CHAS REPORTS ON THE MAINE ADVENTURE ROW

Hadn't heard much about this adventure or seen any pictures since the return of the Motley Crew.Did catch this e-mail exchanged between Charlie and Dave and thought it was worth repeating.
Charlie Harak reports that...The rowing was AWESOME. We rowed the Sommes Sound, a glacial fiord with deep water and 1,000 foot mountains flanking the narrow waist of this 4-mile long sound. Overall, a 14 or 15 mile row. Very beautiful. Very challenging on the return as the wind picked up and we the mountains funneled strong winds against us. Second day, we rowed due south from Northeast Harbor (where we launched each day), to a small island past the Cranberry Islands. We beached our boats on a low sand spit between the larger and smaller hummocks of this few-acre island. The tide was coming up...you guessed it! Chris's boat floated away when we weren't looking. Fortunately, it floated right at the Leake's Rib, which was anchored about 100 yards off shore. Maybe a ten mile row. Day 3, we followed the coast of Mt. Desert Island around to the east, and ended up near Bar Harbor, at the well-populated sandy beach. The seat on the Alden I was using had broken about 3 miles earlier, so I was on the Rib. When we beached for lunch on the way back, Paulie got in the Rib and I rowed the rest of the way back in his boat. Total distance was 17 miles that day; I rowed maybe 12 as I was on the Rib for some of it.

We had some great meals. On Day 2, we stopped at Islesford, on Little Cranberry for lunch. It was cool: beaching our boats right next to this cool restaurant, eating lobster rolls, and heading back to Northeast Harbor after lunch. That night, all of us (including Kathy M. and Scott's wife and kids) took the Rib for dinner at Islesford. We also took the Rib, all 10 of us, the first night around to Southwest Harbor for dinner on the dock there.

While rain was predicted every day, we saw none while rowing. Cool temps, fairly flat water a lot of the time (although some interesting swells now and again, and fighting strong wind on Day 1 in the Sommes Sound).

Awesome!
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