Chocomount Cove, (Fishers Island) Anchorage

Saturday September 5, 2015
41 16 992 N
71 58 547 W

No photos today - just water in every direction. But a good day. We were under way by 6 AM, stopped to fill our tanks at the "water barge" and then completed 74 NM in 9 1/2 hours. Somehow managed to "ride the tide" all day, and not quite sure if that is actually possible. The weather has been perfect all day and we are now anchored in the lee of a very mild easterly breeze. All the day boaters have gone home and we are here in total peace and quiet.

Leaving Martha's Vineyard early

I think fishing people  are just a bit strange. 

Edgartown - Martha's Vineyard (Mooring Ball)

Thursday September 3, 2015
41 22 780 N
70 30 305 W

Today we only had about 20 NM to cover, but once again we had a tidal current timing issue, as we needed to pass thru Wood's Hole and then Vineyard Sound. Wood's Hole has quite a reputation - quite strong currents in restricted water, an array of confusing markers and a lot of traffic. Last night I had spent some time making a very thorough route plan and I am pleased to say we made it though Woods Hole without incident, and rode the current in Vineyard Sound, making good time to Edgartown.

We must have seen 1/2 dozen ferries on the way across. Must be a busy place.

The Edgartown mooring/anchorage is simply delightful. It is nestled between the main MV island and Chappaquiddick Island. (I am sure that this name will resonate with any readers over 50 years old. Its where Teddy Kennedy "killed" Mary Joe Kapeckny.) Its a big mooring field and there are a lot of fancy boats here.

Mooring field

View of the town

Nice!

Deidre's knee is still pretty bad so rather than dropping the dinghy we employed the "launch" for a ride to town. My first reaction to town was how different to Provincetown! Its all very pucker, no rainbow coalition here! Very nice all the same.

Downtown - very pucker - not Tee Shirt shops here.

Today has been another one of those "It's good to be alive" days. After I wrap up the blog I plan to grab a beer and the New York Times and veg out on the aft deck. It just does not get any better than this.

We noticed that there is a flooding problem here at hi tide. Bit like Venice?

Friday September 4, 2015

Busy day today. Deidre's knee is still very sore, so we needed a "riding day" and not a "walking day". We took the water taxi into town at about 10:30 and headed for the bus depot. The island has an extensive bus service and an unlimited daily ride ticket for $8.00. There are four small towns on the island and our plan was to visit all of them.

About 2:30 PM at the XXX a bus station the "bus master" pointed out a red biplane overhead and told us we could both take a 30 minute ride for $150! I had just received some birthday money from my favorite mother-in-law and decided this was how I wanted to spend it. We quickly found a phone number to make a reservation and headed to the air field via the #10 and #8 bus.

This is our plane - a 1940 WACO trainer - build in Cleveland!

Red Baron and Snoopy strapped in the front seat

This strip of sand joins the main island to Chappaquiddick Island

This is the "infamous" bridge

Tide Hiker is down there somewhere.

Another view of the anchorage and the town

Penzance Bay (Near Woods Hole) anchorage

Wednesday September 2, 2015
41 31 912 N
70 40 633 W

Another nice day - at least on the north side of the Cape. Today we were planning to transit the Cape Cod Canal into Buzzards Bay and then find an anchorage in the vicinity of Wood's Hole. Cavara was also making their way to the canal, timed to transit in our company, but we expected to part ways on the other side.

The CCC is the largest sea level ship canal in the world - no locks etc - but the result of that was some pretty strong currents. Because of the strong tidal current thru the canal we needed to time our arrival for the "slack before the ebb" at the north end.

The 24 NM run across Cape Cod bay was achieved right on schedule and we entered the canal right at slack with no current. It picked up strongly as we headed south and by the time we reached the only impediment - a lifting railway bridge we were seeing 3 or 4 knots of current. According to the guide "the railway bridge is seldom in the closed position" but as we approached at "light speed" down it came! As we rapidly approached we did notice an Army Corp of Engineers patrol boat flashing its lights and broadcasting a warning on the radio.

Whoa! The railway bridge is down!

There were several pleasure craft of various sizes in the canal. Doing a "U turn" in a 49' boat in a 4 knot current in a 300' wide canal is not that simple, especially if the other boats do not "dance" well with us. We immediately broadcast our intentions to create an anti-clockwise race track pattern and fortunately all the boats fell into step. After only one loop the bridge reopened.

The wind on the north side was a pleasant 5 to 10 kts. On the south side it was blowing at least 20 kts, and created a "wind against tide" situation, resulting in 4' to 6' "square waves" as we entered Buzzards bay, right on our bow. The next 10 miles in these conditions proved to be very rough, with Tide Hiker making lots of spray.

The anchorage we targeted had anticipated these conditions and got us entirely out of the fetch and most of the wind. We anchored in 15' with a solid sandy bottom. Out of the wind and waves it was a very pleasant spot. I barbecued chicken and veges for dinner. We picked up about 30 TV stations but there was nothing worth watching.

Provincetown

Tuesday September 1, 2015
42 02 782 N
70 10 989 W

This place is a hoot!
For those that are not aware, Provincetown is essentially a gay vacation community. Lots of guy couples holding hands and very interesting leather shops. Don't ask me how I know. Sorry that the following photos are from the rear, but I just did not have the gonads to take them from in front. (That "guy" with the bra on looks pretty tough!)

I would not wear boots with those shorts!

What's with the boots? Its summer!

We dropped the mooring ball at about 7:45 AM. Nick came with us for the ride. Our timing was all wrong - the flood tide was very strong and held back our speed  - or that's what I thought. After a couple of hours at 5 knots I realized that the port engine was not in gear - I was running the boat from the flying bridge and the port engine control had not engaged the transmission. Something new to think about.

Once we were running two props our speed reverted to 7 plus knots and we started making good progress. It was a perfect day - about 80 degrees, sunny and a mild breeze. To add to a nice day we saw a couple of "big" whales including a full tail show! We arrived right on schedule at 3 PM and took a mooring ball.

Our plan was to head into town and "take in the sights" for an hour or two, enjoy an early dinner and put Nick on the 7:30 PM fast ferry back to Boston. However Deidre's knee was acting up and she decided to take a break, so Nick and I headed in "alone". Now Provincetown is a very gay community and Nick and I make a fine couple, so I am sure we turned a few heads! We stopped for a beer and a couple of shots and met a very nice couple - just married and on their honeymoon - turned out the groom (huh?) was an IRS agent, so we were extra friendly.

The history books say that Provincetown is where the mayflower settles first set foot in the USA. There is a very impressive monument to that effect. I imaging the Pilgrims would be a bit uncomfortable arriving there today.

Boston

Thursday August 28, 2015
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We have been looking forward to our Boston visit. The last time Deidre and I visited as tourists was in 1975 with Adam in a pram! I have been there since on business trips but only seen the inside of an office or warehouse. Its an interesting city, plus our close friends Nick and Lyn Nicholas live there. Nick will be waiting for us on the dock.

Easy 25 NM run from Gloucester under sunny skies and over calm seas. We opened up the boat to get some dry air into all the corners. Our first view of the Boston Harbor area was the tank farm shown below - I explained to Deidre that it must be a LNG facility - later Nick told me that it was a sewage treatment plant!

Either way, I hope it does not leak

Once thru the northern entrance we had another 5 miles to take us to our mooring ball right down town. Nick has called from his 32nd floor apartment and was watching our progress with his Peeping Tom telescope. We came into the marina to load water before going to our ball - and Nick was waiting for us on the dock. We loaded water then Nick rode out with us to the mooring.

Approaching downtown

The mooring location is just spectacular. We are just a few hundred feet off what seems to be the social center of Boston. After a chat and a few beers we launched the dink and took Nick ashore, and had a brief walk around. Even tho it was a Thursday night the area was very alive.


Friday, August 28, 2015

Our view this morning

Funny experience last night - when we went to bed we could here train traffic on a regular basis. Basically all night. This morning figured out that we are moored right over a subway tunnel! Only hear the trains when we are below, but at night in bed we could just about count the carriages.

We had arranged for Nick to pick us up at 10 AM and go grocery shopping. On the drive to the supermarket he gave us a bit of a tour of downtown.

The afternoon we devoted to showing Tide Hiker a bit of TLC. The last 3 months of damp has penetrated every corner of the boat. We needed to get all the bedding out into the sun and air out the closets and storage areas.



Don and Barb visited about 4 PM and after a chat we headed into the city for dinner and a walk around.

Saturday August 29, 2015

Nick and Lyn were due at about 1 PM so we spent the morning cleaning up and getting ready.

We had seen this LPG tanker arrive the other day - complete with helicopter and Coast Guard escorts.

The guy with the 50 cal machine gun looks pretty serious.

Nick and Lynn arrived at about 1 PM and we set off for a harbor cruise and picnic shortly thereafter. The Boston harbor area contains a bunch of small islands that offered some nice anchorages. We chose one about 8 NM from downtown and settled in for an afternoon in the sun. Deidre made a great dinner (taco salads) and a good time was had by all. We returned to our mooring in the dark which was a bit nervous making but all went well.

Sunday August 30, 2015

We were spotted by another boat yesterday and they visited us this morning for breakfast on board. We had no trouble chatting for a couple of hours and comparing cruising history

As soon as they left we headed ashore - today was our history and tourist day! Rode a tour bus around the city for a couple of hours and received a large dose of history and got our bearings. Part of the tour was a visit to the USS Constitution - unfortunately it is in dry dock for an overhaul. But there also was a WW2 Fletcher class destroyer and we found that most interesting

After the tour we headed out to Harvard in the subway. The "normal" population of Boston is about 650,000 but ACCORDING TO THE BUS DRIVER this number almost doubles after the summer when students return to the many universities in the city - such as Harvard and MIT etc. And this was the week when the students were arriving. We wandered around Harvard for a while and then headed back on the subway to Nick and Lynn's place.

The subway cars had been pretty full on our trek to and from Harvard. We had to scurry to make the last connection to Nicks place and jumped into the train - only to find the carriage to be 100% empty! It was really quite spooky - we wondered if we were on the way to the yard for the night! We could see into the other carriages and there was just not a person!  

Well, it took us where we wanted and all ended well. Nick explained that the train serviced a government center and since it was Saturday............

This is the view from their living room - we could see Tide Hiker and Cavara! Logan airport in the background.

Monday August 31, 2015

After all our walking yesterday Deidre's knee was really acting up so we enjoyed a quiet day. We eventually made it off Tide Hiker and enjoyed dinner out with Nick and Lynn. The visit to Boston has been great. We move out tomorrow.

Gloucester, Mas.

Wednesday 26th, 2015
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Cavara decided to stay the extra day, we decided to move on. We enjoy short running days with a small town destination. Plus there was a chance that the sun might break thru in Gloucester. (We desperately need some sun. The canvas canopy over the aft deck has turned green. Stainless steel railing are starting to rust. It feels wet when we get into bed at night - enough already.)

It was only a 30 NM mile run to Gloucester, and the sun did break thru about midday. The first 25 NM were in the Atlantic, the last 5 NM thru a ICW type river and canal that cuts of the end of Cape Ann, saving a few miles. After 1,000 plus miles of the Canadian wilderness, we were a bit amazed at the population and activity intensity of this approach. Houses lined the waterway, people were on the beaches (poor deprived people!) and boats were everywhere. The canal section is pretty old and pretty narrow in parts, but we made it thru OK and arrived in the old port by 1 PM - in the sunshine.

The entrance 

Houses along the way

The railway bridge opened for us

The road bridge was another mile along - quite small

We had called the harbor master a couple of times over the last 24 hours and were able to get a ball in the "inner harbor"which will give Deidre a better nights sleep. The tourist people claim that Gloucester is the "oldest fishing harbor in the USA" with a date about 1640. I am not convinced (What about St Augustine???) but it certainly has some history. This was the home port of the ship in Captains Courageous as well as the ship in "The Perfect Storm".

Big fishing fleet here too

We launched the ding at about 3 PM and went ashore to pay our bill, mail our checks and have a look around town. Quiet place.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Tuesday August 25, 2015
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Time to move on. Sadly, the day dawned with fog all around us, and the forecast highlighted "heavy patches of fog" but we are old hands now and set out, Tide Hiker in the lead. It turned out to be better than we all expected. We never saw the horizon, but visibility was good enough to see the lobster floats in plenty of time.

This is how it looked this AM in Portland

The run was XX NM and we arrived in plenty of time to load a bike in the courtesy water taxi and ride them into town to get our mail. This was our first mail delivery since Oswego in NY, almost 3 months ago. There were a lot of bills!

Heading in with the bikes to get the mail.

A birthday card for me!!