a concussion and two broken vertebrae in her lower back.  While a picture is worth a thousand words, she did not give me permission to post my picture of her in the ER.  Over the next several weeks Molly kept her spirits up and did her OT and PT, and I did a lot of cooking and dishwashing! 

 The 4 group leaders looked quite official-
Jeff, Otto, yours truly and Mark.

By August Molly was well enough to go on our boat again.  That was fortunate as we would soon be hosting the 2022 Rosborough Maine Cruising Rendezvous for the last two weeks of August.  Fellow Rosborough owner Otto Cuyler oversaw the registration and finances and led one group of boats. along Jeff Beam, Mark Ugerri and I led the other three groups.  Cathy Ugerri arranged for all the Rendezvous leaders to be decked out in our own monogramed shirts!

At the Maine Maritime Museum.

     Getting the welcoming bags ready.     

18 Boats, some trailered from as far away as Michigan and Florida, and 65 people attended from all over the East Coast.  We took over the Maine Maritime Museum and Bath City Dock for the first three days, having a private tour of the Museum, a banquet, a talk by the Executive Director of Maine Island Trail Association, a 

workshop on cruising the Maine coast and lobsters and clams on the beach in front of our house. 

Bath City Dock

Lobsters and clams cooking on our beach.

The workshop addressed all the reasons one might not want to boat in Maine – tides, fog, cold water, rocks, and lobster pots, and more than a few boaters attending might never had ventured to Maine on their own.

We had a private tour guide at the Museum.

Melissa Read and Laurie Calagna cleaned
the clams with a little help from Tory.

The first three days went surprisingly well except for the surprise of the rushing Kennebec River current for the 7 boats at the Bath City Dock, where at times it sounded like a freight train.  All survived, however, and on Wednesday, August 24^th, 17 boats, split into 4 groups left Bath and began our Down East cruise.  Nightly stops varied by group and collectively included Boothbay Harbor, Damariscove Island, Witch Island, Port Clyde, Camden, Bucks Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Little Cranberry Island. 

We all gathered on beautiful Birch Island.  I can identify most people and dogs in the picture, but not all.  If you can do so,
email me and I will update the caption with everyone's name!

The third night out we all gathered at the anchorage between Birch Island and Hog Island off the Muscle Ridge Channel on the western shore of Penobscot Bay.  Molly and I got there first, and I spent most of the afternoon in our dinghy welcoming arriving boats and suggesting where to anchor and how much rode to put out.  [I must say that I was relieved that seas were calm, and, except for having to relocate one boat in the evening, everyone got through the night just fine.]

Dinghies on the beach at Birch Island.

          After a beautiful clear evening we awoke to Maine fog.           

That night featured cocktails on the Birch Island beach and a cookout.  It was a beautiful, starlit evening, and my favorite gathering of the Rendezvous.  True to Maine’s changing weather, we all woke up the next day to heavy fog. In fact, over the course of the cruise we collectively experienced all the reasons that can challenge Maine cruisers, including fog, tides, lobster pot tangled in a prop, rough weather and rain.  

We also had two unplanned dips in the cold ocean.  Molly was a key participant in both dips, and I blame that on her concussion.

After Birch Island, half the group went to Camden and the rest of us went to
beautiful Bucks Harbor.

This is a picture of the Little Cranberry Island Harbor with Mt. Desert Island in the background.  5 boats moored off Little Cranberry and everyone else was at a slip or floating dock in Northeast Harbor where we all gathered for dinner one night.

This is an unbelievable rock and pebble dune on the
open ocean side of Little Cranberry Island.

Rocks we gathered off the dune.  My
backpack got quite heavy!

Our boat, Salty Paws, was on a mooring off Little Cranberry Island, and we took our dinghy alongside the Dockside Restaurant dock.  Before I had a chance to secure the dinghy, Molly attempted to exit our little craft.  She fell into the water up to her waist as the dinghy moved away from the dock.  I struggled to grab the dock while her grip was on the dock was beginning to slip.  Fortunately, after a couple of cries of “Help, Bill!”  I was able to reach the dock, jump out of the boat and pull her out of the water.

Tory was one of 9 dogs in attendance. 
 They got along great.

   We saw numerous Guillemots on the cruise.    

We spent two days in the shadow of Mt. Desert, and then began our three-day, two-night trip back Bath.  Again, nightly stops varied by group, and we spent one night in a cove near Tenants Harbor and our second night in the Damariscotta River.    The Tenants Harbor anchorage was off Clarke’s Island, which has an excellent trail but a difficult shoreline to access.  Dan Evans and I and our two dogs were enjoying the walk when I got a call on my handheld radio “Man overboard!”  Then I was asked by Mark Ugerri, “how do you operate your stern ladder?”  I quickly instructed him how, figuring that he and Kathy had ended up in the water.

Dan and I were a good 15 minutes away from our dinghies, and as we hurried back I didn’t know what we would find.   The excitement was mostly over by the time of our arrival except for Mark trying to right his capsized dinghy near the shore.  Then I learned that Mark had contacted Molly to go ashore and had came over to pick her up off Salty Paws in his Pudge, a unique plastic dinghy.  Mark eased his boat alongside Salty Paws, and Molly proceeded to place one foot on its gunnel and then the other while Mark was attempting to assist her into the boat.  The Pudge immediately flipped sending both into the water.  Mark’s life jacket instantly inflated, almost strangling him in doing so.  [Lesson learned – know how to deflate your inflatable lifejacket!]  Molly clung to the capsized dinghy, and eventually got back aboard Salty Paws after Mark figured out my stern ladder.

On the last full cruising day we led a
caravan of 7 boats through the reopened
swing bridge to Barter's Island and went
up the inside passage to Oven's Mouth.
In the Mouth the current was racing and
Jeff Beam had to go through twice.

Molly and I explored Hodgson Island in
the Damariscotta River with Dan Evans,
Sharon Bennett and Mark Ugerri. 
Bill Bennett was the photographer. 

Our last open water cruising off Pemaquid was rough, but
everyone was relatively comfortable because we were in a group.

     Last night's pizza buffet.     

The last night was at Robinhood Marine Center, our home port in Georgetown.  The evening featured a pizza smorgasbord on the lawn in front of the Osprey and great stories and camaraderie developed over the almost two weeks in Maine.

Last night of the Rendezvous.
First row - Rufus, Dan Evans, Otto Cuyler, Terry Traver, Tyler, Laurie Calagna, Tory, Cindy VanHouten, Sid VanHouten,
Sharon Bennett, Bill Bennett and KayTee.
2nd row - Jeremy Scouten, Anna Cuyler, Mark Ugerri, Cathy Ugerri, Jeff Beam, Jessie Bollinger, Molly Webster, Bill Webster,
Dennis Robbins, Lois, Tiedeken, Mike Richards, Beverly Watson and Gordon Watson.

Below is a listing of all who participated in any or all parts of the Rendezvous.  What a great community we have!