This is my latest header photo, taken in late April while Gizmo was enjoying the free dock at High Street Landing in Portsmouth, VA. 

What I did not realize that evening was that the spiffy USCG Flying Fish was just the first of several CG vessels that would gather the next day to take kids out to see Hampton Roads and the boats their dads or moms worked on. Or that a somewhat misinformed but polite city policeman would bang on Gizmo's door at 5:30 am and insist that I move to the other free dock at North Landing.

I was a little grumpy about that, but felt better when I saw that the next evening's high tide covered the High Street Landing's lower docks with about 6 inches of water. The USCG was gone and several yachts had tied up, but boots were required if you wanted to go to the wonderfully restored Commodore dinner theater just up the street. So it goes.

Ah, Brimstone Island off the southeast corner of Vinalhaven, about where the open Gulf of Maine meets the Penobscot Bays. Many think this a very special place -- myself definitely included -- and thus it's probably a good thing that you can only visit by boat, and you best be darn careful about the weather.

This photo is looking northwest over Vinalhaven to the Camden Hills beyond, especially sweet for the mate and I in terms of enjoying such a remote view of home. And noteworthy too because those "hills" -- Mt. Megunticook is 1,385 feet (though "mountain" doesn't seem quite right either) -- are the first you'll see close to saltwater even if you've come up the entire U.S. east coast. 

Charlie Doane wrote a fine ode to Brimstone, and there you'll also see the semi-famous dark pebble double "beaches". The water hereabouts is never warm, and sand is wicked scarce, but we do rightfully obsess on beach rocks.

Brimstone is also a great example of how much the Maine coast varies as you move up and down the bays (as well as downeast), a concept I once managed to weave into an electronics article.

Hi Ben,

OK, second try - the first one disappeared in a cloud of error messages.  You are correct that it's HARD to fit an image into 9X2!  Here's one you may like, of the Lewis R. French, somewhere between BoothBay and Rockland.  Two more to follow.  Please feel free to use these any way you want!

Hartley & Lesley  S/V Atsa

OK, one more - This is of the Taber, of course, as they approached the thoroughfare from the East.  (Taken from Curtis Bay)

Hartley

And one more..  this one I call my "Maine Sundown Rorschach" 🙂  Taken in Hornbarn Cove, after the late afternoon thunderstorm (which I have GREAT pictures of, but they won't fit into 9X2!).

Hartley

Very nice, Hartley! And if you hit your refresh button you'll see that all three are now official Panbo header shots (though I'll warn you that our photo editors are a persnickety lot).

And, hey, that three-master is the Victory Chimes, our local "Ram" schooner, i.e. narrow and slab-sided to jam through the original C&D Canal, though that's not how their website phrases it:

http://victorychimes.com/history/

PS I was around in the late 80's when she briefly, and almost disastrously, became Dominio Effect

Woo-Hoo!  And is my face red - I record the name of every significant vessel I've photographed in the "keywords" attached to it - and I was so lazy I didn't check that one 😖 .  Of course it's the Chimes.. at least I got the other two more-or-less right 😊 

  I'll keep my eye out for a shot that works with 9X2 - with sailboats, that's somewhat uncommon [2X9 might be easier] and for a sunset/sunrise photographer, VERY difficult indeed.  I'll leave you one to show what I mean..  Atsa at the Goslings.

THANKS!

Hartley & Lesley  S/V Atsa