Rockport, Maine

We are surrounded by the lobster industry----lobster boats, fishermen, the ever-present sea gulls, lobster in all forms on restaurant menues, and we're fasinated by it all. So, here's a little lobster trivia for the day:

Lobsters come in every color but red. They can be blue, light yellow, greenish-brown, grey, dusty orange, calico, and even have spots. However, they all turn red when cooked which I haven't done yet.

We're tried (and will continue to try) to support the men and women who set the thousands of lobster pots we have to weave around. We've had lobsters boiled, in a salad, on a roll, in a dip, and in a stew. The stew was so delicious that we asked to talk to the cook. Her little serve-yourself-and-sit-on-the-deck place advertised grilled lobster. Now that's something I'd like to try on the boat grill. The only problem is that she splits them down the middle while they are still alive. I don't think I can do that!

Another piece of trivia: Lobster is a low-calorie, low-fat source of protein: 3.5 ounces of meat has about 96 calories and less than 2 grams of fat. That does not count the butter that it is dipped in.

I think we have arrived in the most beautiful cruising grounds we've seen. We've sailed into Penobscot Bay with more than 200 large and small islands. We're in Rockland for a couple of days to reprovision, fill the water tanks, wash the salt water off the boat, and catch up with laundry and see an old friend. On the way here from Bath we stopped in Christmas Cove and Tenants Harbor. These were quiet little harbors with mooring fields from shore to shore.

At Christmas Cove there was a narrow 35 foot entrance to the cove with red and green daybeacons on tall pilings to guide us in. From our mooring we could watch an osprey feeding her young on top of the green beacon and hear the chicks noisily calling for more food. Osprey use the same nest year after year with a few renovations. Scientists have dated one nest to be 115 years old.

We loved being in Bath which is called a big town-little city. The Kennebec River was quiet, and we were the only boat on the moorings for the 5 days we were there. We had to stay so many days to attempt to resolve our 21st century technology problems.

1. Our iphone is sick, sick, SICK. However, we have to wait until the new model arrives. So, no help there.

2. Then our old computer with the navigation program crashed AGAIN. Luckily we found a computer guy who was about 1/2 mile from the boat and could fit us in., He found that the new hard drive (installed in May) crashed taking with it all the pictures and other data. He was able to install a used hard drive that will be devoted to running the navigation program.

3. While climbing down the ladder and into the dinghy to go ashore the strap on the new computer (only 3 weeks old) bag broke, the computer fell off my shoulder and splashed into the water. Lou tried everything to save it, but mother boards do not like salt water!!! So, off we went to buy another computer. Ouch!

Actually, this may (I hope) fill our quota of bad things that can happen. I'll take these problems over bumping into rocks any day. But, it does make staying in contact a bit of a challenge.