Leg 41, from Clam Cove to the head of Polly's Cove, November, 2010

It's hunting season. I must of been uncharacteristically quiet biking to my starting point. As I dismounted a flash of orange in the woods ahead alerted me to a hunter down on one knee taking aim across the cove. In a few minutes he wandered northerly away from me having not fired the shot I'd expected to hear.

I don't know what set of circumstances results in some Vinalhaven shores being so markedly different from others. It's tempting to say, in the case of this east shore of Carver's Cove with it's unobstructed exposure to the northeast that the winds make a difference and they certainly do. On the other hand, wind alone cannot account for the extremes of jagged rock. On the Thorofare, for example the same conditions are found on the north and west shores.



Here, at the head of Polly's Cove, the village of Stonington can be easily seen in the distance. When I was a kid Polly's Cove was a populat place to undertake 'shutting off' for herring. I lived in the Bucket, a legendary homestead down by the old ballground, during the fifties. Alfred Hall lived across the street. He was a very gentle soul, older than my own father. He and his brothers shut off Polly's cove regularly. I think they owned land at the head of the Cove. Now and then my family and his camped there. I remember a tent platform from which we looked straight out to Stonington.

Here, as at the head of every cove on the island, there's a brook and here, after a big rainfall and at the base of a quick change in elevation that comprises most of the Eleanot Campbell Preserve, it was running with great enthusiasm.

Next leg, 42, from Polly's Cove to the Carl Ames Farm.