Pictures: This is Duxbury at low tide on the day we stopped there on the way to the Cape-- one reason we still keep our boat in Cohasset!; Tom, Heidi, Sally, Jean, Ken and Harry after our "fishing tournament" in Vineyard Sound; several of us had musical instruments -- Heidi (banjo), Jean (mountain dulcimer), Harry (guitar), Tom (guitar); Nina can delicately step into the kayak for a trip to shore or a ride around the harbor with Sally; our grand-nephew Henry and his mom Cathy in Maine; one of the fairy houses near Perry's Creek -- look closely at all the details; Heidi is looking for the least sandy mussels, also in Perry's Creek; Harry and Ken on the Cliff Island north-facing beach with Brewster and Rising Tide behind them on a very blue day!
When the hot weather hit early and often, we packed up and left Duxbury on RISING TIDE for two weeks in the Cape and Islands area, then two weeks in Maine (we had a break in-between). Our boat is low maintenance, doesn’t need much prep work to get going, and doesn’t even need particularly good weather. All it asks for is a full tank of diesel. We have been fueling up on Wednesdays when a tanker truck comes to the harbormaster’s dock in Cohasset. This service is primarily for the lobster boats, but we can get in line when they are done.
On July 6 we left to transit the Cape Cod Canal. It’s pretty close to us on the South Shore. You just want to time your passage for when the current is with you. We had taken a quick boat trip north, to Hull and then Marblehead for the 4th of July. We have already seen fireworks several times this week, and before the week is over we will have had about 6 nights of fireworks! Our first destination south of the Canal is Marion; we always stop here at least once on a trip to the Cape. As we passed the Converse Point property formerly owned by my Aunt, and before that my Grandparents, we see with binoculars that a big pile of excavated sand has replaced the family cottage. Sad.
For the rest of the first week we will join with two boats from Hull, EDGECOMB and BREWSTER. Most of the time we spend anchored in Lake Tashmoo on Martha’s Vineyard. From here you can walk to Vineyard Haven and also to one of the roads west of town and from there it’s only a bus ride to other parts of the Island. Days pass pleasantly with Tom, Jean, Harry and Sally as we go fishing, exploring (at the Vineyard Playhouse Ampitheater-in-the-Woods they are rehearsing a Shakespeare play and some kind of Gregorian chant reaches you as you hike through the area), and visiting (we finally have a long morning’s chat with Ed and Cathy on FREYJA after seeing them briefly once in the Bahamas and then another time, again briefly, on Cuttyhunk). The highlight of the week is the fish banquet after our do-or-die fishing “tournament” aboard BREWSTER. We got lucky and caught about 10 keeper fish. Ken and Harry cleaned them and at dinner that night we all got to try the four different types of fish caught.
After leaving our fishing friends, we anchored outside of Edgartown for a night, and met up with John Campbell, his friend Mike and his brother David for dinner (plus we saw Bill and Marilyn Adams after dinner). Then we headed for Osterville on the Cape. We used to spend some time here almost every summer at the annual Cat Boat Assoc. Rendezvous, but this is probably the first time we’ve been back in 20 years. The next day we went into Waquoit Bay, which we had avoided when we had a sailboat. We enjoyed watching the professional quahoggers, checking out the State Park here (access only by boat), discovering a bocci game being played on the beach. For our last day on the Cape we anchored in Pocasset, just south of the Canal, and had dinner at the Chart Room with our son Justin (he rode down by motorcycle to join us) and with Tom and Jean who have ended up here as well.
Our Maine
trip started on August 3 with a side trip to Provincetown for the Hull Yacht
Club Cruise and Lobster Lunch. We were invited by the same Tom, Jean, Harry and
Sally that were our traveling companions in July. The lunch on the beach was great; we
ordered two lobsters apiece and pigged out, plus there were lots of side dishes
brought by the attendees (about 30 boats). We discovered that you can walk from
Long Pt., where we were anchored, along the beach, then a mile-long dike, and
then through the West End to P-Town center in less than an hour. Or it’s about a mile by dinghy.
After two
nights in P-Town we left in company with BREWSTER for the Isles of Shoals, at
the N.H./Maine border. We passed through Stellwagon Bank which is known for its
great fishing and for sighting whales. We saw one large fin whale and a few
smaller whales, plus we stopped to examine a large, bloated leatherback turtle
(4 or 5 feet long) floating dead about 8 miles south of Isles of Shoals.
We had a
variety pack of weather while in Maine—lots of sun, some afternoon
thundershowers for about 6 days in a row, some morning fog (not always clearing
by noon) for about 4 days. Some of our stops were: Cliff Island in Casco Bay, Witch
Island near South Bristol, Tenant’s Harbor, Rockland, Perry’s Creek on
Vinalhaven Island, Belfast and Camden. Sally and Harry have a well-behaved
Chesapeake Retriever named Nina. Because
Nina gets to go ashore quite often, we were encouraged to go ashore and walk
more than usual. Our best walk was a trail up to Fox Rocks off of Perry Creek.
Even though we had drizzle and fog that day it was a lot of fun, and we got to
see several fairy houses along the trail, evidently inspired by local fairies
(and made by local residents and visitors).
We had a
chance to gather mussels at a few of our stops and had shared dinners the
nights that we cooked them. We found we had missed the blueberry season or the
animals and birds had gotten to them first, but we could buy wild blueberries
in the local stores. We also made a point to get lobsters to cook on board as
the price this summer is very low. It has something to do with a glut of
lobsters and with processing plants in Canada not taking the overflow from
Maine this year.
We met Maine
friends for dinner: the Cassidys from Union we saw in Rockland, the Hazens from
Lincolnville we got together with in Camden. We were first-time visitors to
Belfast and wanted to catch the brewery/restaurant at Marshall Wharf but we
arrived on their day off. However Belfast is a great town with lots to see and
do within a short walk of the docks, including a large food co-op with
bakery/café. We rented a float for both our boats from First Street Shipyard
and enjoyed the amenities of showers and laundry there.
Sally, Harry
and Nina left for home two days before we did, to attend a weekend wedding. On
our way back home we stopped at Port Clyde, got fuel, and shopped at the
General Store, an authentic on-the-pier local gathering place. We had two more
nights in small harbors, then stopped in South Portland to get our niece Cathy,
her husband Brandon, and baby Henry onboard for lunch and an afternoon cruise
around Great Diamond Island and some others nearby. That night we anchored off of Cousin’s Island
near Falmouth and the next morning we visited with our friends the MacLeods at
their dock at Prince’s Point—they brought breakfast!
Our last two
nights and days were spent back in the Isles of Shoals and then at our mooring
in Marblehead, passing through the Annisquam Canal on Cape Ann on our way to
Marblehead. We saw the last of our seals and harbor porpoises on the way to
Isles of Shoals, and started to see Northern gannets north of Cape Ann (you
only see these large birds at sea, not on land, and only when they are
migrating, to and from Canada).
