By Marty Basch

Before heading out to sea with eight paddlers in four tandem kayaks, registered Maine guide Alice Andrenyak reminded everyone about the lobster boats.

"Today is lobster day," she said. "They're working. We're vacationing. They have the right of way."

The lobstermen on their working rigs plied the lanes, tending to their traps marked with multi-colored buoys of ownership. But the rugged maritimers weren't the only signs of activity in Casco Bay's Sebasco Harbor off the Phippsburg peninsula by Bath. Boaters and sailors ferrying the Maine coast left moorings behind for another day at sea. Eiders took flight. Osprey glided overhead. On the bottom of the shelled ocean, hermit and green crabs scampered about.

Answer the sea

When the sea calls, it's time to answer. When the senses crave the smell of salt air, the hypnotic soothing swells, the cry of the birds, an always changing natural stage of darkness and light, the craggy Maine coast less than an hour from Portland is the place to go.

Using Sebasco Harbor Resort as base camp, the plan was to explore the sea from the surface in a kayak and then cast our luck underneath during a little cod fishing from a chartered boat.

The three hour kayaking tour was a nice fit for even those with basic paddling skills. Launched into the sea from a dock within sight of the resort's fat, storied lighthouse, Andrenyak and guide Matt Lunt sandwiched us between them during the relaxed paddle from the harbor to the tip of Harbor Island.

Seaweed was aplenty on the various shades of rock, striped by the coming and going of the tide. Families of Canada goose shared the water while sanderlings walked easily on top of seaweed. Periwinkles were unsuccessfully coaxed from their shells with song.

Lots of birds

One of the joys of paddling are seeing the birds. The water is their big landing strip. To watch them dive in from the sky and hear their splash of arrival is a joy. Another plus is seeing them take off, their wings aflutter. Some of the black ducks on the water were recent additions to the planet. One newbie tried and tried to take off from the water, but stopped, exhausted. We gave it plenty of distance and it later joined its family.

A narrow channel between Bear and Malaga Islands was where a pair of osprey nests were spotted, the head of a chick seen through binoculars. Stopping for a snack on Malaga Island, the tale's sordid past is one of intolerance and bigotry. A stop on the Underground Railroad during Civil War days, people of color and mixed breeding weren't tolerated by those on the mainland who forced the islanders off.

There are archeological digs ongoing where remnants of clothing, pottery and books were found in the some two feet of shells under the surface. Off its shore, the mast of a shipwreck pierced the surface. It's unknown origin the stuff of legend from lobster wars to drug smugglers.

Gone fishing

Those legends can be personified like in the case of Captain Phil Luedee. His father worked at Sebasco and now Phil does running on a 38 foot boat called "The Ruth." One of Phil's helpers is his teenage son Chris. Built in 1935, the Ruth was the vessel for a four-hour cod fishing expedition.

Taking seven would be fishermen and women about three miles out on the eastern edge of Casco Bay, Luedee kept his eye on the computer screen for schools of fish.

"This is a bottom topography game," he said. "The idea is to get by the edge of the ledges. The cod are hiding there, waiting for the little ones."

Luedee remembers the days of fishing when cod would jump into the boat. But those days have been replaced by a limit on the size of cod that can be kept. Want to take one home for dinner? It's got to be at least 24 inches.

Into the waters the double hooked fishing poles went. Clams were used for bait. The Ruth would sway as the seven waited. There were strikes, hits and false alarms. Gulls flew overhead. A pair of harbor porpoises spliced the surface. A Coast Guard vessel worked the waters on the horizon.

Patience paid off for a pair of anglers, the youngest passengers onboard. A twelve year-old reeled in his cod, measured at some 22 inches. But the catch of the day, went to a little six-year-old boy. Dad reeled in the cod for him. Pictures were snapped. Smiles were big. For the boy, it was his first fish pulled from the sea.

One Tank Away

Sebasco Harbor Resort is

1. *321 miles from Vergennes, Vt.
   

2. *134 miles from Dixville Notch, NH
   

3. *277 miles from Lenox, Mass.