Salem to Boston, marina

Even though the trip was only 3 hours, we knew the weather was going to get snotty as the day went on. The winds, which had been so placid for the last week, kicked up over night. Small craft advisories surrounded the area. So, we left as the sun came up.

That said it wasn't a bad ride at all. A little lumpy on the nose but nothing worth fretting over.

We're back in Boston, and back at Charlesgate Yacht club.. Given our early start we did have to wait for "commute times" to end (which is 9:10 am) before the train bridge would open. We floated around the little bay between the lock and Tower A for about 20 minutes. They opened the bridge at the stroke of 9:10, which was quite punctual.

Foggy morning while in Salem. Thankfully, clear the day we left.

That's a skunk. While walking at sunset in Salem we noticed this
critter in someone's garden.

On the water at dawn, heading to Boston

Sharing the tiny lock with Highwind.

The yacht club is allowing us to stay through the holiday weekend. We're thrilled. Good to be back in Boston.

Rockport to Salem, ball

The weather continued to be awesome for our small ride west to Salem, Massachusetts. We started around 7:30 in the morning and arrived around 9:45.

Two years ago we came to the area but didn't stay in Salem but rather Beverly, the town nearby. To get to Salem we needed to take a short train ride. This time we were able to get a ball in Salem Harbor. The marina provides a launch, to getting to town is easy. We plan on exploring it a bit since we'll be here for a couple of nights.

But let me tell you about Rockport! This was only our second visit (we anchored in the same bay just a couple of weeks ago on our way up). But we didn't get to shore. Fellow boaters, the crew of No Rush, mentioned it was a cute town. We made an effort to explore it.

Dinghy dock at low tide. Get on the floating dock,
then climb the slippery 15 foot ladder!
At high tide it's only 4 feet.

Our first night there, however, we noticed a large Victorian looking home with blue neon lights on it. Curious I looked through binoculars to see what it was. To my surprise, it was some kind of music venue -- I could see the orchestra seats. After a quick google search, we bought tickets to hear a string quartet the following evening.

So, we enjoyed some cinnamon donuts at the Brother's Brew coffee shop. For lunch/dinner we ate lobster rolls at Rob Moore Lobster Company followed by ice cream (which was amazing) at The Ice Cream Store. From there, we walked to the Rockport Music Shalin Liu Performance Center and listened to some Bach, Mozart, and Brahms. Awesome day.

inQuest in the Rockport anchorage.

Main street in Rockport.

The performance center. Beautiful venue. We heard a string
quartet perform Bach, a quintet perform Mozart...

...and a piano quartet perform Brahms. You can see how
we saw inside the venue. In fact, if you zoom, you can see inQuest from here.

The view after music and heading back to the boat.

Awesome sunset in Salem.

Falmouth to Rockport, anchor

By the map's travel line you can tell it was a bit of indecision. First we thought we'd go to Kittery. Then we decided, since the day was awesome, we'd go all the way to Rockport. Then we decided that would make for an unnecessarily long day and there's no reason to rush so we'd go to Isle of Shoals. But they were full, given the absolutely glorious weather and water (and it was Saturday, so everyone could be out and about on a boat). So we just made it a long day and headed to Rockport.

We had no real plans to jam south but it wasn't hard at all to spend 8 hours on the Atlantic. Rare, indeed.

That makes us a little ahead of schedule. We have plans to spend Labor Day weekend in Boston. So we'll stay here for a couple of nights. 

Early start to the morning, up before dawn in Falmough

Waving goodbye to Portland as we pass it and the old fort.

Lighthouse marking the Portland entrance. Everything is so pretty in morning light.

How good was the weather? The wind speed is 0.1 knots.

Love the Atlantic when it looks like this.

Morning in Rockport. Calm now, but it will bustle with boaters once the day gets going. We plan on getting one last lobster roll here, even though we're  not in Maine anymore. Hello, Massachusetts.

Maddock to Falmouth, anchor

After staying 3 nights in a quiet (albeit gloomy) anchorage the weather allowed us to make an earnest effort to start heading south. We begin unwinding our travels. First stop, back to Portland, or Falmouth which was close by.

The trip was amazing, one of the best "open water" journeys. We were underway for 3.5 hours, most of that was on the Atlantic.

There's a huge mooring field in Falmouth called Handy Boat. Alas, they only had a ball for Highwind, so we anchored off an island nearby. We had a very quiet night, so that was awesome.

Gloomy but gorgeous anchorage in Maddock.
Had it been nicer we'd have canoed and swum.

Today we DO have a ball reservation at Handy, so we'll move this afternoon. We'll stay for a couple of nights, try to do one last round of lobster here in Maine before leaving on Saturday.

Lovely day for an ocean cruise.

One of the more interesting lighthouses we've seen.
We've passed this one 4 times now. Finally got a good pic.

Boothbay to Maddock Cove, anchor

We checked out one cove first, before moving.
to our final anchorage.

When we woke Sunday morning the rough seas from yet another hurricane were seeping their way into our harbor, giving us a steady and substantial rock. We decided not to linger. Everyone got pumped out (there's a boat for that, so very handy), weighed anchor, and headed back into the islands to seek some quiet.

That make for a very short day. And a very quiet night.

The lobster place at Boothbay. HOPPIN'!

Quiet and lovely. Not sure if we'll see the sun while here.

Bath to Hockomock Bay, anchor

Of the Hell Gate's we've been through
this one is worth watching tides for.

While it would be easy to get to Booth Bay from here, our ultimate destination, we're slow boating, taking the days in tiny chunks. This is the most beautiful section of Maine so why rush it? Besides that way we break up going through Hell Gate and Little Hell Gate. Seem logical.

We spent 2 nights on the Bath Town dock which was thoroughly enjoyable. The town is right there, with a number of eateries, a brewery, and a damn fine bakery -- better than any we found in Portland. Just sayin'.

Given Hannah and David had to work in the morning we all made sure the hook was down by 9 am. 

Boats on the Bath Town Dock.
No cleats, but a hefty dock around 200 feet.

Nothing left to do but enjoy the view and the day.

Note, this anchorage was described as having a "100% perfect sunset guarantee by the Main Board of Tourism." Something to look forward too.

Bath continues to be where military boats are made, the Bath Iron Works.
Nearby is the site of the Percy and Small boat yard, now a museum, 
famed for building 4, 5, and 6 masted schooners. This "art" shows the
size and shape of such a vessel. Until you're here you don't get just
 how massive it is. A must see if you're in the area. 

Admittedly, that's a pretty nice sunset.

Portland to Bath, wall

While still hiding from the Atlantic as much as we could we skittered about the islands until we absolutely had to go outside. Thankfully, it was a little roll-y but mostly harmless (still settling from the hurricane). We only had to bear that for about an hour and, with the exception of having to steer around crab and lobster traps (I still call them "prop traps"), it was dandy.

Navionics, the mapping tool we use, took us on a small cutoff off the ocean, rather than continue a bit further to get into the main channel. It looked good on paper. But we told Highwind not to try it. Due to the tide/current/winds colliding it created some standing waves that were around 4 or 5 feet. We struggled against the current and it wasn't particularly deep there. At one point I saw 3.5 feet beneath us. It ended fine, but created a needless amount of fret.

Maine is glorious cruising.

Two years ago we'd been to Bath. That time we came from Booth Bay and went through Hell Gate to get to Bath. The plan is to do that in reverse when we leave; head to Booth Bay from here. That will be our northernmost point this year. We'll basically turn around and head back to Baltimore.

Also, last time we moored on a ball outside a boating museum. It was one of the more harrowing moors we've ever been on, with and out going current around 5 knots and a sketchy mooring ball. This year we're staying at the town dock, which is free. But we noticed the museum no longer has balls, and built a dock wall as well. Good thing! It seriously was terrifying. Our plan B was to stay there if this pier was full.

Lovely boating day.

French Island to Portland, marina

Easy and short day to a new marina (for us) in Portland, Sunset Marina.

On the plus side, despite the coming hurricane remnant concern, the weekend was quite lovely. It wasn't as violent, and didn't last as long. So, yay! As a result we were able to take advantage of the weather and do stuff outside, like attend the Guster concert. Big yay! Totally awesome.

On the minus side (BIG minus, too) we were rocked horribly in the marina. Never, ever, going back there.

Guster, or Toad the Wet Sprocket (who opened).
Great night to see some live music, and GREAT music.

I call this the Guster Sunset.

We did crush it. Set the best of the month record with 28 minutes to go.

Diamond Isle -> Portland -> Basin -> French Island (whew!)

We've had a guest onboard during this time so I'm a bit behind in my blogging.

We got to stay at the Maine Yacht Center for a couple of days to pick up Sara, a friend of a friend. We met her in Key West. She lives there, but is on a long driving tour headed north for the summer this year, and timing just worked out.

From Portland we headed to The Basin, a hurricane hole nestled in the islands nearby. There we did some canoeing and hiking, enjoying the lovely afternoon and morning we had. When the clouds came up, around 3 in the afternoon, we headed to French Island to spend a rainy night.

Canoeing around The Basin

Sara taking us on a quick hike. inQuest is 
out there, somewhere.

Today the remnants of hurricane Debby are headed our way. We have a reservation back in Portland for 3 nights, but we'll only need one. It was looking like a multi-day event up here, but now (at least on the weather apps) looks like Friday night/Saturday morning will be the brunt, and the rest of the weekend should be decent.

Rainy French Island

Some of us hope to go to a concert this weekend, and it was scheduled for outdoors. So that's a "yay!"

Biddeford to Great Diamond Island, ball

When we woke we saw that, while the weather was calm by us, in Portland they were having thunderstorms. Given the short ride there we chilled out for a few hours, letting the storm pass before heading in that direction.

That did give the water some time to get a little swell to it but the short two hour ride was fine.

We decided to hang out in a nearby island before going to Portland. Originally the idea was play in the islands while the weather was nice, then go to a marina when it gets bad. But we heard a friend of a friend was nearby, so we might pick them up before toodle-ing about the islands. We'll see how that shakes out.

The low tide exposed the rocks. It's about 10 feet
here. Portland is in the distance.

All about these islands are private mooring fields. Just take a ball and its yours until you're kicked off. So that's just was we did.

Rockport to Biddeford, ball

Knowing this would be a little longer day we got an earlier start. We were underway around 8 am, as was nearly every other vessel in our anchorage. Funny, when we got there (around 3 pm yesterday) we were the 3rd boat to drop the hook. By nightfall, there were around 12 of us. Good anchorage too -- calm night, good place to sleep.

However, we had fog. As we traveled it got thick in places. It lifted after a couple of hours, just about 30 minutes before we reached Isle of Shoals. We though hard about staying there for the night. But it was fairly early. There are no moorings for transits vessels. The deal was "grab one, but be prepared to leave if the owner shows up." Watching our AIS we saw a steady stream of boats leaving Portsmouth and heading to the isles. Additionally, recent reviews say there are half as many moorings as there used to be due to some reworking of their breakwall. We really didn't want to be kicked off all the balls and have to travel later in the evening, so we put it on the "maybe when we come back" list. Hopefully on a weekday, and not a weekend.

Foggy morning.

We turned toward Portland, thinking maybe we'd just jam all the way there. Then Russ found Saco Bay, which made our trip about 2 hours shorter. And, hey, we hadn't been there before.

We grabbed a mooring ball. Turns out you can anchor here, too, and the launch will come get you either way. Not much of a town to speak of but they have a little grocery and deli where you can grab some dinner. And we did.

The lighthouse at Isle of Shoals

The moors at Biddeford. inQuest is out there, on the right.

Boston to Rockport, anchor

Timewise, it was a moderate day for travel (about 4 hours) but we wanted to wait until the morning commute had passed so we got a later start, around 11 am. While we spent about a week in Boston we split that time between 2 marinas, Constitution and Charlesgate. Charlesgate Yacht Club was a modest club. Not many slips nor members. We only knew about them from a friend of a friend. While nicely nestled in the heart of Boston they are a little tricky to get to. It requires having 2 bridges raised and going through a very narrow lock. Both bridges are filled with commuters in the morning and evening (one was a train bridge) so waiting until all that was over was ideal.

The trip was extremely calm. Smooth water, very little wind. Lots of boat traffic, given it was Friday, so we got waked a couple of times.

You may recognize this from your grade school text book. This is 
THE STEEPLE that started the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
You know, the "1 if by land and 2 if by sea". They were here.
2 by the way. The answer was "2".

Boston skyline at night from Charlesgate.

We took a walk and explored some of the city park space.

This bridge was measured in "smoots". Oliver Smoot, 
to be exact. While they determined his height was 5' 7", 
they carried him across the bridge, laying him out.
Oh, those MIT guys.

Boston. Lots of biking and pedestrian walkways along the Charles River.

We've tried to stay in Rockport a couple of years ago. A storm was coming and they looked like a good place to hunker down. But once we got into the mooring field the dockmaster yelled at us about not telling him we were a catamaran. We've never had to disclose that before, but we decided we weren't welcomed and pressed on to Portsmouth. This time we didn't even try. We're anchored outside the harbor.