July 6 - 8th - Cutler, Maine and Campabello

The morning of the 6th we arrived in Cutler, Maine to visit friends we met at the RV park in Florida, Norb and Marilyn. Norb is a lobster fisherman and a boatbuilder. He had lots of level area where we could park Marge for a couple of days with electricity and water readily available. Here is a picture of Marge tucked between two of his buildings.

Marilyn's house, where they live, is just down the road toward Norb's wharf. It sits up on top of the hill with a million dollar view. Here are a couple of pictures from her front porch.

Cutler is truly a fishing village with houses scattered on both sides of the road near the fishing wharfs. It has a church but no stores nor any gas stations.  Saturday Norb took us all out on his lobster boat for a ride out to "Seal Island" where hundreds of seals and Puffins hang out. Here are a couple of pictures.

The nearest towns to Cutler with such things as stores, restaurants, and gas stations are sixteen miles in either direction.  One of those towns is Lubec, which is the Easternmost town in the United States. We went there for Mass and then supper on Saturday evening. It was pouring rain when we got there so no pictures that day.

Sunday morning Norb took us out lobster fishing. Here is a picture of Kellen with his boots on ready to go.

As the "stern man" I had to also put on "oil pants" (which were originally oiled pants and are now rubber and are held up with straps over the shoulders like waders), a sweatshirt with rubber sleeves, and rubber gloves. The traps are all tied together a certain distance apart on what is called a "trawl". Norb would reel in the trap in with a winch, pull the trap onto side of the boat, and then I would have to turn the trap around, open it up, pull out the empty bait bag and attach a new bait bag. While I was doing that Norb took out the lobster and threw them into a tub to be measured when all the traps were in and rebaited. Here is a picture of me at work. And I mean work!

I then placed the trap on the table behind me to be pulled back in the water after all traps were aboard, emptied, and rebaited. The trawl Norb pulled in had fifteen traps on it and was about a quarter mile long. When all the traps were emptied and rebaited Norb turned around the boat, threw in the buoy and the boat moved forward under power causing all the traps to be pulled off the table and back out into the sea. Each trap has a little concrete in one end so that it will land on the bottom right side up. I was soaking wet with sweat by the time all fifteen traps had been pulled up, emptied, and rebaited. These guys fish up to 800 traps in one day! I can't imagine. 

Each of the traps we pulled up had some lobster in it and one or two had a crab in it. The lobster are thrown into a catch area until all the traps are rebaited and pulled back overboard. At that point the lobstermen start measuring the catch to make sure they are large enough.  Here is a picture of our catch.

Green rubber bands are put on the lobster claws after they are determined to be large enough. The lobster are measured from their eye socket to the end of their body before the tail. About 80% of what we caught were too small or notched females, all of which had to be thrown back. Norb did all the measuring because even being caught with one undersized lobster would cost him a large fine. The next step was banding the claws of the keepers. Here is Kellen learning how to do that. 

Kellen had never touched a lobster before, or eaten a lobster before, so this was all great fun. Kelly and I banded some lobster as well. On the trip back in Norb let Kellen pilot the boat and showed him how to watch the computer monitor which showed his heading. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of Norb's boat anchored in the harbor. I believe he said it is 46 feet long. He said it is fifteen years old and has hours on it equivalent to 1,000,000 miles.

The lobster are unloaded on a platform out in the harbor where Norb has scales to weigh each box of lobster. Each box of lobster must weigh 90 lbs. Here is a picture of Norb with the scales and lobster boxes.

From there the lobster boxes are tied together and pulled with the skiff like a train across the water to the wharf where they are unloaded to be picked up by the buyer. At low tide you have to reach the wharf by a skiff. Here is a picture of Kellen taking it all in next to Norb's skiff.

This area is at the head of the Bay of Fundy so there is a twenty foot difference in the tide twice per day. Here is a picture of the wharf at low tide.

Obviously climbing that ladder up and down and getting the lobster up and down was no picnic so Norb built an elevator. Here is a picture of him on it.

They put a pallet down on the floor of the elevator, load all the lobster crates on it and up it goes. It is really slick and much easier on the help. Norb is quite good at fabricating things. Norb and his son own the wharf so they are able to build things on it to suit their needs. At the street end of the wharf they are currently building a concrete freezer to keep bait. By doing this they can buy larger quantities of bait at a cheaper price. Norb said his bait bill keeps going up and last year it was $80,000. A new lobster boat costs about $500,000, traps are expensive, fishing uses lots of diesel fuel, etc. This is not a business you just get into on a whim. He has been at it for forty years.

Sunday evening we had a lobster feast at Marilyn's house after Norb steamed the lobsters we caught. We ate what we could and he sent the rest with us for later. Here are some pictures. Another first for Kellen. Kelly and I learned the art of getting all the meat out of the lobster.

Monday we took a day trip just twenty miles away to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, where Franklin Roosevelt's summer home is located. When we first got there a "tea" was taking place in another cottage along with a short lecture about Eleanor's life and her work as First Lady.  Here is a picture of us sitting at the tea. Another "first" for Kellen.

We then had a great tour of the Roosevelt cottage.  I cannot believe that I forgot to take an outside picture of it but here are a couple of inside pictures. On the table is FDR's hat and pipe.

This was Eleanor's desk.

The place was heated with wood. Here is one of the seven fireplaces.

This is the sitting area in the living room overlooking the bay. It is where Eleanor had tea every afternoon.

We then drove to one of Norb's favorite restaurants and had a nice fish lunch followed by ice cream. 

After lunch we drove back into the U.S. to Lubec, Maine, to see the West Quoddy Lighthouse. It is on the Easternmost point in the U.S. Here is picture with the Easternmost monument.

For our final evening in the Cutler area we went to a nice restaurant in Lubec overlooking the water. It was a beautiful evening so we had Kellen take a picture of the four of us there.

It was a great ending to a fabulous visit. We cannot thank Norb and Marilyn enough for the great time they showed us. We hope we can return the favor sometime when they venture to the Midwest.

We have lots more pictures we can share in the future with anyone interested. It is a job to pick out just a few for a blog.

Tuesday we drove to Salisbury, Massachusetts, and stayed at the Black Bear Campground and did laundry. A nice campground but a little pricey at $61.00 per night.