USA

Monday 9 Jul: Moored in Bar Harbor- A rather frustrating day trying to get our USA phone fixed.
After the phone/internet failure yesterday, today’s objective is to fix it. It shows full signal and 3G but it blocks our calls and refuses to link us to the internet that is obviously available. Aaargh! IT and yacht cruising just don’t mix! And we have so many things to organize (book storage for Cloudy Bay and flights for Europe) and we desperately need to make calls and have internet access. Among the hundreds of tourist shops in Bar Harbor there is no phone shop (or any useful shop for that matter!) so we take the Island Express bus to Ellsworth, the nearby town off the island, 30 minutes away.
As we arrive in Ellsworth, our phone springs back to life and we sigh with relief. We go into Walmart anyway, to ask assistance on how to fix it if it happens again. T-Mobile customer service reassured us the issue is now fixed (not mentioning what the actual issue was) and we walk away happy-campers.
The sun feels very intense today and we have a rather hot walk to the town center from the usual out-of-town shopping center. Not exactly a scenic walk, as we are on the highway trying not to get run down by the speeding trucks and cars. USA is really not well set up for pedestrians!
The town itself is no prettier either, just a small high street with few shops and a diner where we sit for a coffee while we wait for the bus to return to Bar Harbor.
Once back to Cloudy Bay we are shocked to find the phone is not working again!! And we start a frenzy of several hours worth of Skype calls to T-Mobile customer service. It was a very frustrating afternoon, going through lots of operators, and with a very disappointing end result: the phone will not work in this area of Maine. Needless to say we are both in a bad mood. Just how can we see signal yet now have a service??
In the evening we go ashore to cheer ourselves up with an ice cream. We come across the Bar Harbor Town Brass Band performing at the Village Green, but they are not that good (or maybe we were just too grumpy) so we walk away after few tunes.
Back at Cloudy Bay we have a productive evening editing videos and hoping for a better day tomorrow when we will meet up with Fiona, Glen’s friend from a long time back.