Tag: Maine

We’re becoming a port of call

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Eastport has the deepest natural harbor in the continental U.S., but getting here requires going through Canadian waters. As a consequence, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, there are far fewer boats than you might expect during much of the year.

My first year up here, we had some impressive superyachts but no cruise ships. After seeing some celebrated floating hotels overshadowing Key West and then Portland, Maine, I would consider that as a blessing. From the water, the QE2 looked bigger than the Queen City of Maine’s downtown.

One of the newer trends, though, has been a revival of smaller cruise vessels of 200 or so passengers, and last summer we had a handful of those. Apart from the fact that they blocked some very popular mackerel fishing from the pier, they were a welcome addition to the downtown.

Bar Harbor, at the other end of our Downeast Region, has decided it’s become too popular as a port of call. Some days in summer have had two visiting cruise ships that drop off thousands of tourists on the town’s narrow streets and neighboring Acadia National Park. The local reaction has been to impose a limit, and that may be sending some itineraries our way.

This year it looks like we’re getting up to 11 ships, 16 visits in all, most of them in the autumn foliage season.

Here’s what I’ve found.

  • Pearl Mist, May 8 and again September 11.
  • Holland America Line’s Zaadam, May 22. The largest of the ships, with a maximum of 1,432 passengers plus staff, the 781-foot long vessel has more people than Eastport’s year-round population.
  • The 520-passenger Roald Amudsen. After a visit last September, the icebreaker expedition ship returns on September 15 on its four-ocean bucket-list voyage from the British Columbia across the Arctic Sea and down to Antarctica.
  • Star Pride, 212 passengers, October 2 and 6.
  • Viking Mars, 944 passengers, October 5.
  • Seven Seas Mariner, October 12.
  • Insignia, October 17, 21, 24, and November 8.
  • Viking Star, 944 passengers, October 19.
  • Ocean Navigator, 220 passengers, October 26. A return after spending two weeks in April at the Breakwater preparing for its summer season on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes.
  • Le Bellot, October 30.
  • Le Dumont, November 10 or so.

It will be interesting to see what the infusion of visitors in the fall shoulder season will do to the town. Things really slow down after Labor Day.

Black flies, little black flies

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Spring in Maine can be a very short season, marked first by mud season and then the black flies that descend from late April into July.

My introduction came one year in a brief stop to investigate a stunning waterfall, interrupted by a large swarm of what I thought were mosquitos. The second enlightenment came at a stop along the Airline Highway en route to Eastport. A wall of flying insects would be a diluted version.

Also known as buffalo gnats, turkey gnats, or white socks (not of the Chicago baseball kind), black flies are more than the defenders of wilderness. Take a look.

  1. They don’t seem to be a problem on windy days or along the ocean.
  2. There are actually more than 2,200 species of them, not that the ones I’ve seen ever look black.
  3. Their bites are particularly nasty or, at the least, a nuisance. Some even spread the disease river blindness.
  4. They’re found far beyond Maine. Scotland, northern Ontario, and Minnesota weigh in heavily, though Pennsylvania has been active in the battle against them.
  5. The eggs are laid in running water and are extremely sensitive to pollution.
  6. Bites are most often found on the face, hairline, neck, and back, though the pests are attracted to breathing and, thus, can enter the nose or mouth. Don’t overlook the ankles, either.
  7. They’re attracted to dark colors.
  8. They stretch the skin and then make shallow cuts with blade-like sections of their mouth before sucking blood.
  9. They’re most active for a few hours after sunrise and a few hours before sunset but totally inactive through the night.
  10. Folksinger Bill Staines made a hit of the logging camp song written by Canadian Wade Hesmworth. The line, “I’ll die with a blackfly pickin’ my bones,” rings especially true.