Block Island, R.I. to Gloucester, MA - and some sights along the way.

We had a nice weather window for a couple of day runs, so on Sunday the 22nd we decided to start heading north.  Two problems - 1.  When Rick and Izzy went to shore for one last puppy pumpout they found a dinghy floating near Broulee and no sign of people looking for a lost dinghy.  Rick grabbed its lines and towed it back to our boat - now what?  Tried hailing the Harbormaster, but no one answered (well it is 5:30 in the morning).  We saw Towboat U.S. in the harbor so we hailed them and they came and relieved us of the task of locating the owner.  The Towboat guy laughingly said "They probably came back to the boat drunk and forgot to tie it up!"  I didn't want to tell him, we've come back to our boat cold stone sober and have forgotten to tie up the dink, not only once, but twice. "I thought you tied it up" - "I thought YOU tied it up!" Oh, well not our problem this time.    

Rick getting our dinghy ready to hoist and trying to figure out what to do with his catch of the day.

The 2nd problem was a little sailboat came in on Saturday afternoon while we were at the beach and we are pretty certain they are right over our anchor.

We slowly crept up on them (by now it's 6:30 a.m.).  Rick said there were bodies strewn all over the cockpit sleeping (sorry about all that chain racket).  Hopefully we will not wake up the little darlings when Broulee gently (like a bulldozer) nudges them out of our way.  Hmmm,  thier dingy seems to be missing. Again, not our problem.  

We had the anchor up and underway by 7:00, turns out no bulldozing was required.  We had a good run to Pocasset, MA and anchored on the eastside of Bassetts Island.  Nice quiet night and ready for an early morning run thru the Cape Cod Canal (again this needs to be done on a rising/flood tide).  

The canal is heavily traveled, well-marked and very pretty.  It has a 10 mph max speed limit, so with the swift 5 knot current we pretty much idled thru the entire run.  It is 10 miles long and travel must be completed within 2 1/2 hours - no stopping, anchoring, sailing, fishing or turning around.

 Wings Neck Lighthouse at Pocasset, MA - once a very important lighthouse was auctioned off in 1947 to a private couple who spent their retirement years here.  In 1999 it was sold, renovated and is now a vacation rental property.

At the entrance to the canal (traveling east) is Massachusetts Maritime Academy at Taylor Point.  The training ship Kennedy is docked here.  

West entrance of the canal.

Stopped early at Duxbury, MA and grabbed a mooring ball in the harbor - winds gusting to 30 mph are predicted.  Duxbury was founded by Miles Standish and is about 35 miles south of Boston.  Many affluent Bostonians live here - the median home price is $650,000.00.  Where we are moored is called Snug Harbor - definitely a good place to be.   They are overly friendly here - the harbormasters are incredible.  We had thought the weather would keep us another day, but proved not - plan is to head north to Gloucester,MA.

  

Duxbury Pier Lighthouse

The white cliffs on Cape Cod Bay

and dealing with these guys all day.

Every family has their own thing, just please do not hit one.

Shamrock - all in a days work.

So far so good, knock on wood or what ever you need to do - we have not accidentally or on purpose hit one - they are everywhere.  We started to notice clouds building and Rick calls the Coast Guard for local weather - however we are already picking up what appears to be serious weather on our cell phones.  They are telling us no problem not to worry about Gloucester - our destination.  Guess they were wrong.

Missed getting into our anchorage by twenty minutes - strong winds (predicted at 70 MPH and hail - we saw 37 and thank god no hail) - lots of lightning strikes - very frightening.This is my last picture of the storm - I am not a storm chaser ( I run to the basement when the sirens go off) - Rick is, but sorry he was steering the boat - I am somewhere between running below screaming "we are going to die" and then asking him " are YOU ok?"  Turns out he is fine and very calm - I think he is lying to stop my manic behavior - Really, are we OK?  He again tries to convince me that we are ok, even though at one point we cannot see anything because of the slamming  rain and 40 mph wind.   

In Gloucester Harbor - more storms brewing.

Calm after the storm?

Reflection of the beautiful sunset on the harbor.

The next morning was cool, crisp and looked like an opportunity to do some sightseeing and provisioning.  The harbor in a not so weathery day.

Of course, we had to see the memorial - can not believe how many men have lost their lives fishing these waters. 

Left half of sign.

Right half of the sign - 

They that go down to the sea in ships

1623  - 1923

The crew of the Andrea Gail - never returning from the Flemish Cap due to the perfect storm.  We Minnesotans remember it as the Halloween storm - 36 inches of snow in two days - burying our pumpkins until spring.

  Pretty House on the Harbor Walk - even their trash is pretty in cute purple bags.

The second memorial is the Widows memorial - very hard to understand this fishing way of life.  But once you get into this harbor you feel it - they are a different breed - it is all about the catch - got to luv them.

Looking out over the harbor

Looks like waiting for high tide to get the boat out of the boathouse.

On the harbor walk - this is a great boating town - everything is accessible by foot.   Lots of dinghy docks to tie up to leading to different parts of town.  Enough for now, more later.