We took a mooring ball from the Point Independence Yacht Club in Onset. Super friendly folks. The manager took me to Walmart so that I could replace the carpets in the salon. The night before the tin of melted candle wax was accidentally knocked over with wax shooting out across the floor and walls. We discovered that a plastic grocery store card did a nice job of lifting the wax from the wood.
Early Thursday morning we transited the Cape Cod Canal with a nice push and a good dose of fog. Coming out of the Canal we encountered rough water until we got into deeper water. By noon we were in Plymouth. Interesting town and hopefully we will be back to visit Plimouth Plantation. The entire two days were drippy.
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| The Plymouth Rock |
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| The shrine for the Plymouth Rock |
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| An old house from 1640 |
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| Notice the leaded glass window repairs. |
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| National Memorial Pilgrim Church |
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| Mill |
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| Rusty messing around with the water pipes. |
Scituate
We debated whether to stay a third night in Plymouth but would have had to move to another mooring location, the weather forecasts looked reasonable so we pushed on to Scituate, a three hour cruise. Scituate Boat Club was very welcoming. The town is small and has limited services. We are finding more and more mooring fields operated by Clubs providing launch service but no dinghy access. It is a bit like riding the bus after owning your own car.
Gloucester
The trip from Scituate to Gloucester bypassed the entire Boston Harbor, which we will visit on our return trip. Gloucester is an old fishing port with Portuguese and Italian influences. And that translates into some good food. The Harbormaster could not have been more friendly and helpful. Lots of interesting shops on the main street including an Italian deli and a cheese shop. The cheese shop provided our dinner of pate, baguette, and the best sausage in a long time.St. Peters Fiesta was underway giving a very festive feel to the town.
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| Statue of Winslow Homer |
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| Going off to the slippery pole contest. |
The next morning we walked into town specifically to go to the Italian deli where we picked up incredibly tasty St. Joseph subs for lunch, and a couple of prepared meals for dinners. We would have stayed another night if a dog grooming place was open and available but it was not meant to be.
We planned to go up the Annassquan River and on to Newburyport. The inlet at Newburyport was suppose to be tricky and we had it figured that to get there at slack flood tide at 2 pm, we had to leave at 11 am. At 9:30 we happened to talk with the Harbormaster and mentioned where and when, and he said, "oh, that's not a good idea. The Annassquan River has had some shoaling and we recommend going on a rising tide" Well it was not going to be a rising tide in Gloucester until early afternoon and we would miss the slack tide going into Newburyport. He said deeper draft boat go around Cape Ann. We would be able to make it if we took that route.
Rockport, MA
We began our preparations to get underway, rechecking the new plan, we also looked at alternative B just in case. To our pleasant surprise, Rockport, only two hours away, had a place for us on a wall with hydro for the same price as a mooring ball. Here we come!
As we began to round Cape Ann the fog encircled us, the waves were trying to hit us on the beam, and lobster traps prevented the engagement of the autopilot. We had a choice between the north or south entrance, the north being the furthest and widest, so we called and the harbormaster encouraged us to take the south entrance. We could not see it visually. Thank goodness for the chartplotter and the ipad. The red entrance buoy came into sight just as we were to make a hard left, at which time, the fog began to lift and it was a piece of cake getting into the outer harbor.
The town has lots of interesting shops. Rusty found lobster plates, etc., and two lobsters from a lobster man. Strudel from a shop rated #3 on Trip advisor, and we had a heck of dinner.
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| Street view |
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| Gigi waiting for Rusty |
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| Helmut Strudel was the best |
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| Another street view |
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| Motif #1 - popular art subject |
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| The boat at the dock. |
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| The ladder we used to get from the boat to the dock. |
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| Another view of the ladder |
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| Our lobster dinner. |
The second day in Rockport took me to the Laundromat, a 30 minute walk each way. I threw everything in one huge machine and, honestly, I can't tell the difference. By the time I got back to the boat the weather had changed. The boat was rolling side to side against the pilings. The winds had shifted and the swells were hitting the boat on the beam. We put out another fender board, making a total of three. A crazy sounding noise came from my iphone. It was a TORNADO ALERT. We packed a bag with our passports, papers, ipads, iphone, computer power cord (the computer we forgot...), got off the boat and waited for the storm to pass in the boat club.
When it was all over, the harbormaster decided that there was too much rolling and put us on a mooring ball, which also meant we were no longer hooked up to power and therefore no air conditioning or heat. The mooring field was so tight that boats were tied bow and stern to mooring balls.
The two photos below were taken in the Tuck's Candy Shop. They make their own salt water taffy. The roll of taffy is fed into the machine and it is automatically cut and wrapped. It was fascinating to see this. Reminded me of the I Love Lucy episode when Lucy and Ethel worked a candy assembly line. BTW, fresh taffy is really good.
The next morning (July 3rd) we walked into town to get some strudel to take with us. The sun came out, we looked at each other, and we decided to stay another two days. And that is where we spent the 4th of July and were treated to the longest parade of fire trucks ever.
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| Proclamation re-enactment. |
Kittery, ME
We left Rockport on July 5th and had a very pleasant cruise to Kittery, ME. The town harbormaster could not have been nicer and we took a mooring ball for only $20 and rocked and rolled for most of the stay. The mooring field was open to the traffic between the Atlantic and Portsmouth and every small wake seemed amplified by the time it reached us.
At the dock was a grocery store that began in 1828. The old gent at the cash register told us anything we needed he could provide. It took three walks around the store to find the small cooler with the vegetables. Sure enough, there was one or two of a number of things. The young gent who ran the deli part of the store was the wine expert. He put Rusty onto a sancerre knockoff for only $12. Rusty went back after dinner to get some more.
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| Kittery Post Office across the street from the dock. |
Kennebunkport, ME
Less than four hours cruise today (July 6) and we arrived in Kennebunkport. The town has two mooring balls, both were available. The walk to town was 7/10's of a mile and we took a walk early afternoon. Touristy shops but kind of fun.
We still have not resolved the battery problems on the inverter side.
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