July 11,2015

We decide to stay another day in Gloucester Massachusetts;
We are on a mooring ball in the outer harbour and it is very pleasant. The dinghy is working great and we are able to tour the wharfs and pull into some lovely restaurants and galleries.
In one waterfront bar we had the best oysters and a steamed soft shell lobsters, served on paper plates, it was delicious.

Checking in with the Harbour master we are told that there are no shower facilities. UGH.

We did some more exploring and tried to find the church where there is a memorial dedicated to the 10,000 Glouster fishermen that never returned from the sea. We walked it seemed for miles to find it was closed.
We did go to the Crow’s Nest. This is an old bar located near the ice plant away from the tourist area. It is filled with locals and fisherman still today who fondly remember their mates and the filming of the Perfect Storm. George Clooney was there when the movie was shot and in a photo album, there were some pictures of Mike Ironside who was a student in one of John’s very first film classes. John bought the bar t-shirt and we are off to the boat. On route we pass a rough waterside bar and the sound of a steel drum catches our attention. We find ourselves dancing to a great one-man steel band entertainer with an incredible voice and pleasant smile. We are pretty much the only customers so an opportunity to sing a Jimmy Buffet tune to steel drums just couldn’t be missed.

July 12, 2015

Up and at it very early to Salem that we need to get into at high tide. There is only 7 feet of water over a small sand bar when the tide is low near the entrance to a marina that we want to get to. We arrive at Salem at 9:00 am. All is well we arrive at the high tide.

We pulled into Pickering Wharf Marina. We need a shower and WIFI etc. This will be our first dock in weeks every other place has been anchoring or on a mooring ball.

The bad news is that the showers and washrooms are disgusting more so than some of the washrooms you may have used driving south to Florida on I 95.
There is no ice, there is no WIFI and when John came back with the bill it was $140.00 for the night. Talk about feeling screwed. Doesn’t help when our dollar last I heard was at $1.30.

We grin and bear it and go off to roam around Salem and get connected with the witch history. We buy a combined ticket package that takes us to three witchy places aka museums, dioramas and one live reenactment of a trial. It’s all very touristy entertainment like you would find in Niagara Falls but we get a feel for the town history. It was like the worst of Disney gone bad. Even the town people seem to think the whole Salem witch thing is overplayed. It’s as if they wish the whole thing never happened.

We recover our senses and go to the Peabody Essex Museum. It is fantastic but we are slowing down as we have been walking for hours.

Time for a drink and as we head back to the boat we hear music, great music, some good old blues and rock and roll. Our spirits lift as does a “Dark and Stormy” we get a second wind and stay for two sets and have a burger for dinner. So much fun.

July 13,2015

Still at the wharf, I decide that we need to do at least one load of laundry so head off to do that and to see if I can find a grocery store. No luck but found bagels and cream cheese. We are leaving as soon as we get organized.
A new dock person shows up and I (Moira) register the complaints about the facilities and ask him if we were charged for hydro. Yes that was $25.00 so I pointed out that we didn’t use any and we at least got that money back. I feel a little better.

We are off to Scituate Harbor .The wind is just right for sailing so we hoist the sails,
change our destination and we sailed all the way to Plymouth and drop the hook behind Clark’s Island. There is only one other boat. We will motor up the channel two miles to Plymouth tomorrow and rent a mooring ball.

John made corn beef hash for dinner and we will have an early night and will tour Plymouth Tomorrow.

News on the Moms front…

Helen was at a party in Orillia with sister Mary. Helen claims that there were no drinks involved but she missed her footing on a bottom step and did a face plant badly hurting her face and her arm. She is back at Shannon’s who claims that she looks terrible. Her hand is cut but the hospital couldn’t stitch it because her skin is so thin. She could use some love sent her way.

Margaret has had another bout with the tube from her badly infected gal bladder
hanging on by a wire. Marilyn had to get her to emergency in Picton Sunday night and the drain has now been replaced. She saw another specialist today. This Doctor will refer her to Kingston to see if it is possible to get the gall bladder removed. The doctors are concerned that this may be a serious step to take with Mom because she is frail.
We talked to her tonight she is such a trooper and she is in good spirits. She could also use some love sent her way.

July 14, 2015

Head to Plymouth,
There is no room for us at the Yacht club or anywhere in the inner harbor so we grab a mooring ball outside of the break wall and dingy into the harbor masters office. Once again no shower facilities so it’s off to the Yacht club to see if they will accommodate a couple of visiting sailors. They check our Yacht Club membership cards and open up their facilities to us. We tour the Mayflower, do a narrated bus tour of the town and head back to the boat to get cleaned up for dinner. The Harbor Master recommended we eat at the East Bay Grill and we enjoy one of the finest meals so far this season. A beautiful location, outside dining in perfect weather and a fun server all add up to a perfect night.

July 15,2015

With a bit of a hangover we untie ourselves from the mooring ball and make the run for the Cape Cod Canal. The current runs at four knots and we have to hit it with the falling tide. The Canal is wide but there is lots of boat traffic from barges to tour boats. We are averaging 9-10 knots all the way through.

We decided to head to Pocasset, Kingman Harbor Marina to get supplies and fuel etc.
That did not go well. The tide was low and we are told by their dock person that they have a mooring ball for us on the inside. We know that we are at low tide and so does she but she insists that we can get on mooring ball V7 which we find is in 6-7 feet of water. We have told her more than once that we draw 7 feet 4 inches and she says so you draw seven feet not to split hairs. What we don’t know is that there mooring cement blocks are about two feet above that and we hit the keel dead into one but we were in neutral and moving slow.

We immediately call her on the VHF to say we hit and now we are riding up on ground. Oh too bad, wait for the tide to come in and when you get free you can move to one of the outside moorings.

She finally comes out in the tender to show us the way out to the mooring ball. We are aground again. The depth sounder picked up the low water but not the mooring anchor. We call her back and advise this is not acceptable so she finally assigns us a deep water mooring. So two hours of frustration and we still have to go in to do laundry and the stores are closed.

Moira is not pleased.

We will be staying another night waiting for some weather to blow through and then we are off to Woods Hole and on to Martha’s Vineyard.