The Old Man and the Sea and Lobster for Me

Watching boats as we eat at the Waterfront Restaurant.

Maine coastline is one lovely port after another with little burgs and boats of all sizes. The small towns of Rockland, Rockport, and Camden are one after the other along the coast and although we were parked at an RV park in Rockport, we could easily see all 3 in a couple of days. We were lucky enough to be in Camden for the Windjammer festival. Windjammers are large sailboats that mostly are powered by sail only and have to be towed or shoved into tight places. There were so many of these large sailboats at the festival and we were able to watch several get maneuvered into the port and were able to board 3 of them to see the living quarters, kitchens, bunkbeds, and general operations. Steve had the itch to sail again.

Touring a windjammer

I get nauseous just thinking of sleeping in these bunks on the windjammers. They cram about 28 people in these tight places.

Putting up the sails takes a crew

And off she goes

It is fairly expensive to take a 4-7 day cruise (which includes gourmet meals) on these windjammers but Steve would have done it in a flash if I could have gone too and not gotten too sick to enjoy the food or the fun. But we knew from experience that I get motion sick way to easily. "Go anyway without me", I said - because I can always find things to do. Perhaps he will he said, when he can go with friends. Having had time on his sailboat I understood and appreciated his interest and enthusiasm for sailing.

One of the greatest things about sailing is the sheer beauty of the sun on the water. Without going sailing we were able to be around the water all week. We walked one mile of a stone wall that was built in 1881 for a barrier to protect the Rockland harbor.  It was an 18-year project that cost $750,000. This barrier allows hundreds of boats to moor in the harbor without getting bashed by storms and  high waves. At the end of the mile of stone wall is a lighthouse.

It took them 17 years to build this rock wall.

Walking around the lighthouse

A couple of days later we saw the lighthouse again- from the ferry we took to Vinalhaven.

Overlooking Camden harbor from the State Park

One day in Rockland we went to a chocolate factory that makes chocolate from "bean to bar". They get their cocoa beans from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and from Guatemala. We were able to taste chocolate from each place to see if we could tell the difference. Like honey, cocoa beans take on the flavor of plants around them. So the Guatemala one tasted like citrus, the Haiti one like flowers and the Dominican a little like coffee. The Haiti one was the least bitter and of course we were both pleased to hear about the cocoa growing in Haiti.

We were shown a slide show of the process of bean to bar. The cocoa starts as large pods on trees. Inside the pods are large beans surrounded by a white pulpy mass. The beans are removed from the pod- about 25 beans (the same amount is needed to make a chocolate bar) and fermented at a perfect temperature in order to remove all the pulp around them but not rot them. Then they are dried. After drying them, they are bagged and shipped from Cap Haitian in the north of Haiti all the way to Rockland, Maine.

Bags of cocoa beans from Haiti and from Guatemala.

The beans are baked, the shells are removed, and the "nibs" inside are ground until they turn into a chocolate paste. Then they add cane sugar - a 70% cocoa bar is 30% sugar.

I recently read that Australia is now going to require that chocolate sold there must label their products as to whether or not slave labor was used to grow, harvest, and prepare the cocoa beans. Nestle, the corporation that does a lot of immoral things around the world, has said that chocolate will cost more if they have to actually pay people a living wage. I love chocolate. A bar of chocolate at this factory cost us $10. Seems expensive but this company claims to pay the cocoa farmers fairly. It will make us think twice before buying chocolate. The bottom line is that we need to be willing to pay more for fair trade chocolate so that others in the world are not enslaved to produce it.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/nestle-says-slavery-reporting-requirements-could-cost-customers-20180816-p4zy5l.html

On Saturday night we went to a concert at the Camden Opera house by Jonathan Edwards. We took a chance- not knowing much about him. He is most well-know for his hit "Sunshine" in 1971. He had an amazingly talented piano player named Tom with him and with his guitar and harmonica, made some beautiful music. We were really glad we went. The audience brought him back for an encore and he ended up playing 3 more songs, including "Come on People Now Smile at Your Brother, Gotta Love Everybody right now".

Jonathon and Tom

Sunday afternoon I watched Steve's head bob up and down as he drifted in and out of sleep on the 1 and 1/2 hour ferry boat ride back to Camden from Vinalhaven Island off the coast of main. The beauty of the sea, the sailboats we were passing, the hundreds of crab and lobster pots-- all very interesting but we were barely aware on the ride back. After walking for several miles and riding bike twice that and a big burger with onion rings for lunch, it is no wonder we were both falling asleep on the ferry. Sun, exercise, and food were the recipe for sleeping well that night.

Approaching the dock

View of coastline from the ferry

Another ferry passed us going the other way

We walked a lovely path along the shoreline on Vinalhaven

Steve was able to get some drone footage of one edge of the island. As soon as he figures out how to edit and save some of the more interesting footage he promises to share it.

Steve does not eat any seafood. Hard to believe, right? But being in Maine, I had to have lobster, So I had a lobster roll while he had pulled pork and one lovely evening at a waterfront restaurant I ate a whole grilled lobster while he had a New York strip. And another day I had fried oysters while he had a pork shop. Poor Steve.

The view from our seat at the Hoxbill restaurant.