No More Joy In Belfast Harbor; The Big Rubber Duck Is Gone

Awwwww man, say it ain't so.

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. But the BDN reported last night that the giant rubber duck with the word "JOY" written across its belly in the middle of Belfast Bay..... is gone. Just like that. In the same way that it just mysteriously appeared, it has now disappeared.

To be fair, the duck was likely removed because of not knowing the extent of hurricane/tropical storm Henri's arrival on the Maine coast. Luckily for us, it turned out to be basically nothing. But sadly, it means we all lost our special little friend that has pretty much won the hearts of Mainers, and people from away too.

So who put it there in the first place?

According to Belfast Harbor Master Katherine Given, no one ever claimed direct responsibility. However, they did receive an anonymous note from a person/people that explained how it ended up there. We shared it when it first appeared. It said:

JOY simply is fowl play. In this day in age of such bitter divisiveness in our country, we wanted to put forth a reminder of our commonalities instead of our differences. Nothing embodies childhood more than being in a warm bath with your rubber ducky – the joy of not having a care in the world other than having to remember to wash behind our ears.

The letter also seemed to imply that when the duck left Belfast, it may appear somewhere else. So we may not have seen the last of this joyous rubber duck. Or maybe it might pop up again in Belfast next summer. Or over the winter. Who knows? But it sure did bring a lot of joy to Maine for a short while.

And just like they said in their letter, in this day and age, a little unexpected joy is maybe just what we all need right now.