Mooring in Belfast

 We left Rockland and headed to Searsport to visit the Penobscot Maritime Museum. We knew that the town kept at least one free guest  mooring. The seas turned out to be choppy and we managed to wrap the mooring line around the mooring ball and had to abandon our effort and retreat to a mooring Belfast.

Belfast was one of the towns that I was eager to see having last been there about 25 years ago. It has a history as a shipbuilding town in the 1800’s. In the 1950’s it became a center for processing broilers (small  chickens), and now hosts a major credit card processing center for credit cards. Through it all it has prospered one way or another. This can be seen in the totally occupied store fronts on the well preserved main streets. 

 

Well Preserved and Fully Occupied Main Street

One of the more interesting waterfront items we saw on the trip was the dilapidated hull of the former presidential yacht Sequoia. It served presidents from Herbert Hoover through Jimmy Carter who sold it as a cost cutting move. It had been built by widow for her own use after having several other yachts built.Since leaving government service it has had several owners including the current one whose efforts at restoration were halted due to workers concerns working in close quarters during the Covid pandemic.

It seems its ultimate fate is in doubt.

Then	Now