Jack Maull and his wife Toy stand beside their sailboat in Calais. (Photo by Pierre Little)

Boat Visit Highlights Capabilities of Calais Dock

 

Jayna Smith
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The days of vessels steadily up and down the St. Croix River have been gone for years, but every once in a while, the City of Calais welcomes a boat to dock.  Such was the case over the weekend for Jack Maull and his wife Toy, of the Portsmouth, NH area.
“We often sail on the coast of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, so we were on our way up to New Brunswick and we had to do a little planning to get over there.  We had to get COVID testing that was close that we could get to on a boat,” Maull explained.
The pair had been to Eastport via boat in the past, but never to Calais.  Had they not needed the required COVID testing to enter Canada, Maull said they would not have travelled up the St. Croix River to Calais on Saturday.  They were glad they did.  
“We were in Eastport and thinking of riding our bicycles from Eastport up here and sort of looked into it…and thought, ‘Gee, there’s a river here,’ but all the guides, they all mentioned you can get up here on a high tide and that you’d have to leave on a high tide.”
Maull said he did have some reservations about docking, wondering if the water would be deep enough.  After contacting the Calais Fire Department, since all other departments were closed on Saturday, he received confirmation that at low tide, the water depth is about eight feet; he needs five and half feet at minimum.  “If it gets less than that, the boat starts to tip,” he said.
On Monday, Maull and his wife both agreed that their stay thus far in Calais had been a pleasant one.  “This is a wonderful place to come hang out for a few days while we’re waiting,” he said.  
After getting COVID tested Monday morning, they had been to stores, the laundromat, were going to the city pool later in the day and to the farmers’ market the next day.  They also watched the fireworks over the river on Saturday night.  Maull noted the water, sewer, and electricity available to him at the dock, which, coupled with all of the city’s other amenities, such as internet at the library, gave him everything necessary and more.
“This is actually a great place for people to come.  There’s no place that I’ve been on the coast this side of Rockland other than Bar Harbor where you’ve got a dock, you’ve got grocery stores, you’ve got hardware stores...this is a very pleasant climate.”
Maull explained there is not a lot of information on Calais available to sailors.  “This place is sort of off the radar for cruising sailors.  Cruising sailors love to go to places where there’s not big crowds of boats,” he said.
“People are a little hesitant, a little anxious, about bringing their boats up here when the charts are not for sure up to date.  If you come up on a rising tide, you really can’t get into trouble.  But on a falling tide, if you hit the bottom and get stuck there...the next thing you know, you’re over sideways.”
Maull was especially impressed with the city’s dock, describing the engineering of the dock as “elaborate” and perfect for his particular boat as it rises and falls with the tides.  “It’s all meant for a boat like this…it’s really a very nice spot.”
He did say he was curious about the depth of the center of the river.  “None of the cruising resources that we use really describe this or the charts we have, which are up-to-date charts; they don’t do detailed hydroelectric surveys here.”  
Maull said he will be sharing his positive Calais experience to an app used by mariners.  This app, he said, allows users to share information about different harbors, and also gives users access to cartography, off-vessel planning capabilities, and other useful  information.  

 

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