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We had set our sights on Southwest Harbor (SWH) as a place to stop for a week or so before crossing to Nova Scotia for several reasons:  1) although SWH is a small town, between it and the nearby (at least by dinghy) Northeast Harbor, there are several good marine/hardware stores that could supply us for the various maintenance, upgrading, and fixing tasks we had to complete; 2) there is a Furuno dealer who could check-out our recalcitrant radar; 3)  Bar Harbor is a free bus-ride away and site of a US Customs Office; 4) it is a relatively straightforward passage to the Canadian port of entry of Yarmouth at the south end of Nova Scotia; and 5) we have a fondness for the place having got married in SWH on Oct 3^rd, 2003! We found the place where we stayed and were married (having decided that the potential scenic sites in Arcadia National Park were a bit too windswept and crowded on the day).  However, the charming Bed and Breakfast where we had been so royally entertained had changed hands and was now a rental house.  Still, it was great fun to revisit the town and we especially appreciated the Wi Fi services of the small but busy and well-managed public library because there appears to be no coverage for our new Alltel internet air-card in Maine! Given the frequent and often sudden fogs, it was essential that our brand-new but now non-functioning radar was fixed. This was accomplished during a morning’s visit to the Hinkley Boat yard where the radar technician and other staff there were very efficient and helpful.  I enjoyed jogging around the area while this operation was in progress and we also had time to admire the many Hinkley power- and sail-boats in the harbor.  These are particularly beautiful, high-quality boats with a price-tag to match.  Southwest Harbor is an interesting place with many of these luxury yachts, a lot of old wooden sailboats, like the Friendship Schooners we had seen racing, and many commercial boats.  The most numerous of the latter are the lobster boats and as a result any waters with depths between 10 – 60 ft (deeper when it is hotter), are full of multi-colored floats marking lobster pots.  Our anchorage was surrounded by a patchwork of floats of various fluorescent color-schemes (each boat has their own float colors) which changed almost daily as the pots were checked, emptied, and replaced.  Our boat’s presence may not have thrilled all of the lobster-fishers but most of those checking pots near us early in the morning were very friendly and graciously kept their boats’ wakes small. In and around SouthwestHarbor, like most of the Maine coast, there are granite rocky shores with pine-forests above the shoreline bluffs.  With a 9 – 12 ft tidal range it was a pleasure to watch the seaweed-covered rocks rhythmically appear and disappear although this somewhat surprisingly included some very large rocks in the middle of SWH.  Pay heed to the navigation markers and lights!  An afternoon in NEH revealed an even more sheltered and steeper-sided natural harbor that has many moorings that are clearly very popular with cruisers.  However, the tidal ranges here pale in comparison to upper parts of the Bay of Fundy, a rift valley at the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  In places at the head of the bay there are water depth changes of 52 ft (16 m) over a tidal cycle.  Impressive to see but we decided most likely we would visit by land in Nova Scotia rather than try to navigate such rapidly changing conditions in the boat. Our other expedition out of SWH was to Bar Harbor on the free, propane-powered, island Explorer Bus service.  Running hourly from SWH, this is an excellent service supported by Acadia National Park Service and L.L. Bean and it was packed on the picture-perfect Wednesday that we crossed Mount Desert Island.  We enjoyed re-visiting Bar Harbor, which is the largest and most-visited town on the island, and enthusiastically walked from the relaxing Village Green to the terminal for the ferry to Canada.  Our mission was, as recommended on the US Customs Service website, to apply for pre-clearance at the Customs office to simplify our return to the US.  Ah, the best laid plans…  Not only was the Customs office only open on Mondays but when we called the Bangor office we were told that the website information was out-of-date (so why still there?)  Now it is necessary to call ahead of one’s return from Canada and an officer will come to wherever you land to provide an in-person inspection.  OK, so much for trying to make things simpler and more efficient… An unexpected highlight of our sojourn in SWH was being in town for the Lobsterfest weekend (a fund-raiser for the local hospice) and particularly for the Saturday morning (July 19^th) parade.  There were siren-wailing fire-engines and floats from the Coast-Guards (with a large base in SWH), various camp-grounds, Hinkley Company, Friends of the National Park, etc.  There was a car with the local, inventors of the lawn flamingo (which was the logo for the event) and our favorite was the library’s costumed interpretations of several children’s books and a precision, library-cart formation team.  The latter exhibition ended with a three-cart pyramid of great vigor and splendor!  Our chance position near the end of the parade route resulted in being showered with candy as the participants unloaded their treats.  Nearby children gathering (wrapped) candy from the road exclaimed that this was better than Halloween. Our wildlife viewing included more guillemots, harbor seals, and a large buck near the Hinkley boatyard and we heard several loons.  We love Mount Desert Island and thoroughly recommend it as a place to visit.  Our boat-related activities prevented us from taking time to go hiking on this trip but we will be back.   We had originally intended to go to Nova Scotia on Tuesday (July 22^nd) but have postponed our trip for a day to avoid tangling with the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobal, recently arrived from the SE US.  But we are excited about going to Canada and meeting up with my nephews in Halifax on July 29^th…