A week or so ago, I checked in with an old friend down Linekin Neck not far from the beginnings of Ocean Point. The East Boothbay road, Route 96, is a common adventure for me and my family. For many years we have enjoyed visiting the ocean there, often expanding our outings with casual walks along Shore Road. It’s become a bit of a tradition looked forward to and shared with friends and relatives. Surely a top recommendation to any just met visitors to the region. All who live here recognize the beauty and serenity of this location. It's a rare bird for the region which invites close personal contact with ocean views, fresh salt air and the ability to commune with elemental nature. 

It's also, as it turns out, a great place to view the comings and goings of great weather fronts, storms, sunrises, and cloud formations that build in from other parts of the maritime world. On occasion, as was the case during my recent visit, fair weather clouds built a vast display linking the skies over the Cuckolds, stringing out over the western shores of Southport, eventually piling up to the north, exploding into great cumulonimbus giants.  

From many years of wandering about, it occurred to me that there might be a pretty special view back up the peninsula in East Boothbay village. A view with which I had become very familiar from many hours photographing in the boatyards there. The cove, now including a bit of a park and boat launch once clambering full of vessels of all shapes and sizes, new and not so new, famous and less so. Companies of days gone by --- Hodgdon Brothers, Rice Brothers, Goudy and Stevens, and more recently (not gone by), Washburn and Doughty’s famous tugboat manufacturing facility. Back in the day memories of Scheherazade, O’Hara draggers, the long liner project of Snelling Brainard, Maine State ferry, the Bowdoin and unique building techniques touched by the hands of generations of highly skilled workers from near and far. And, through it all, the breathtaking view up the Damariscotta River provided lasting and unique vistas not unlike the sky shared today.  

To me, the sky is an important piece of the maritime legacy. For those far more experienced than I, the sky is a big indication of the sort of day to be found near and far from land. I dare say that most who work the ocean waters know instinctively, long before setting out, or not setting out, what will become of the life around them as they make decisions about the workday. For me, safely tucked away in my auto envelope, it's just a sky to be watched and enjoyed, maybe even photographed, if I am not overly mesmerized, as I am known to be. The skies are an endless gift with much to tell.