It
is a rainy day in Provincetown. A good
day to get caught up on the blog.
The
58 NM run to Portsmouth on the 31st was pleasant and uneventful in
good weather. To avoid high currents and
rolly dockage downtown we stayed at the upscale Wentworth-by-the-Sea marina
about 4 miles out of town. This was
probably the nicest marina since we began the trip. It is on the property of an elegant old hotel
built in the 1870s and now operated as a Marriott in a quiet basin. They had a free courtesy car for our use that
allowed us to do provisioning and drive in to town.
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| "Minefield" of lobster traps, Cundy Harbor, ME |
In
retrospect we should have planned for more time in Portsmouth. It is a larger city than we expected and had
much to offer in the way of shops, water front restaurants and bars. One unique feature of the downtown area was a
huge mountain of what looked like sand right on the waterfront. It turns out it was rock salt. Portsmouth supplies the entire Northeast with
the salt used to clear roads in the winter.
It is brought in on ships then distributed by truck and train.
On
Sept 2 we moved on to Gloucester, MA.
Our friends, Bob and Liz James from Cardiff, were once again in the
US. This time they had their son, Will
with them. We had not seen Will, who is
in his last year of apprenticeship with Roll Royce, since we were last in Wales
in 2014. Over the years we have spent
many wonderful times with the James’ family and this was no exception. After cocktails on the boat we had a great
Asian style meal at Ohana’s in town. The
next day Will joined us for the short trip from Gloucester to Salem, MA while
Mom and Dad drove down to meet us.
Knowing we had no juice on board they brought along the basics for
Debby’s famous Rum Punch which we all enjoyed on the bridge before heading off
to lunch at Finz and a walking tour of town.
We returned to the boat in late afternoon and enjoyed another round of
Rum Punch and conversation on the bridge.
We were sorry to see them go, but Will was off to spend a few days in Boston
and Bob and Liz were on their way to New York for a wedding at the Plaza.
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| Bob, Will, Liz James Dinner at Ohana Gloucester, MA |
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| Debby and Will enroute to Salem |
With
Labor Day weekend being one of the busiest in this area for boating we arranged
to stay in Salem for the entire time. Unfortunately,
Debby was totally unimpressed. In
fact she hated it there. The typical
tourists were scruffy and the town puts too much emphasis on its
past involvement with witches. One high
note has been the Peabody Essex Museum, one of the finest art museums in New
England. Salem in the 18th
and early 19th century was the wealthiest town in the US. The ships from here traded all over the world
with an emphasis on the Far East. The
museum has many of the treasures from this trade along with maritime artifacts.
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| TurnersSeafood best restaurant in Salem Located in Lyceum Hall Home of long distance telephone |
On
the 6th we put the dinghy in the water and made an excursion to
Marblehead, our favorite town. After a
nice lunch at the Barnacle we toured the harbor and stopped at the Corinthian
Yacht Club which was founded in 1886. Jim
crewed on a racing boat from this club for several seasons in the mid 60s. Although much expanded, most of the original
club remains and is a reminder of what a “yacht club” should look like. As with most clubs, pictures of Past
Commodores line the walls. Sure enough,
Jim’s mentor in sailing rose to Commodore in 1987.
After a relaxing Labor Day it was time to move on to Provincetown. Sitting at the very northern tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown is to Boston what Key West is to Miami. It is a remote out of the way town with a large LGBT population, a thriving artist colony and dramatic sand dunes and beaches. It also has numerous great restaurants. What most people don’t realize is that the Pilgrims did not land first at Plymouth Rock. They first landed at what is now Provincetown. They spent 5 weeks here exploring the area only to find that there was no water and little arable land, so they moved on to the Plymouth location.
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| Appropriately named great restaurant in Provincetown |
Our
original plan was to be here 2 days, but the weather is not cooperating, and we
are enjoying exploring the town so much we will stay longer.
