Mount Desert Island, day 2 – meet Fiona

Tuesday 10 July: Bar Harbor – Fiona gives us an island tour and we join her family for dinner.
In the morning we meet Fiona, a friend from Glen’s teenage years. She moved here to Mount Desert Island with her husband Theo and children 13 years ago. They have built a mussel farming business from scratch, using Dutch techniques for the first time this side of the Atlantic.
After a coffee at Fiona’s house deep in the woods, she gives us a tour of the mussels plant. A very interesting visit, during which we meet her two sons and get to see first hand how mussels are cleaned, sorted and packed. Lots of sophisticated machinery. Her son, Alex, designed the complete process and plant and is clearly proud of it, as he should be.
Then we go for a tour of the island, not necessarily for the scenic route, but to tick some practical points. West Marine to buy engine oil to service the Volvo. Then to get confirmation from Hinkley that we can leave Cloudy Bay on one of their mooring buoys while we fly to Europe, during which time they will look after it and will even haul out if there will be a named storm approaching.
We have a very nice lunch in Southwest Harbor, which seems to be a lot less touristy than Bar Harbor and a lot smaller.
After lunch we return to Cloudy Bay and decide to move her in a more peaceful place, away from the fishing boats that start at dawn and the tripper boats that follow on later. So we motor for an hour further up the island, and drop the anchor in Eastern Bay, next to a small beach from where we can walk to Fiona’s house. They let us borrow their plastic dinghy rather than us granting our RIB up the beach for each visit. From the beach there is a short walk through a forest to Fiona and Theo’s house.
We have a lovely bbq diner in their garden, and great chat with Fiona and Theo’s bubbly family. It’s wonderful to see their 2 sons Alex and Max so engaged in the family business. Alex runs the plant and Max, just 18, takes shifts in charge of their 70ft harvester, Stewardship, to fish the mussels beds they have laid. The harvester is a ex-US Navy landing craft which they have converted themselves. All very interesting to hear how they have developed this unique business here, and the challenges they have been through to get it up and running. Good on them. They all seem very happy to be part of it.
As the family are all up at dawn to start their working day, they sleep and awake with the sun, so we leave by 8pm – good because the forest walk in the dark would be a little spooky!
Back at Cloudy Bay, it’s a jobs evening, with Glen changing the engine oil on the Volvo. Nice to do it in a slightly cooler engine room for once!