Port Clyde, Maine

August 15-16, 2012

This post is about as varied, irregular, and long as the magnificent Maine coastline.  Hang in there.  There’s something for everyone…

Here are some interesting facts we learned about lobsters, since we have recently completed a total immersion course in Crustaceans 101.

The ConwaySailors ate lobster almost every day we were in Maine, from July 19^th through August 16^th.

It takes the average lobster 5-7 years to reach legal size.  They shed their shell about 26 times during this time.

Fishermen do not keep egg-bearing females (as opposed to egg-bearing males?), who carry between 6,000 and 100,000 eggs.

Patronus (not the skippers…) hit three lobster pots in the coastal waters.

There are more than 7,000 licensed lobster fishermen in Maine.  Each year they put out more than 3 million traps (we can attest to that).

low tide in sleepy port clyde

We left the Isle Au Haut and headed for Port Clyde, our last stop in Maine.  We sailed 31 miles and arrived in this busy little harbor.  We got diesel and water and moored out in the center of the harbor.  Port Clyde was, in some ways, an amalgamation of many of the ports we had visited.  It was just as protected but bigger than nearby Tenant’s Harbor, had cute little shops like Northeast Harbor, had lots of boats like Boothbay Harbor, and had a slow pace about it like, well, like everywhere!  In fact, we’re really going to have to retrain ourselves to look both ways when crossing the street!

A month on the Maine coast stirred up something very special for me.  A gratitude for solitude; the thoughts that accompany oneself in a sublime landscape; and a feeling of connection with the Universe.  These are all familiar feelings, ones that I have cultivated for years, but being in Maine has turned up the volume so that these feelings are in my consciousness all day long.

So that may sound strange: I enjoyed the solitude, but I felt connected.  I remembered something that Deepak Chopra said at a Dalai Lama conference I attended last year: “We are not just connected.  We are inseparable.”  But feeling connected to ourselves in the midst of busy lives that are aimed outward is tough, and if we are not connected to ourselves, how can we feel connected to all beings?  My favorite book, Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, warns, “When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others, too.  If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others…Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover.  And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.” Well said, Deepak and Anne.

So what does Maine have to do with all that?  Because Maine’s coast is comprised of glacier-formed boulders, soaring spruce trees, and a sea of rocky islands, there is a majestic quality to it.  Because it is so rugged, isolated, and pristine, we feel that there is a timeless stillness to the world.  If we stop moving for even a few minutes in this place, that majestic stillness seeps into us.  Or rather, that majestic stillness seems somehow familiar.  And then we look within and recognize that we have a stillness that is always there, always steady, keeping us balanced and centered.  When we take a moment to recognize and appreciate that stillness, we make it stronger by bringing it into our consciousness.  We have that oh-so-rare chance to see our True Self, the pure and loving soul that was out and about and giggling up a storm when we were babies.  We see that it is still there and know for sure that it is in every other being on earth.  And that’s when our moment of solitude turns into a moment of connection.  Have you ever felt something like this?

I remembered a moment I had like this years ago, in 1995, before I had given any of this much thought- when I still thought that working hard, going to the gym, racing sailboats, hanging out with friends, and keeping my house clean were 80% of what was required to be happy and healthy.  I wrote in my journal (modified for brevity), “I just had a moment.  One of those split seconds in time, when the powers within reveal their true beauty.  When you look at yourself in the mirror, expecting to see bloodshot eyes, but you see yourself.  You. Me. It. Whoever. And you are thrilled to death that you are you.”  In Maine, I can see my real Self all the time, all day long.  It feels absolutely divine to be in love with myself every moment of the day.  I will hold on to this feeling, but I know where to come if I need a reminder.

For all beings everywhere, my wish is that we can all tap in to the peace and stillness within ourselves, so that we may remember that we are ONE.  We are connected.  We are inseparable, just like these two loving trees…

Maine is so lovely even the trees hold hands….