Portland to Kittery, Maine (Portsmouth, NH) - Heading South, Bound for the Bahamas

It was dead quiet when Dwayne woke up just after dawn. The fog was denser than we experienced last night. Visibility was less than 50 feet. Dwayne went back to bed. We didn't drop off our mooring ball until 1000. The fog had lifted enough so we could proceed out of the harbor and hope we would not find it worse on our way to Portsmouth. We had to skirt a few fog banks on the way. It took several hours for the fog to lift. There was no wind. We motored all the way. We were on the lookout for whales but saw none. We did see a large pod of dolphins. No seals were sighted.

As we entered Portsmouth harbor, we turned north and took the Back Channel between Kittery Point and Seavey's Island to take a mooring ball at the Kittery Point Yacht Yard. It was a very convenient location and out of the way of traffic moving into Portsmouth harbor.

Early Morning Fog

Seavey's Island has a very interesting history. It was the site of several fortifications dating back to the American Revolution. It is the location of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the Portsmouth Naval Prison or "Alcatraz of the East" which is no longer a detention center. New Hampshire and Maine have disputed control and jurisdiction of the island. The United States Supreme Court appears to have ended the dispute in 2001 when it determined Maine had jurisdiction over the island. We could hear "Taps" played in the evening and "Reveille" sounded in the morning.

Portsmouth Naval Prison - "Alcatraz of the East"

Portland was our northern most limit of travel. It is another 150 or so miles to the Canadian border as the bird flies. We would have liked to cover the entire US East Coast; however, there just wasn't enough time as it would take several weeks to travel the remaining distance due to the irregular Maine coastline. The weather was not looking good for continuing north. So, we are now heading south -bound for the Bahamas.