New England – Week: 09 (We make it to Boston! )

July 27th to Aug 2nd, 2026

Day 55 – Monday, July 27th, 2026 – To: Boston, MA
Boston Waterboat Marina

Today we reached another milestone, bringing our boat to Boston. When we were growing up in New Hampshire, we visited Boston often. One of the main attractions through school trips, days out with our daughter, and day trips was visiting the New England Aquarium and Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Our marina for our stay is right next to the New England Aquarium!

We only had 40 miles to go, and the winds were light, so we expected good cruising conditions. We left Plymouth, saying goodbye to the Mayflower II, and headed back out to Cape Cod Bay. The trip was fine! The tide was coming in, so we had 3- and 4-foot rollers, but they were 10 seconds apart, so it was just a gentle up-and-down motion. Again, we couldn’t arrive before noon, so we took it slow, enjoying the view of the Mass coastline.

We saw the distinctive Boston skyline appear on the horizon as we passed the Boston Minots Lighthouse. As we got closer, the Boston Light came into view. We heard a Coast Guard Cutter announce they were entering Boston Harbor and started looking out for it. We noticed a cargo ship just offshore that looked like it was on fire! There was lots of smoke coming from one of the holds. We expected the Coast Guard boat to head over to it, but they just kept on going right past. We guess that they were probably just cleaning or something. We went past the Boston Light and headed toward Deer Island (a wastewater treatment plant) at the entrance to the Boston Outer Harbor. Then turned the corner and crossed the Outer Harbor and into the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is separated from the Outer Harbor by one of the runways from Boston Logan Airport. As we headed in, we had planes landing over us about every 30 to 45 seconds!

We had to play a bit of dodgem with the ferries. Our marina is on Long Wharf, where the ferries and tour boats depart. So you have to watch for big boats backing up through the narrow opening between all of the Super Yachts. We came in, and a dockhand was waiting for us at our slip. It was an easy side tie, and it is out of the way of the wakes from the ferries.

Once we got settled in, we washed down the boat to make it pretty, and got ready for my Nephew David, his wife Christie, and their son Aiden to visit. We haven’t seen them in a few years! At 5:00, we walked to The Sail Loft restaurant just down the street from the marina to meet them for dinner. After dinner, we walked back to the marina and showed them the boat. We had a great time, and it was great to catch up!

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Day 56 – Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 – In: Boston, MA

Tuesday, we decided to visit Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. They are right across from the marina. The weather forecast called for rain around 3:00, so we went right at 10:00, when most of the shops open.

With great anticipation, we rounded the corner past the famous Black Rose Pub (home to IRA fundraising in the 1980s) and walked into the market square. We were immediately struck by all of the empty storefronts. It’s been at least 20 years since we were here last, and we expected change, but what was once a bustling shopping district has faded. There were still plenty of shops and restaurants, but in “the good old days”, you’d have 1,000s of people walking around. Today, there were a couple of hundred. The market has been open for over 250 years, but I guess times change. I would estimate that at least 25% of the storefronts were either empty or occupied by “filler” shops, such as escape rooms or indoor mini golf. It reminded us of Baltimore’s Fells Point area that seems to be fading away as well.

We spent an hour wandering up and down, checking out the mostly souvenir shops. Most of the old staples like Eastern Mountain Sports, Cheers Bar, the cooking shops, and Sharper Image are gone. We were especially surprised to see that the famous Durgan Park restaurant, which opened in 1827, had closed. Famous for its Boston Baked Beans and New England Clam Chowder, it was a staple in Boston for 192 years. We hear that it closed in 2019. The storefront still has its name, but it is dark without the smell of steaks wafting out of the door.

They have added a number of cute brass animal-character statues, which are the highlight of the market. They are called The Wild Benches of Hope by artists Gillie and Marc.

We decided to walk to the North End, famous for its Italian restaurants and bakeries. This part of Boston is still thriving, and old staples like Mike’s Pastry are still open and thriving. We got some pastry at Mike’s, and as we were leaving, we felt the first few drops of rain.

We headed back toward the boat and, to get out of the rain, popped into Joe’s restaurant for a snack while we waited for it to stop. It turned out to be just a passing shower, and after our snack, we went back to the boat. With rain predicted for 3:00, I decided to do a few boat projects. There are no speakers for the stereo or one of our VHF radios. I ordered some a few weeks ago, but have not had the opportunity (or motivation) to install them. So, today was the day! I got out my tools and started in. As with all projects (boat or not), it rarely goes as expected. The VHF speaker needed a hole saw size that I didn’t have. So, I ran the wiring and ordered the correct size from Amazon. The speakers went a bit smoother. I had to cut holes in the boat’s ceiling, so I spent an hour measuring, double-checking the measurements, making sure that where I was going to put the speakers didn’t line up with a support, re-measuring… Finally, I was “SURE” that I had the holes marked in the correct place, and committed to cutting 3″ holes in the ceiling panels. The cutting went well. Our ceiling panels are covered with leatherette, and I didn’t want to catch the fabric with the hole saw. The cutting went well.

With the holes cut, it was time to put in the wiring. I lifted the tray in the box to get the wires, and guess what! No wires! I looked, and wire was listed on the box, but there was none. Fortunately, I have wire on the boat, so I made up my own. With the wires run, we reinstalled the ceiling panels and mounted the speakers. On the port side, I decided at the last minute to move the hole 1/2″ so that it wouldn’t be right up against a light fixture. That 1/2″ put the edge of the hole on one of the ceiling supports, so I had to do some more cutting to get it to fit.

In the end, they came out quite nice and work and sound excellent! Hopefully tomorrow Amazon will deliver my 2″ hole saw and I can finish the VHF speaker!

At 5:30, the rain still had not arrived. We had a bunch of leftovers, so we cooked them up and had dinner on the back of the boat, then walked to the other side of the wharf for ice cream.

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Day 57 – Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 – In: Boston, MA

Yesterday’s rain never materialized aside from the one quick shower. The forecast for today was rain all day, and the radar showed it would be accurate. We needed an indoor activity, so we decided to visit the New England Aquarium, which is just on the other side of Long Wharf. It opened in 1969 and was a field-trip destination throughout grammar school! We’ve been many times with our daughter and visiting friends. When I was working with the team at ValueLabs in India, we had several developers visit. It was hard to find things that interested them. “US History” sites or scenic rides through the mountains of New Hampshire didn’t seem to connect with them. We decided to try the New England Aquarium, and all of them were fascinated by the experience. The New England Aquarium is unique in that the central core of the building is a 200,000-gallon, 40-foot-wide, circular tank, with a ramp walkway that spirals up 4 stories around the tank, giving you views of the sealife and the staff diving with the fish, sea turtles, rays, giant groupers, and other fish from all sides.

I also checked the weather, and the storm was about 24 hours late. The forecast for tomorrow is more rain, winds from 20 to 50 mph, and seas at 7 feet. We had planned to go to Gloucester tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen under those conditions! We stopped into the marina office and asked if we could stay another day. They checked and had space for us; no one is moving. Even one of the 300-foot superyachts that was pulling lines this morning decided to stay put.

We decided to go to the aquarium a bit early to beat the crowds, and we were glad we did! It started to rain just as we left the boat. We got there at 9:30 and were able to get right in. By 11:30, the place was packed! Summer camp groups and lots of other people were looking for an indoor activity on a rainy day. Unlike Faneuil Hall, we were not disappointed by the aquarium! It is meticulously maintained and regularly updated. Their collection of fish is amazing. We followed the outside ramps, which have the smaller tanks off of them, showing fish from all sorts of different aquatic environments. We made our way up the 4 floors to the top of the big tank and watched the fish and turtles being fed both from above and by divers in the tank.

From the top of the tank, we walked down the spiral ramp through the 4 stories, stopping at each level to watch the fish swim past. It is mesmerizing! (I wonder if Brenda will let me get an aquarium for the boat? 🐡🐠🐟😜 )

When we left the aquarium, it was still raining, but not very hard. We walked back toward the boat, checking to see what we might want to do next. The weather decided it for us. The rain started coming down hard, so we hurried back to the marina and the shelter of the boat.

At 1:30 the rain finally let up. Our slip is located inside the marina, with several large yachts on the outer docks, which block most of the wind and many of the waves. Still, the boat is rocky as the east wind is pushing waves across the harbor right into the marina. Add to that the water taxis spinning next to us, and it gets tiresome after a while. We decided to go for a walk to the Black Rose Pub for a Guinness and a snack. The pub still looks like it did back in the 80s, even though it is now owned by a restaurant chain. Perhaps it’s a BIT more refined, but not much!

After our snack, we walked back through Quincy Market. It was a bit busier today, being around lunchtime, and more people were inside because of the weather. We made one more circuit of the food stalls checking if any of the pastry shops had anything interesting. The only thing I saw was a cannoli without chocolate chips! But I wasn’t about to spend $14 for a small cannoli. We looked at the weather, and another round of rain was coming, so we headed back to the boat. My 2″ hole saw had arrived, so I was able to finish up my speaker projects.

The wind tomorrow is predicted to be even stronger than today. We noticed a couple of people in the exposed mooring field outside the marina coming in on their dinghy with suitcases. They were abandoning ship for a hotel room until this blows over! In the Intracoastal Waterway, we can push our limits a bit, as there is ususally some landmass to break up the wind and waves, but not in the open ocean. Once clear of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and until you get behind Nova Scotia, there are 3,000 miles of open water to the east until you reach Spain and France for the waves to build.

We weren’t that hungry after our lunchtime snack, so we walked to the Broadside Tavern for a burger and a salad.

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Day 58 – Thursday, July 30th, 2026 – In: Boston, MA

Thursday was a dull, dreary day. We got about 1.5″ of rain yesterday and overnight, but the rain stopped around 6:00 AM. I worked on my article for this month’s Lakeland Boating Magazine for most of the morning. We saw the dock guys pumping out another boat, so since they had the hoses and system turned on, we asked them to pump us out. I got out our mooring ball gear and made sure that it was ready for tomorrow. We haven’t used a mooring ball since we got our last boat back in 2017, so tomorrow should be interesting. We have put 140 hours on the boat since leaving home and are almost due for an oil change on the engines and generator. I found a place in Portsmouth where we can get the 12 gallons of oil we need delivered, and I placed the order. This will be the first time I change the oil on my own, so I also made sure I had all the bits I needed. I thought I would have someone change the oil for me, so I didn’t bring everything I needed. I looked for a Volvo Authorized dealer in Portsmouth, but the only one doesn’t do field service. You have to bring your boat to them, and they are 5 miles up the river in Newington, so I’ll do it myself.

At 4:00, we were ready to get off the boat and have some dinner. We walked across the Greenway to Bostonia Public House for dinner. We are glad we got in early because at around 4:30 the offices must empty and everyone goes to the local pubs. Last night was the same thing. The place was packed with people standing around having a beer after work, and at 6:00, it emptied out. It’s really similar to the culture when I worked in London. Going to the pub is an extension of the workday.

We had a nice dinner, then went back to the boat and sat on the back deck for a while until it got too cold (65°), and we went inside for the night.

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Day 59 – Friday, July 31st, 2026 – To: Gloucester, MA
Gloucester Harbor Mooring Ball NB-1

We were glad that we waited an extra day in Boston. The weather today was fantastic, just light winds. We were still getting some good-sized rollers, 3-4 feet with the occasional 5, but they were at 8 seconds apart, so again it was a gentle up and down. We pulled out of Boston just before 9:00 and made our way out of the inner harbor. Once clear of Deer Island, we turned northeast toward Gloucester. It was only 30 miles, so we took our time, running at 9 mph. Aside from a whale surfacing next to the boat, the trip was pretty uneventful.

As we were on our way, some boating friends of ours on Beachside reached out. They were headed south and were also going to Gloucester as well! We’ve been chatting with them as they are on a return trip from Maine and were getting some pointers on where to stay.

When we reached Gloucester, we headed toward the Niles Beach mooring field. There are only two marinas in the harbor area that can accommodate a boat over 50 feet,/image and both were full. So, we had to take a mooring ball instead. A mooring ball is sort of like anchoring out, but the anchor is already set for you. You just pull up to a numbered floating buoy, and you attach a fixed line to your boat. Much easier than dropping and setting an anchor, more secure, as the mooring balls are attached to large concrete blocks and won’t come loose, and they are spaced so that you don’t have to worry about your boat swinging into your neighbor when the wind or tide changes. Also, they are much cheaper than a marina dock.

The downside is that there is no power or water, so it’s batteries and a generator. We topped up our water tanks in Boston, so we will be fine for two nights. Unlike a dock, you are more exposed to wind, waves, and the wakes of passing boats, although we’ve had our fair share of rocky marinas!

We haven’t used a mooring ball since we were training with our first boat. So this was a new experience for us. We know the theory, but like anchoring, it’s something that needs practice. First, we had to find the ball. The Harbor Authority has 4 mooring fields around the harbor. We knew where we were going, so that part was easy. The map they gave us only showed two mooring balls, so we thought it would be easy to find. The Harbor Authority only has two balls in this area, but there must be 70 or 80 OTHER mooring balls as well. We cruised around for a few minutes, spotted the orange-and-white balls they described, and confirmed that one was labeled NB-1, the ball we had been assigned.

We pulled up slowly, and Brenda leaned over the bow of the boat, directing me toward the ball. When we were up to it, she reached down and snagged the lines with a boat hook and got them on her first try. Then we slipped them over our cleats, and we were hooked! Not bad! Given that there was little wind and no current, it was a good place to have our first mooring ball experience. We are booked into another mooring in Bar Harbor, so we will be able to try again soon.

We got settled in and did our normal shutdown routine. Then, turned off the generator, opened the windows, and put in the screens. We can not run our air conditioning, water heater, or oven on our battery bank. We can run pretty much everything else. In the morning we will run the generator for an hour or so to cook breakfast, heat up the water tank for showers, and top up the batteries. Right now our system says we have 32 hours of runtime; we will see how we do.

As when anchoring, on a mooring ball, you can’t just hop off the boat and walk down the dock. When anchoring, you have to use a dinghy to get to shore. We have a dinghy, but it needs to be inflated and launched. With many harbors that offer mooring fields, they provide a shuttle service. You hail them on the radio, and they will come out and pick you up. Some charge a small fee. Here in Gloucester, it is part of your mooring ball fee. (Tips, of course, are always appreciated!) In Gloucester, the service runs from 8 am to 9:30 pm.

We took the shuttle boat to downtown at around 3:00. We had arranged to meet Tom & Diane on Beachside for dinner at 5:00. We walked around the harbor side of Gloucester for a while. At 4:00, we stopped into Crow’s Nest, a local bar. This is the place that the fishermen made famous in the movie Perfect Storm were regulars. Also, during filming, the actors and crew frequented the bar. They have a memorial wall of photos of the crew and a photo album from the movie’s filming. Very interesting!

As we were walking around, we noted that Gloucester is still primarily a commercial fishing port. There are lots of commercial boats around, and only two pleasure-boat marinas. Gloucester is also home to Gorton’s, of Fish Stick fame. They still have a large presence here, and the fishing boats are lined up on the harbor side unloading, while refrigerated tractor-trailer trucks are lined up on the road side, taking the fish to a supermarket near you!

At 5:00, we walked across the street to Seaport Grille and had dinner with Beachside. We talked for almost two hours! After dinner, we walked back to the shuttle and said our goodbyes as they were leaving in the morning. The shuttle dropped them off first as they were staying in the inner harbor, and then took us out to the boondocks at Niles Beach. On the way out, we passed the 10 Pound Island Lighthouse with its red light, and several schooners coming back into the harbor from their sunset cruises.

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Day 60 – Saturday, August 1st, 2026 – In: Gloucester, MA

Our first night “on the hook” was very good. When we hooked up to the mooring ball yesterday, we turned off the generator and switched to batteries. Last night, I had to get our small battery-powered fan and put it in the bedroom for some “white noise”. Once the sun went down, the traffic pretty much stopped except for the occasional large fishing boat coming in, so the waves subsided. The fishing boats don’t move fast, so they don’t produce many waves. We had a very relaxing evening and a good sleep. In the morning, I worked on the blog and my article for Lakeland Magazine while I charged up the batteries on our drone. I looked at the last drone photos, and they were from last fall, when we were checking why we had to wait on the Champlain Canal in Vermont!

Once the batteries were charged, I took off from the bow of the boat and got some photos of the boat at its mooring and the Gloucester area.

When I had finished playing with the drone, we called the harbor shuttle to take us into town. Brenda found a tour of a local castle called Hammond Castle, built to resemble a Medieval Castle. Once we got to shore, we took an Uber to the Castle, 3 miles away. The castle’s website said there was limited parking and that you needed a reservation to park. We got there, and there was a sign that the tours were sold out for the day. We said we didn’t want to park and were being dropped off, but they said it didn’t matter; they were sold out of the tours. We even explained that we were leaving tomorrow, but no luck. The Uber driver had already accepted another ride, but was nice enough to bring us most of the way back to town.

We got dropped off at Stage Fort Park, the original settlement point of Gloucester. We then walked back down, which was a nice walk along the seawall that lines the waterfront. Along the way, we were able to get a couple of Geocaches, and see the famous Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial statue. Gloucester proper is an island. There is a narrow channel with a drawbridge right on the main street. When the bridge opens, there is a mad scramble to get through. I guess the current can be pretty strong, so everyone goes through at full speed! We got there just as the bridge was opening, so we watched the chaos as boats sped through the narrow channel beneath it.

We walked down Main Street in town, browsing through some of the shops along the way. As we were walking, we checked out the restaurants along the waterfront to see which one we wanted to eat at. We decided on Oak to Ember. It had a large BBQ Smoker out front, but the menu was varied. We had a reservation for 5:00, and since it was already 3:30, we didn’t want to take the 20-minute shuttle boat ride back to the boat only to turn around and come back. We found a nearby pub and milked an IPA and a root beer for an hour watching Major League Whiffle Ball on NESN, then walked next door for dinner. While there, we also learned that Gloucester is the home of the TV Show Wicked Tuna, and that many of the tuna boats are based there. There is a large fake tuna hanging near the Wicked Tuna gift shop showing the largest tuna caught by the boats in the show.

Dinner was very good. We had wood-grilled shishito peppers, Brenda had pan-seared scallops with mushroom risotto, and I had the Smoked Half Chicken Frites. After dinner, we walked across the street for an Ice Cream before heading back to the harbor shuttle while eating our ice cream. A large seagull landed near us and was eyeing our treats! The gulls are well fed around Gloucester!

When we got back to the boat, we saw that we had neighbors. Another boat with a Looper flag was on the other town mooring ball next to us. They were not on their boat, and by the time I went to bed, we hadn’t seen them return, so we didn’t get to meet them. We watched the sunset from the back deck, then when the wind came up and it got chilly (the water temperature is only 64°), we called it a night and went inside.

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Day 61 – Sunday, August 2nd, 2026 – To: Newburyport, MA
Hilton’s Marina

Our bedroom is in the front cabin of the boat. Under us on the hull are things called “Strakes.” These are flat spots that extend from just above the waterline at the bow to just under the waterline at midship. They help the boat get up on plane and cut through the water. They also catch the waves hitting the bow when at rest and make a loud slapping sound that echoes through the hollow hull of the boat. The slapping was pretty loud, and we are not entirely used to it yet, so it was earplugs, a fan for white noise, and a bit of a fitful sleep.

Our port for today is Newburyport, Massachusetts, about 17 miles as the crow flies, but 34 miles as the boat swims. From Gloucester, you go out around Cape Ann, and back in the mouth of the Merrimack River. Brenda and I grew up in the west side of Manchester, New Hampshire, which is split into the East and West by the Merrimack River. So, entering the river will be almost like going home. We’ve been getting news from home that there’s been a lot of rain and flooding in Manchester over the last few days. All that water runs down the Merrimack and into the sea right in Newburyport. We’ve already been warned by the marina about the 6-knot current during tide changes. I hope the added water doesn’t make it even more challenging.

Slack tide in Newburyport is at 3:00. At about 30 miles, it will take us about 3 hours to get there, so we decided to wait and leave around 11:00. We are stopping at the fuel dock first, which is easier to dock at to top off before we go to our slip. That will give us a chance to see the slip and wait for the current to slacken before we dock.

At 11:00, we disconnected from our mooring ball and wound our way between the other boats (and lobster buoys) in the mooring field to Dog Channel and the exit from Gloucester Harbor. We rounded the end of the breakwater and Dog Bar Lighthouse. The Thomas E Lannon, a beautiful three-masted schooner, was just coming into port, and we passed it just before the Eastern Point Lighthouse. We rounded Cape Ann, turned north, and headed up the coast. We are truly in New England with its rocky coast. There are soft-sand beaches, but most of the coast is either pebble beaches or rocky shorelines with waves crashing against the rocks. Beautiful!

When I plotted our route, I took a path close to the shore and lighthouses. As we were traveling, I pushed us out about a mile from shore. First, even though there was plenty of water (80-100 feet), being that close to rocks with waves crashing on them was a bit disconcerting. All I could think of was if something happened and the engines died, we wouldn’t have much time to react before we were up against the rocks. Secondly, they put the lobster pots close to shore. The coast, ever since we got through the Cape Cod Canal, is a minefield of lobster buoys. I thought crab pots in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas were bad. They’ve got nothing on New England lobster buoys. The good thing about lobster pots is that, by and large, the buoys are larger and very brightly colored, unlike the small black crab pot buoys farther south.

It was a little rolly until we got around Cape Ann, then it flattened out. As we rounded the cape, the Cape Ann Light Station came into view. The light station sits on an island just offshore. It has two large lighthouse towers. They installed two towers so that ships would not confuse the Portsmouth, NH light north of it and the Boston, MA light to the south. We read that when it was manned, there were five families living on the island, and the kids, 13 of them, would get rowed to the mainland and walk 2 miles to school each day.

About a mile on was the Straitsmouth Island Light Station that marks the entrance to Rockport Harbor. Four lighthouses within 6 miles of each other!

After Straitsmouth Island, we cut inside a breakwater to shorten the route a bit. There were fewer lobster pots, but we had to skirt around a sailing school out practicing in their little sailboats. I think the kids like to make bigger boats avoid them or surf the wake, because it seems that whenever we veer away from a group, they all turn and head directly toward us!

We could see the entrance to the Merrimack River ahead, and there were very few lobster pots, so we sped up a bit to keep my mechanic happy and blow out the turbos until we reached the river entrance and Newburyport.

The ride up the river was quick. We had a 6-knot current pushing us upstream. We arrived in Newburyport Harbor at 1:30 and called the marina to find out where the fuel dock was. The company that runs the marina owns 6 marinas in the harbor, and the fuel dock was at a marina downriver from our dock. We had to fight the current and dodge a couple of boats to get to the fuel dock. When I pulled up, I had the boat in reverse and revving at 800 rpm just to stay stationary at the dock while we got tied up! Very strong current. We topped off with fuel and chatted with the dockmaster for a while. We were waiting for the current to slacken a bit. He told us that, depending on the direction of the flow, there is only about an hour when the current is slack as the tide comes in, and about 30 minutes when it goes out, because the river flows at 3-4 knots all the time.

Once we finished fueling and received instructions on how to reach our dock, we headed up the river to our slip. The current was still running at 4-5 mph. When I turned into the fairway, heading with the current, the boat was pushed toward the slips on our left. I “Paniced Slowly,” put the boat in reverse, and backed out before I hit anything. I let the current carry me upstream a bit, then did my approach again, this time heading INTO the current. I had much more control, and we quickly got to the dock. The dockmaster said he would have someone ready to catch our lines as we were docking sideways to the current, which was pushing us off the dock. There was no one there! We heard him on the radio telling the dockhands to get to the slip. Apparently their key to the security gate wasn’t working. Brenda was just snagging a cleat when they finally came running up. We were just able to move the boat to the dock with our thrusters on full, and were quickly secured. Phew!

We got settled in, rinsed down the boat, and then around 3:30 took a walk into town. There was a craft fair happening on the main street, so we had a walk around that. Many of the shops and attractions in Newburyport close at 5:00, and we wanted to visit the Maritime Museum, which is not open on Monday, so we went there first.

The museum was excellent! Lots of Newburyport History, and an extensive collection of scrimshaw and artifacts from the glory days of the schooner trade. In 1772, a group of ship captains formed the Newburyport Marine Society. As part of their association, they created a collection of artifacts that they collected on their trips around the world. This collection is now on display: shoes from China, spears from the South Sea Islands, swords from Japan, Inuit Art from Alaska. It really shows how much trade was done by sailing ships!

By the time we finished at the museum, it was almost 5:00 and many of the shops were closing, so we walked back along the waterfront toward the marina, stopping at “The Goat,” a restaurant overlooking the marina for dinner.

After dinner, we sat on the back of the boat and chatted with other boaters having docktails along the dock. I saw a couple of ducks frantically paddling against the current on the other side of the fairway, and, as you must when you see ducks, said, “Quack, quack!” They immediately made a beeline to the boat! I guess they are used to getting treats. They were paddling pretty much as fast as they could to keep from getting washed under the dock, so I decided they deserved a treat. I got some pita bread that we keep for just such an occasion, and threw them a couple of pieces. A few seconds later, there was a loud screech from overhead as a seagull came swooping in to get a piece, and shortly after, an entire family of ducks showed up looking for some too! We tried to make sure everyone got at least one piece.

Our slip is well protected, with no waves. It was nice and quiet, with no slapping, so we turned in early to catch up on our sleep.

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Weekly Recap

From Plymouth, we went to Boston! Another must-visit town on our return to New England. While we were in Boston, my Nephew David and his family visited us! We hope to see more of our family and old friends while we are in the area. We had a weather delay while in Boston, with 7-foot waves and 30-mph winds just offshore, but made up the time and ended the week in Newburyport after spending a few days in Gloucester, MA. We traveled 105 miles this week but didn’t add any more states to our list.

Next week we travel to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and return (as close as we can) to our childhood home! We are looking forward to catching up with more family and friends from our old stomping ground.