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.