MAINE CRUISING & PUFFINS

​PUFFINS OFF THE MAINE COAST
 
         Last week, Connie and Toby Vickery joined me on my good ship MORGAN for an Eastern Egg rock adventure—home of the Puffins. As the above photos show, we saw lots of these little birds on a beautiful Maine morning.
 
ABOUT PUFFINS
Puffins are cool! With those big colorful beaks, dark soulful eyes & a penguin-like appearance, it's hard not to like them. Puffins can typically be found in the very chilly waters of the North Atlantic, in places like Iceland and Norway. Lucky for us then that not far from Boothbay Harbor is the southernmost Atlantic Puffin colony in all of North America – Eastern Egg Rock.
In Maine, Puffins are rare, and are actually listed as a Threatened Species. On Eastern Egg Rock, however, there are about 90 nesting pairs, along with perhaps a thousand pairs of Terns and other unusual seabirds. During the summertime, Puffins come ashore to raise their young, and the female lays her egg in a crevice under the tumble of boulders that line the shoreline of Eastern Egg Rock Once the chicks are full grown – usually by mid-August – all the Puffins leave their nesting island and fly out to sea to spend the winter. And they don't come back to land til next April.
This June has been absolutely magnificent on the Maine coast. Usually the month of June has lots of rain in Maine. I’ve been able to use my boat more than ever in June and I’m planning more adventuresome cruises with our grandson, Charlie, and his wife, Megan visiting in July in addition to my twin sister, Mercy and her husband, Bats. Then I’m off to VT to sail with Cal and Ellie Kendall. Please continue this lovely weather!