We left Bar Harbor and headed for Southwest Harbor as some more weather was predicted for the week and we wanted to hole up somewhere safe from southwest winds. We ended up anchoring in the next bay north of Southwest Harbor, as we’d spent quite some time in the harbor proper two years ago, and remembered getting waked to hell and back again, so we tried the less-trafficked area just north, and it paid off. Despite several days of high winds, it was our calmest anchorage in months, and the anchor held perfectly through it all.

We had been hanging out nearby because we needed to be somewhere that some friends could meet us by car and hang out for the weekend, so as the winds died down, we made our way into Northeast Harbor once a mooring freed up on Thursday. The little town here is cute and the mooring field has a launch, which made it a great stop to receive the guests. David and I both had extremely busy work weeks, so we basically leave the boat the entire work week until the weekend!

Friday arrived and so did our friends Matt and Amy who were in the area picking up a new car. Matt and David know each other from autocross, but this was actually all of our first time meeting in person. They are a lovely couple with similar nerdy and adventurous spirits as us.

On Saturday, since they had a car, we decided to drive into Acadia and do some hiking. Unfortunately there was no parking at the first hike we tried to do, so we found an alternative option and went up to the “Bubbles”, which miraculously had one spot open up just as we drove by. At the top of the first part of the hike was a huge boulder that appeared to be precariously perched on a ledge, although it is really quite solid.

After returning, sweaty, to the car, we decided to drive to Bar Harbor for lunch where we ate our food in the park overlooking the mooring field where we’d been last weekend! We got some ice-cream and then headed back to Acadia to drive the Park Loop Road one more time and then up Cadillac Mountain. David and I had e-biked up this mountain on our last trip, so I knew the view of Bar Harbor would be good!

We returned to the boat for the evening and taught Matt and Amy to play Hanabi.

On Sunday, we had hoped to take Highwind to Valley Cove – a favourite anchorage of ours in the area, but there were some high overnight winds predicted that would make it precarious to get Matt and Amy back to their car, so we decided instead to take the dinghy all the way there and back and hike from the beach.

Back on the boat for the evening, we played some more games and enjoyed the sunset from the bow of Highwind.

Thanks to Matt for a large portion of these photos from the weekend! We had an amazing time with them and hope that we are able to host them again sometime.