2021 Georgetown

 Sunday 8-8-21

I am here in Maine with my artist friend Martha, we come every year to paint and make art.  I left New York Saturday (7th) and arrived here the same night.  We are in a little village called Five Islands on the island of Georgetown. Five Islands is one of six small villages on Georgetown Island, the villages are Five Islands, Georgetown, Bay Point, Marrtown, West Georgetown and Robinhood.  The village of Five Islands gets its name from being on Five Islands Harbor which gets its name from being surrounded by five islands.

On the drive up Saturday there was so much traffic the drive took 2.5 hours longer than usual and it was both directions so going home will be similar.  Interesting that we can’t drink or cook with the water, they provide drinking water in a water cooler.  We had dinner on the local dock both Saturday and Sunday night. Martha and I have been reviewing our notes and instruction books so far and now it is TIME to make Art.  I worked on my first masterpiece Sunday.

Eating on the dock at Five Island Harbor is the only place to eat without driving into the larger village of Georgetown on the island, or Bath which is off the island.  

Below are a few photos from Sunday (first one from Saturday), plus a few downloads from the Internet.

Above:  Saturday, yours truly pumping gas in Willington, CT.

Above:  Frame grab from a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsGVhd7WmxQ) showing the location of the cabin where Diane and Martha stayed, at 10 Saddler’s Cove Lane.

Above:  Another  online photo (http://blog.peregrinesea.com/2011/03/five-islands-harbor.html) that shows where we stayed.

Above:  Frame grab from video (https://www.redfin.com/ME/Georgetown/10-Saddler-s-Cove-Ln-04548/home/100373605) of the place where we stayed,

Above:  A view from our porch.

Above:  The cottage which is our home for a week.

Above:  A view from a dock at the Five I Fuel & Harborside General Store on Georgetown Island.

Above:  The driveway to our cottage.

Above:  A view of the dock area showing the picnic tables (look closely) on the dock where we ate.

Above:  Yours truly eating a lobster dinner Sunday night at the Five Islands Lobster Company.

The Five Islands Lobster Company is a very popular place.  A boat came into Sunday night with 84 people just to eat there.  You pay for your lobster by the pound and then buy corn, potatoes, onion rings as sides.  Or you can pay less and take your lobster home and cook it yourself.

Monday 8-9-21

Martha and I left the cottage this morning earliesh to go to Bath, ME for breakfast.  Bath is off the Georgetown Island and is a little less than 15 miles from our cottage in Five Islands.  Crab BLT for me, Crab Eggs Benedict for Martha.  Then we went to Hannaford, about another 8 miles and bought guess what?  Lobsters to have back at the cottage.  But it was too cold to eat outside tonight, so we had a gin and tonic, then dined inside.
 
The sun is supposed to come out tomorrow, so my plans are to photograph some of the beautiful local scenery and maybe go to the Bath Iron Works.  Bath is a huge ship building town.  I love going through there seeing all the giant rigs and cross sections of ships in process. But they are hard to get photos of.  Top Secret so the view is always obscured, but they are so big you get a glimpse.  I don't have any current photos of the ships so I'll try to get one even if it is not so good.  There are no bisected ships there this time 😫 but fairly big cranes.  

Above:  Dinner guests from Monday night, the lobsters we picked up Sunday in Hannaford.

 
Tuesday 8-10-21

We woke up this morning to a totally gray outdoors.  No sky, no ocean, just fog, damp and dreary.  It cleared somewhat later in the day and I went for a 7,667 step walk in the afternoon, about 3.5 miles.  The fog came and went all day, as did the tide, which is huge. Entire islands emerge and disappear as the tide did it's thing.  So I didn't go to the Bath Iron Works to take photos of the ships as planned, hopefully maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile back at the ranch (i.e., our rental cottage,) I spent the day working on my fiction/story.  I made good progress and have maybe 20% in PDF form now.  It is about editing and re-editing, and more re-editing, a good pastime for a damp day.  I hope to have it in a format I can send for professional editing by the end of the trip.  I finally found a cushion for the chair on which I spent the better part of the day.
 
Tonight we got fish and world famous onion rings from the Five Islands Lobster Company at the wharf and dined in our cottage, again too nasty to be outside.

On my walk this afternoon I found a beach that would be swimmable if I were so inclined.  It would be torture to wade in.  At least in the Antarctica water, I dove in and didn't have to have the cold creep up on my body, it was a plunge into masochism.  Wading in the Five Islands Harbor would have been insane (average sea temperature for Five Islands Harbor was 66°F today, according to the Internet).  Even the seagulls were staying on the shore.  Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting.

Below are a few photos from Tuesday.

Above:  Photo from early this morning, notice the fog.

Above:  Another photo from early this morning, notice the fog.

Above:  Collage I worked on for a couple of days.

Above:  Photo from my walk in the afternoon.

Above:  Photo from my walk in the afternoon.

Wednesday 8-11-21

It was foggy like crazy again this morning, even foggier than yesterday, and in the 60s.  I haven’t heard any fog horns, but you can't see very far.  And everything seems to stay damp, another reason not to go swimming.  🤔

It is curious to me, in New York City Monday is the day businesses are closed, maybe because the theaters when they were open were dark on Mondays.  In Maine, Wednesday is the day businesses close.  So, no lobsters from the Five Islands Lobster Company tonight.  Martha brought steaks, we are eating well.

Well, just before noon the fog lifted a little bit and the harbor was filled with working boats when normally there aren't very many working boats there.  I wonder if it is because of the fog or because it is Wednesday and they are resting before they get ready to get the catch for the weekend tourists?

Below are a few photos from Wednesday.

Above:  This morning with the boats and the fog, the water is gray and there is no background.

Above:  This is a sketch of the boats this morning.

Above:  A photo of the dinghies at the dock waiting for them to come back to work.

Above:  Yours truly working on a painting.

Above:  Martha working on a painting.

Thursday 8-12-21:  Finally made it to the Bath Iron Works

We woke up this morning to fog again, however when I looked west, it was a blue sky and sunny, so we decided to make the drive west to Bath, Maine to take photos of the Bath Shipyard and Ironworks.  And to get tonic for tonight's happy hour.  As I mentioned in an earlier email, Bath is a huge ship building town.

The trip was pretty uneventful, except we found a local diner, Fiona's place.  It was a family diner, Fiona and daughter.  They don't serve breakfast between 11 and 12 because that is when they are loading up the 2 food trucks to take lunch to the iron workers.  Further conversations revealed that over 2000 people work at the 'factory' and Fiona's place is across the street. Good location, eh?

Well, at 11:55 Fiona came over to our table and said, "I don't want to  rush you, but you should know in 4 minutes they will take a break across the street and you won't be able to get out of here  or even move your car."  As we left, we saw hoards of people crossing the street.  Thank you Fiona!

We had some conversation when they finished packing up the food trucks.  Martha asked if they were open during the COVID lock down. Fiona said, "yes, we packed 700 box lunches a day.  The shipyard wouldn't let the workers leave to go get lunch."  Every restaurant in town made box lunches.  Box lunches for 2000 people.  The food trucks weren't allowed in either.  

My tuna salad was good and Martha's grilled cheese made her happy.  

It was 91F degrees in Bath, we watched the thermometer in the car decline as we headed east back towards our cottage. It was 78F outside and 71F inside when we got to our cottage.  Wild, it is only 12 miles.  About a degree lower per mile.  WOW!

Now back to my painting, I will be working on a painting I started yesterday.

Below are a few photos from Thursday.

Above:  Charles Pond on our drive to Bath.

Above:  Todds Landing on the Susanoa River on our drive to Bath.

The next photo was downloaded from the Internet (photo by Nathan Holth @ https://historicbridges.org) of the Max L. Wilder Memorial Bridge, I'm including it just because it's an interesting looking bridge and I didn't get a photo of it.  I took my photos of the ships at Bath Iron Works from this bridge.

Above:  Max L. Wilder Memorial Bridge (photo by Nathan Holth @ https://historicbridges.org)

The following 3 photos were taken of the Bath Iron Works ship yard from the Max L. Wilder Memorial Bridge.

Above:  Photo taken from the Max L Wilder Memorial Bridge, looking towards the Bath Iron Works across the Kennebec River.

Above:  Photo taken from the Max L Wilder Memorial Bridge, looking towards the Bath Iron Works across the Kennebec River.

Above:  Photo taken from the Max L Wilder Memorial Bridge, looking towards the Bath Iron Works across the Kennebec River.

The next photo shows the landmark Bath Iron Works (BIW) crane that towers over the city.  This photo taken from a parking lot near BIW.  The Internet tells me this crane is 400 feet tall, and was fabricated in 1973 at the BIW  The Internet also tells me that "when the crane is not in use, the crane is allowed to swing in the wind to reduce  force on the boom and pressure on the internal mechanisms. The practice  is actually called "weathervaning" a crane. When the boom points south,  the wind is from the north."  Interesting.

Above:  Landmark Bath Iron Works crane.

The next photo shows another 2-minute sketch I did, of the Five Island Lobster Company, walking distance from our cottage.  The black window in the red building is where we picked up our lobster dinners.

Above:  My 2-minute sketch of the Five Island Lobster Company.

Friday 8-13-21:  Last day in Georgetown for this year

It was foggy again early today and then got really warm.  I worked on editing my story for hours it seemed, I’m almost done, now up to episode 39... a little more to do, but not tonight.  I'm happy to have accomplished so much on the story this trip.

I also reworked a painting today and did a bad, really bad sketch.  I then started packing the car for the return trip home.  If the traffic driving home is as bad as it was driving here, it will take us that extra 2.5 hours going back as well.   YUK!  the big downside to driving to Maine.

Martha and I reserved a different cottage for next year, but in the same little enclave. 

Below are my last two photos from this trip, from Friday.

Above:  A foggy morning.

Above:  The painting I worked on today.

I’m sad that this trip is over but I’m looking forward to my next adventures for this year; Williamsburg and Norfolk in Virginia, Washing DC, Falmouth on Cape Cod, Boston, and a road trip from California to Oregon.