The Cranberry Islands

We left McGlathery Island after one pleasant night. However, when we left the fog started to fill in heavily. Most of the 20 miles stretch to Great Cranberry was spent in heavy, heavy fog. It was an extremely stressful sail. We had the radar on the entire time, and it was nerve wracking to see huge objects in or near our path and not be able to see them. We passed islands as close as 1/4 mile away and couldn't even make out the shore or trees or anything. At one point, a very loud fog horn sounding like it belonged to a huge ship blew practically right next to us. We didn't see anything, but half expected a ship's hull to come crashing into us. We circled around and kept an eye on the radar. A few minutes later, the horn sounded again, but behind us this time. We made it through that, but still had another hour or so to get to our destination. At one point the fog just lifted, but it was very short lived - only for about 15 to 20 minutes before filling right back in. We finally made it to Great Cranberry Island and snagged a free town guest mooring. What a huge relief. That night we stayed put on the boat, but the next morning we went ashore for exploration. Since our Verizon Internet card is broken, we first went to the library to check email and update the blog. After that, we explored the tiny town and walked on a really cool trail behind the museum. The trail looked like we going through an enchanted forest. At the end we wound up on a pretty neat beach where we walked along the rocks and sat for a while to have a snack.

We had a quick lunch at the general store and chilled out overlooking the harbor. It was a great day. The next morning we took the dinghy to Little Cranberry Island or Isleford. We heard quite a bit about this island from our neighbor who raved about it. However, our expectations exceeded our experience. The island seemed much more populated with locals, summer residents and visitors. We walked one trail that was extremely buggy. The horseflies were huge! We walked all the way to the other end of the island to visit the Coast Guard Station, only to find out that it is a private residence - with no trespassing allowed. After much about the Dockside restaurant, we decided to try their lunch. The service was horrible and food was terrible, not to mention expensive. The portions were tiny as well. We discussed our experience with the manager, and she gave us break on the sandwiches. With just sodas and chowder, it still cost us $20.00. Oh well. The weather started picking up while we were at the restaurant with the winds coming right at us on the way back in the dinghy. It was a very uncomfortable, long ride back. So suffice it to say, we like Great Cranberry Island much better than Isleford!