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August 30th, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts gets its fame, at least in the
last few years, from the book and movie "The Perfect
Storm." The ill-fated Andrea Gail hailed from
Gloucester. It is mostly a working harbor, with
fishing boats and lobster boats, and the associated
processing facilities lining the waterfront.
Despite some unattractive buildings (and smells),
Gloucester is a beautiful spot, tucked in around the
point of Cape Ann and well protected from the wind and
waves.
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It
was a 75 mile trip from Portland, so we set an alarm and
took off at 6:30. Although we had 15 to 20 knots
of wind, it was right on the nose, as forecasted.
After motoring for the first five hours we decided to
fall off a little bit and sail. We go a lot faster
when we sail, so we figured our VMG (velocity made good)
toward our destination might not suffer too much.
It is so nice to hear the sound of the water against the
hulls without the interference of those noisy, smelly
engines. We started having fun and our VMG was the
same as it was under power, so we kept it up for the
next three hours. When it came time to tack back
out towards the sea, our VMG went WAY down and our
estimated arrival time leapt ahead to a totally
unacceptable hour of the night. Time to fire up
the mechanical assistance and make some time straight
toward our destination. We rounded Cape Ann under
power, but were able to sail the last two hours into
Gloucester. Seven hours of motoring and five hours
of sailing. That wasn't so bad.
We
made our way into town the next morning to pay for the
mooring and get the lay of the land. The friendly
folks at Brown Marine recommended Zeke's for breakfast
so we made that our first stop. Well fortified, we
took off on foot to see what Gloucester had to offer.
We found ourselves browsing through a few marine stores
along the waterfront, looking through the windows of
some quaint boutiques and restaurants on Main Street,
and visiting the Cape Pond Ice company. These are
the folks who fill the holds of the big fishing boats
with ice to keep the catch fresh while they are still
out at sea. We stopped into the famed "Crow's
Nest" where the Andrea Gail's crew reputedly hung out.
Much to Joe's disappointment, there was no trolley tour
but we were able to see most of the small town on foot.
Later in the afternoon we hopped in the dinghy to visit
the swanky area, called Rocky Neck, teaming with art
galleries. Although the art was quite beautiful,
the galleries themselves were another statement.
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The weather has been cloudy and rainy for the most part,
and threatens to continue like that for the next three
days. Luckily, it is only 24 miles to Boston,
which translates into no more than a four hour journey
for us. We plan on leaving by 8am or so this
morning. The girls arrive at Logan tomorrow around
5:30 and we can't wait. I'm trying to decide which
of their favorite dinners to cook for them. We'll
hang out in Boston through Thursday night and then head
to Provincetown. The wind on Friday is forecast
for 10 to 15 from the West, and we would be heading
Southeast, so it should be a perfect sail.
We
hope Back to School is going well for everyone. We
will be starting that next week ourselves!
Christy and Joe
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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