[Journal entry fpr August 26, 2010]. I launched Lakar, my fast West Side Boat Shop sea kayak, from Stover Point on Harpswell Neck. This narrow sand spit wraps around a headland and into Harpswell Harbor, sheltering a little salt marsh from the waters of Merriconeag Sound. I paddled straight across the Sound, heading for the Cribstone Bridge that connects Baileys and Orrs Islands. However, I arrived to find that the archway of the bridge was blocked by a barge that supported a large crane. The bridge, made of a latticework of large granite block, was under repair. I hunted around at the base for an opening large enough for a kayak, but finding none, pulled up upon a sandy stretch at the southern tip of Orrs Island, near the Salt Cod Café, and portaged across. I put in again in the calm stretch between the Cribstone Bridge and a temporary bridge built immediately to its east. I then continued onward, into Wills Gulf, the bay between Orrs and Baileys Islands. The periphery of this bas is fairly built up, especially on the Orrs island side, and has several rather large summer cottages. I then paddled, along the east shore of Orrs Island. This part of Casco Bay is open to the sea and had some ocean swell. It caused me no problem; my kayak just gently rose up and down as the smooth waves passed to finally hit the rocky shore, throwing up spray. The rock here, as most everywhere in Casco Bay, is a low-grade metamorphic rock with steely dipping strata. It’s part of the Avalon Terrain, a micro-continent that that was added to North America back in the Devonian Period, four hundred million years ago. The deformation of that collision created the linear fabric of folds and faults that is expressed now in the elongate shape of many of the islands of Casco Bay. Ice Age glaciers accentuated this fabric, creating the ridge and valley topography that has now become islands and bays. I passed several erratic boulders, perched on the low sea cliffs that surround the Island. Though inhabited, most of the east coast of Orrs is wooded and very picturesque. I passed Gun Point, on my right, and entered into the more sheltered waters of Gun Point Cove. I recall once visiting a ledge somewhere in this area that, thirty years ago at least, supported a colony of seals. I did not have time to hunt for it today; probably it was a mile or so to my east. I passed lobster buoys and moored sailboats, but rather little boat traffic, given the sunny and blue splendor of the afternoon. I soon came to the Route 20 highway bridge, which crosses the bay at its narrow northern apex. An angler cast from one of it abutments. The current there was swift and against me and I had to work a bit to paddle through it. The channel opened into a broad calm bay. I was tempted to paddle into Long Cove, a long and narrow bay that pierces the north end Orrs, but instead crosses over to Harpswell Sound, on the west side of Orrs, and headed back south. I came across a flotilla of a half-dozen or so canoes, each padded by a pair of college-aged women. They seemed to be heading towards the Bowdoin College Coastal Studies Center, which is on the northwest corner of Orrs, by its little satellite, Wyer Island. They were paddling enthusiastically, though not with much skill. I continued to paddle south, though Harpswell Sound, past several sailboats that were catching an afternoon breeze. I came to Stover Point, but did not stop there, but rather continued south through Merriconeag Sound to Potts Point, at the end of Harpswell Neck. I was back into swell again and waves were breaking on the rocks of the point and throwing up spray. I sighted a group of sea kayakers, pulled up onto a sand spit. We waves to each other as I passed. I turned north into Potts Harbor and paddled back to the beach by the Auburn Colony, where I was staying. About eleven miles in two and a half hours.