New England – Week: 14 (Neighbors & Witches!)

August 31st to Sep 6th, 2026

Day 90 – Monday, August 31st, 2026 – To: Portland, ME
Fore Points Marina

After delaying a day for better weather, we woke in Rockland to clear skies and calm seas. With 79 miles to run, we left a bit early at 8:00 so we could reach Portland by mid-afternoon, when the winds were predicted to pick up.

We cruised out of Rockland Harbor, past the mile-long breakwater and the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. We met the morning ferry from Vinalhaven on our way out of the harbor. As we turned to head toward Owls Head, we noticed on our AIS system that Camille, a catamaran we had met in South West Harbor, was about a mile ahead of us. They were traveling a bit slower, so we knew we would catch up with them.

As we rounded Owls Head, we got a good view from the water of the Owls Head Lighthouse we had visited on Sunday. Sitting up on the top of the rocky point, it looked even more impressive, and we got lucky that the moon was just above it for a great picture!

We took the Mussel Ridge Channel, which cuts behind a few islands and past the Owls Head Harbor. I had plotted our route today, not knowing what the weather would be like, so I took as many inside shielded passages as I could. It turns out that we didn’t need to, but it is much more scenic.

As we cruised up the channel, we saw what at first looked like a boat up on the rocks. Then we noticed it was a large boulder painted white with a big black dot on it. We looked it up, and it is an old navigation marker. In 1904, a steamship, the City of Rockland, ran aground in dense fog nearby, and the marker then became known as Steamship Rock.

In this section of the rocky coast, there are many ledges and islands, so the area has lots of lighthouses. We saw many of them on our way north, but took a course closer to shore on our way south to see some of them better. Next on our lighthouse tour was Whitehead Light Station, a classic-style New England Lighthouse, and opposite it, a ways offshore, Two Bush Island Light. As we were passing Whitehead Light, we caught up with Camille, and they took pictures of us while we took pictures of them! They got a great photo of our boat with the Whitehead Light in the background.

Later on, I asked Grok (the X AI system) to… “Create a photo of our Outback Yachts 50 on the coast of Maine.” and passed it the photo that Camille had taken of us, I guess I should have said “…OFF the coast of Maine” as it put us quite literally ON the coast.

Next on our lighthouse tour was Tenants Harbor Light, just before Boothbay. Then we made another circle around Eastern Egg Rock to look for Puffins. This time we didn’t see any, I guess they have all flown “North” for the winter! We did see a family of Bald Eagles, two adults and a juvenile, hanging out on the island. Opposite Eastern Egg Island is Franklin Island Light, then Pemaquit Point Light. From the Ram Island Light, you can see the Cuckolds Light about 2 miles away, and that was the next one that we passed.

On our trip north, we saw a lighthouse on the hilltop on Seguin Island. This is a lighthouse museum that you can visit by ferry. It is the highest-elevation lighthouse in Maine and the second-oldest, after the Portland Head Light. We only got a glimpse of it from a distance last time. Because the seas were so calm, hardly any swell and no waves to speak of, we took a couple of miles detour and made a round of the island to get a better look at the lighthouse, the sheltered cove used to access it, and the long ramp leading from the cove to the lighthouse. Hopefully, on a future trip to New England, we will be able to visit it.

From Seguin Island, it was a pretty straight shot to our entrance to Portland. Again, we chose a route through the islands along Casco Bay and into Portland. At the entrance to the channel stood a 50-foot-tall stone pyramid marker. We wondered what it was, and when Brenda looked it up, we found out that the Little Mark Island Monument is one of Casco Bay’s most unusual and historic navigational landmarks. Authorized by Congress in 1827, the 50-foot pyramidal granite tower was built as a day beacon, helping mariners identify the entrance to Merriconeag Sound and navigate the often hazardous waters of Casco Bay. Unlike a traditional lighthouse, it was originally unlit and also served as a mariner’s refuge. Inside the monument was a room with supplies and a wood stove for shipwreck survivors who reached the small island.

We took a winding route through the islands and eventually reached Fort Gorges at the entrance to Portland’s Inner Harbor. As we rounded the corner to our marina, we saw that it was busy! Along with several super yachts, there were two American Cruise Lines ships on the dock, and at the Portland Cruise Ship Terminal in front of the marina was the Norwegian Breakaway, an 18-story, 4,000-passenger ship!

We called in to get our slip assignment and instructions on how best to navigate around the cruise ships to get into the marina. We had a bit of a tight squeeze!

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Once we were inside the marina basin, we had a bit of a scramble as they changed the slip we were assigned just as we were about to swing toward it. Originally, we were told to dock across from the American Cruises ship, but then they assigned us a slip on one of the finger docks. Fortunately, the fenders were on the same side; however, none of the slips had numbers on them, so we had to wait for a dockhand to run around the marina from our original slip to show us where to go. After a few minutes of hovering, she showed up and pointed out our slip. It was an easy back in, and we were tied up.

As is our usual routine, we completed our shutdown procedure, logged our daily numbers (time, distance, speed, fuel, and weather conditions), and then gave the boat a rinse-down to remove salt spray. Aside from the convenient travel distance between Rockland and Portsmouth, NH (our next stop), we wanted to return to Portland to ride the Maine Narrow Gauge Railway. We had booked tickets during our stop on the way to Bar Harbor, but the train was canceled at the last minute. Once we had done our boat chores, we walked toward town to book our tickets for tomorrow’s ride, then went for an early dinner at Brickyard Hollow for their fabulous pizza and beer that pours from the bottom of the glass! We did another half-and-half pizza. Brenda’s half was Peach with Ricotta, and my half was Mushroom and Sausage. Yummy!

We were just leaving the restaurant when we heard the Norwegian cruise ship sound its horn to signal departure. The Brickyard is right across the street from the cruise terminal, so we walked quickly to the railing by the marina and watched the ship pull away from the dock, make a 180° turn, and leave the harbor. We got a great photo of it as it went past our boat. We watched it depart from the top of the marina wall, then walked down the ramp to the docks and back to the boat. Just as we were getting to the boat, we heard another departure horn. This time, it was the American Maverick heading out to continue its cruise up the coast of Maine. Shortly after that, the American Independence, the last cruise ship remaining, moved up to make more room at the marina entrance. It was good that they did, because at 8:15, there was another mega-yacht that came in and docked right in front of us! They wouldn’t have fit through that gap!

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 91 – Tuesday, September 1st, 2026 – In: Portland, ME

Today was train ride day. The ride was only about an hour, and it runs about a mile along the waterfront to the eastern end of Back Cove. It follows the path of the old St. Lawrence and Atlantic railroad that ran between Portland and Montreal. Where the current narrow-gauge railroad ends, there was a swing bridge that the trains used to cross Back Cove. In 1984, the bridge burned, and the railroad abandoned the line running into Old Port Portland. There were narrow-gauge trains that ran in other parts of Maine and on Cape Cod, serving the cranberry bogs. Over time, these were all abandoned until a group of enthusiasts bought up some of the old trains and cars and converted the standard gauge track section along the waterfront to 24″ narrow gauge and started running tourist trains.

When we walked up the dock for breakfast, we saw that another Norwegian Cruise Ship, the Escape, had come in overnight. The train station is right at the end of the walkway off the cruise ship, so on ship days, it gets VERY busy. The line for tickets stretched out the door, and several trips were already sold out. We were glad that we bought our tickets in advance!

Our ride was at 11:00, so we walked to a coffee shop near the station for breakfast, then browsed through a couple of shops and the train museum until it was time for our ride. While we were waiting, we watched the ship’s crew conduct a lifeboat drill on deck.

At 11:00 sharp, our train departed. It was a nice ride around the waterfront. The narration about the history of Portland, the original St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, which became the Grand Trunk Railway, and the narrow gauge railroad was very interesting. When we were coming in yesterday, we saw a large, interestingly shaped building under construction and wondered what it was. We found out that it is the permanent campus for the Roux Institute at Northeastern University at the former B&M Baked Beans factory site in Portland’s East Deering neighborhood. We also got a close look at the remains of the old railroad swing bridge.

After our train ride, we popped back to the boat to pick up a package we needed to drop off at the post office, and then walked into town to mail it. Downtown was packed with all the cruise ship passengers wandering around. We walked the mile to the post office at the top of the hill in Old Port and dropped off the package. Then we walked back toward the boat, wandering up and down the streets, checking out the shops. We made another stop at McGritties around 1:00 for a snack, then continued our wander, eventually ending up back at the boat around 3:30.

Brenda is still having problems with her knee. It keeps getting better, but it is still stiff when walking up and down stairs. The long walks seem to help, but it needs to rest for a while after. We hung out on the boat until 6:00, then walked up to Thames Landing for our final dinner in Maine. As we were walking back to the boat, we noticed how empty the marina area looked with no cruise ships in port! We also noticed it was starting to get a bit misty and hoped our departure wouldn’t be delayed in the morning.

You may have noticed a field of pilings in the harbor in some of our photos. These were the supports for grain elevators at the Grand Trunk Railway’s Wharf No. 3. The grain conveyor burned down in 1970, and the adjacent grain elevator and other parts of the waterfront complex were dismantled or demolished shortly thereafter, in 1973–1974. During the 1900s, grain was brought to Portland by train from Montreal and loaded onto ships when the St. Lawrence Seaway was closed due to ice. Some of the structures were removed to make way for the cruise ship terminal in 2008, and more were removed when the Fore Points marina was built in 2019.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 92 – Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 – To: New Castle, NH
Safe Harbor Wentworth by the Sea

Last evening, we saw the fog roll into Portland. By morning, it was pretty well socked in. The forecast predicted it would lift by 8:00. At 7:30, it had already begun to clear, so we started getting ready for departure. We needed to get fuel before we left, so when the fuel dock opened at 8:00, we called them on the radio and headed over to take on about 200 gallons. We had to wait for about 15 minutes to start fueling. Apparently, there was a diesel spill at the marina overnight, and the Coast Guard was there trying to determine its source. They had the fuel pumps shut down while they inspected the lines. There was a boat with a fuel absorption boom cruising around the marina. Eventually, they determined that it was not pink off-road diesel but green on-road diesel, and it either came from one of the big superyachts that refueled in the Bahamas or, more likely, from the fuel depot across the harbor. They let them turn the pumps back on, and 199 gallons later, we were ready to go!

Just as we finished fueling, a super-yacht, M & EM, left. They were large enough that they needed a Harbor Pilot escort, and we had to take it slow and follow behind them until they turned to head north.

As we left Portland, we continued our Maine Lighthouse tour, with Bug Island Lighthouse and Spring Pint Ledge Lighthouse in the channel heading out of Portland Harbor, then the famous Portland Head Light at the harbor entrance, the oldest and most famous of Maine’s Lighthouses. Here we turned south along the coast toward New Hampshire.

Last evening, Brenda noticed a sailboat on our AIS system heading into Portland Harbor. s/v Paquita is sailed by Captain Tim B. He has two YouTube channels that we follow, Tim B at Sea and SV Paquita. The Tim B channel covers his job as a large tugboat captain in New York Harbor, along the East Coast, and in Puerto Rico. He recently retired and moved aboard his sailboat, s/v Paquita, and now journals his sailing adventures. He and his wife, Crisálida, had spent the night in Portland and were a couple of miles in front of us as we pulled out.

After the Portland Head, we went past the Cape Elizabeth Light, then the Wood Island Lighthouse. It was overcast, but the wind was from behind us, only about 5-8 mph for most of the way, and the waves were on our stern with 1-2-foot swells with the occasional 3-footer. It made it a bit squirrely at times, but not bad. As we reached the Cape Neddick Light, we caught up with s/v Paquita and hailed them on the radio to say hello and thank Tim for the videos!

After Cape Elizabeth, we made our turn toward Portsmouth, NH. We are staying just south of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor in New Castle, NH. New Castle is home to the famous Wentworth By The Sea, a classic wooden hotel built in 1847. Safe Harbor runs the marina at the bottom of the cliff that the hotel sits on.

After a quick pucker moment pulling in due to strong current, wind, and a narrow slip, we were safely tied up by 1:15. As usual, we did a rinse-down of the boat. We are getting company tomorrow, so we want it to look good. We walked up to the main dock, where there is a little restaurant right on the dock for our afternoon snack, and then walked up the hill to check out the hotel. Back in the day, you could see the harbor from the hotel, and vice versa. Today, the trees have grown up in front of the hotel, and condos have been built among them on the waterfront, so there is no longer a view. Perhaps from the upper floors.

While we were checking out the hotel, we took a look at the menu for the restaurants there. They have three: the hotel bar with a light menu (they also serve the full dinner menu), the main restaurant “Salt Kitchen”, and Latitudes, a seasonal waterside restaurant on the path to the marina. We liked the menu at Salt Kitchen, so we decided to come back later for dinner at the bar.

We walked around the grounds a bit, then went back to the boat until 6:00, when we walked back up to the hotel for dinner.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 93 – Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 – In: New Castle, NH

It rained overnight and was still drizzling when we got up. Our old neighbors from Alpine Street in Manchester, NH, Mary & Paul, and our across-the-street neighbor Linda were coming to visit. It’s been 13 years since we left Manchester, and aside from one quick drive-by visit, we haven’t seen them since. Brenda spent the morning prepping, baking a batch of her chocolate chip cookies, while I worked on the blog.

At 11:00, our neighbors arrived, and we had a nice time catching up and giving them a tour of the boat. Then we walked up to the Wentworth Hotel for lunch in the dining room and to catch up on all the news from our old neighborhood and how the kids Bethanny grew up with are doing. We chatted for a couple of hours!

After taking a photo and saying our goodbyes, they left for the drive back to ManchVegas (as it is popularly known), and we went back to the boat for the afternoon. It drizzled on and off until about 5:30, when the sun finally peeked out from under the clouds, and then it cleared up! Hopefully, the weather holds for our trip to Salem, Massachusetts, tomorrow. After a full lunch, we weren’t very hungry, so we just had snacks and a few leftovers for dinner.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 94 – Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 – To: Salem, MA
Safe Harbor Hawthorne Cove

One difference between our old Beneteau and our new Outback is the availability of docking space at marinas. There are lots of slips that will handle a 45-foot boat, but once you exceed 50 feet, the number of slips in marinas diminishes. We’ve been fortunate to get dockage in most places, but we’ve had to try multiple marinas a few times or join waitlists. In Gloucester, we were unable to find dock space and ended up in the mooring field. When we were planning for Labor Day weekend, we were concerned that we wouldn’t find anything, as it’s the last real boating weekend of the season.

We wanted to stop in Salem, Mass, either on our way to Bar Harbor or on our way back. Salem is famous for the Witch Trials in the 1600’s. The town also has a long seafaring history. We’ve visited there by car before, but it’s been a long time. We checked for space on our way north, and like New Castle, where we were last night, there was no space available.

We were making our southbound plans a week ago while we were in Bar Harbor. As it turned out, our schedule to pass Salem on our way south coincided with Labor Day weekend. We didn’t hold out much hope of getting a slip. The first marina we checked was already fully booked. The second marina didn’t have any slips large enough for us. On the third, we put in our reservation request and didn’t hear back for a couple of days. I sent in a message asking about the status and got a confirmation back! Woo Hoo!

The morning was foggy again. Visibility was about a mile when we woke up. Just off the coast of New Hampshire are the Isles of Shoals. As a kid, I used to go deep-sea fishing with my dad, and the boats would always pass by the islands, so I wanted to make a pass by on our way. The Isles of Shoals sit about seven miles offshore from the coast. They are a group of nine main islands split between Maine and New Hampshire. Appledore Island, Smuttynose Island, Malaga Island, Duck Island, and Cedar Island belong to Maine. Star Island, Lunging Island, White Island, and Seavey Island belong to New Hampshire. These islands have served as a fishing outpost, a trading post with the Native Americans, and a submarine-spotting site during World War II. Star Island features a 140-room historic hotel, the Oceanic, built in 1873, then rebuilt in 1876 after a fire.

Today, the islands are mostly nature reserves and research stations. Appledore Island is home to the Shoals Marine Research Center. Star Island, home to The Oceanic Hotel, is open to visitors during the summer and hosts artists, writers, and several conferences. Smuttynose, Cedar, and White Island are linked by stone causeways and create a protected harbor called Gosport Harbor. White Island is the home of the Isles of Shoals Lighthouse. Lunging Island is privately owned and has a summer cottage along with some historic ruins. Evidence shows that Native Americans used the island as a seasonal fishing camp as far back as 6,000 years ago.

We waited until 9:00 to leave so the fog could clear a bit more. It was just coming up on low tide, so we were careful pulling out of our slip as it gets quite shallow quickly around the marina. We made it into deep water without issue and headed toward the breakwater. It was a nice, calm day, with very little wind. The fog and clouds were starting to clear from the land side. As we cleared the breakwater, we could see the Isles of Shoals in the distance. There was still a bit of haze, but it looked like it was clearing.

We turned east and headed toward the islands. While there were no wind-blown waves, the ocean swells were larger than we’ve had so far on the trip. Each swell was 3 to 4 feet tall and came about every 8 seconds. This made for a bit of a roller-coaster ride as we headed directly into them. Up one wave, down the next. Not uncomfortable, but noticeable. We were still in lobster-pot territory, so we kept our speed at 10 mph to make spotting and avoiding the buoys easier.

It took us about 45 minutes to reach the islands. We cruised down the side of Appledore Island, across to Star Island, past Goseport Harbor and the Oceanic Hotel. Then, we cut between Star Island and White Island, so we could make a pass on the ocean side of White Island for a good view of the Lighthouse.

Once we had taken our photos of the Isles of Shoals, we turned south and made a straight line to Cape Ann, 24 miles away. Here, we picked up speed as we were well beyond the line of lobster buoys. Because the shoreline sweeps in along the New Hampshire and Massachusetts coast, we were 12 miles offshore until we got close to Cape Ann, which juts out. The water here was 200 to 300 feet deep; that’s a long way to haul up a lobster pot! We brought the boat up to 17 knots. On our course, we were somewhat side-on to the swells, and the higher speed smoothed out the rolling motion.

Once we rounded Cape Ann and passed the twin lighthouses on Thacher Island, we were back into Massachusetts Bay. The swells calmed down some as we passed the entrance to Gloucester Harbor and crossed our northbound path. From Gloucester, it was just another 10 miles into Salem Harbor. Salem Harbor is quite shallow, which is one reason it began its decline earlier than other areas, such as Gloucester and Boston, which had deeper harbors. The directions from the marina were to enter the harbor and proceed down the Ferry channel to Green Marker 23, then stop, call in, and wait for them to escort you the rest of the way in. When we called in, the person from the marina who answered was actually in a sailboat behind us on a sea trial. She gave us detailed directions and called to the dock for someone to catch our lines. As we went the last couple of hundred feet, our depth alarm kept going off; the depth went from 16 feet below the boat to less than a foot! It was low tide, but that’s still pretty shallow. The dockhand was waiting for us, and we were on a face dock, so it was an easy in. After tying up and sorting out the power (the pedestal wasn’t working), we gave the boat a rinse down. While we were rinsing the boat, the Salem to Boston Ferry pulled in right behind our dock at the ferry dock. I was wondering if we would get rocked when the ferry went in and out, but they take it nice and slow. Aside from the Honk-honk-honk when they back up, we don’t even notice them.

Once we were settled in, we took a walk into town. Just outside of the marina gates is the famous House of Seven Gables, made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book of the same name. We then went down Durby Street, stopping at a few shops and at the Mercy Tavern for a snack. After our snack, we continued down Durby Street for a while. We have scheduled two walking tours and a visit to an art museum during our long weekend here, and we want to find the meeting place for our walking tours. Once we were away from the water and no longer getting the cool breeze, it warmed up quite a bit, so we turned around and walked back to the boat, stopping at a few shops along the way.

We relaxed on the boat for a couple of hours, chatting with other boaters on the dock. We had gotten several recommendations for a restaurant called Maitland just up the street from the marina. It’s a farm-to-table restaurant that has its own farm nearby. It’s sort of outside of the main portion of Salem, so while it was busy, we were able to get a seat right away. As we like to do, we sat at the bar, which afforded a good view of the ultra-small kitchen. Our bartender/waiter, (who also was doing some of the cooking), was very friendly and talkative. We started with an excellent jumbo shrimp cocktail, then Brenda had the Burrata Salad, and I had a chicken salad sandwich. Both were HUGE portions! The food was excellent, and we plan to go back before we leave.

On our way back to the marina after dinner, we passed a house whose yard was covered in metal artwork from found objects. Quite fascinating! Door knobs and knockers. Wheelbarrows turned into dragons, a giant scale balancing two large rocks, and a steamroller with an interesting, eerie driver. Once we got back to the boat, we sat on the back deck, listening to the music from the small bar on the ferry pier across the channel from us as it got dark. We were just getting ready to call it a night when a dark shape loomed out in front of us. One of the schooners that gives sunset tours was coming back in. They dock at the ferry dock as well. Aside from the clearance lights, they were totally dark, so it looked like a ghost ship coming in. I guess being in Salem, the witch capital, everything looks a little spooky!

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 95 – Saturday, September 5th, 2026 – In: Salem, MA

This morning, we had booked a guided walking tour, “History and Hauntings”. There are a bunch of tours available, everything from the “Hocus Pocus Movie” tour to the “Become a witch in 90 minutes (and turn your husband into a frog)” tour. Brenda wanted that one. There are architecture tours, tours that concentrate mostly on witchcraft, Boos and Brews Pub Crawls, something for just about everyone!

We wanted something with more history than movies or ghost stories, and the History and Hauntings tour was perfect. Our tour started downtown at 11:00. We had about a 20-minute walk from the marina to the Old Town Hall meeting spot. The tour started promptly at 11:00, and our tour guide, Josh, was excellent! There were about 16 people in our group, which was perfect so that everyone could get close and hear. We started in town, walked through part of downtown, and then into the historic architectural district. Most of the tour was history-related, but sprinkled with a few ghost stories as well. We made a two-hour loop through Salem’s historic core, ending back up near where we started. We really enjoyed it!

Salem is the Halloween capital. We were told and shown photos of the 100,000 people who visit downtown Salem a day during October. Josh said that we were right at the start of the buildup to Halloween. The streets were crowded, and many of the more popular shops had waiting lines of 30-45 minutes to get in. Also, the main street downtown was full of performers in everything from witch costumes to movie characters. Many of the visitors there were also in costume, some just a witch’s hat, but others all decked out in their witchy wardrobe. Our tour guide said that there were over 4,000 permanent “witches/wickens” living in Salem. And a large goth community as well. To each his own!

When our tour ended, we walked back to the Samantha Stevens, Bewitched Statue to take a photo for a Geocache find, then walked around downtown, checking out a few shops that didn’t have a line. I am fresh out of Eye of Newt, but I won’t stand in line for 30 minutes to get some. I’ll wait for it to be delivered from Amazon.

Historically, Salem has tried to distance itself from its Witch Trial past. In the late 1600s, records were destroyed, and a gag order was imposed. The town didn’t want to be associated with witches. In the mid 1800s, a local department store sold “Witch Spoons”, that was about it until in 1970 the Hollywood studios that the popular TV series Bewitched were filmed in burned in a wild fire. The production was moved to Salem for the seventh season. This sparked an interest in Salem as the Witch City, and by the 1980’s the town started embracing the tourists and its witch past. The statue was erected in 2005 to protest, as some feel it degrades the memory of those wrongly prosecuted. It remains controversial among town residents.

We wandered back toward the boat. We have a lot of walking to do over the next few days, so we are pacing ourselves, and Brenda’s knees, which continue to improve. On our way back to the boat, we stopped to check on tours of the House of Seven Gables and decided to do that on Monday. When we got back to the boat, the wind was blowing into the harbor at 15-18 mph. This was kicking up some chop, and the boat was a bit rocky.

For dinner, we went to the Trade House, a restaurant just down the street from the marina. The food was good, but nothing spectacular. After dinner, we walked to the Ferry Landing on the other side of the basin from the boat to check out what was happening there. They have live music in the evenings, and we were wondering if they might have dessert. What they have is an outdoor bar and a food truck, sadly, no dessert. The ferry terminal is on the outskirts of the main part of town, so we assumed it would just be commuters waiting for the ferry. The place was quite busy! There were some people waiting for the ferry, but it looked like a lot of people from the neighborhood came there as well for the music.

The wind had died down, and we could hear the music just fine from the boat (and the 200-foot gap made the volume tolerable), so we walked back around the basin and sat on the back of the boat listening until it got cold.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Day 96 – Sunday, September 7th, 2026 – In: Salem, MA

Today’s adventure was to visit the Peabody Essex Museum downtown. We had booked tickets to the museum as well as two tours. First, an architectural walking tour of their collection of buildings. Second, a tour of Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old merchant’s house relocated from China.

The Peabody Essex is the result of a merger of two museums. Founded in 1799 as the East India Marine Society and later renamed the Peabody Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) traces its roots to the collections of the city’s maritime merchants. The modern museum was created in 1992 through the merger of the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, bringing together their extensive collections of maritime history, art, architecture, and cultures from around the world.

In addition to their art, glass, and maritime collections, the PEM preserves 22 historic structures as part of its architecture collection. Four are designated National Historic Landmarks, and another six are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The collection includes notable properties such as Ropes Mansion, Gardner-Pingree House, John Ward House, Peirce-Nichols House, and Yin Yu Tang, an 18th-century Chinese merchant’s house that was dismantled in China and reconstructed at PEM.

The museum opens at 10:00, so at 9, we walked downtown and found a place for breakfast near the museum. The main downtown street, Essex Street, is quite the sight. It’s lined with witch museums, witch supply stores, and gift shops. A collection of characters and entertainers lines the street, busking for tips. Want a photo with Beetlejuice? No problem. Just about every horror movie main character is represented: Chucky, Jack Skellington, and Pennywise the Clown. One person who doesn’t quite get the theme walks around as Batman. There is also the usual collection of musicians, balloon animal makers, and homeless people looking for a handout.

While we had breakfast, we watched Beetlejuice set up on his corner, pull out his phone, and practice his Beetlejuician expressions. Add in the people dressed up either to get into the swing, or because they live the “wicken/witch lifestyle”, and it’s quite the circus!

After breakfast, we went to the museum, which was much more about culture than about witches. The collection is somewhat organized, but there are random objects all around the museum. You’ll be looking at 18th-century paintings of the Essex coast and come across a case with a collection of flint arrowheads. The original collection from the East India Marine Society was probably the most interesting to us, as its objects were collected from trading ports around the world in the 1700s and 1800s. There were old ship’s heads, whale jaws, nautical instruments, ship models, and artifacts collected from China, Africa, India, and the Caribbean. They also have a nice collection of glassware that we enjoyed.

At 11:00, we met our guide, Lawrence, for our architectural tour. Our group was only 10 people, so we were able to go into many of the buildings. We walked around this historic district of Salem, seeing examples of homes from the 1600s to the early 1900s and tracing Salem’s architectural history from Puritan to Georgian to Federalist. Some of the homes designed and built by the famous 18th-century architect and woodcarver Samuel McIntire were remarkable. The wood carvings he did grace many homes and are in beautiful condition. Many of the buildings in the collection were preserved as they were in the 1800’s by the Essex Historical Society, which was founded in 1822 to preserve the architectural history of Essex County. A number of the structures have been moved to preserve them as Salem grew, and have been restored and preserved.

The tour was about two hours long. It was interesting to hear the historical side of some of the “ghost stories” we heard on our tour yesterday. My, how history can be rewritten and twisted! One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to the garden at the Ropes Mansion. A beautiful garden that is replanted every year. Our tour ended back at the museum where we had started. We went to the museum snack bar for something to drink and to sit and rest our legs. Then continued our tour of the galleries.

We had tickets to visit the Yin Yu Tang house at 2:45. The two-story house was amazing. First, it was purchased, moved from China, and reassembled. Secondly, the history of a house built around 1800, and the history of 200 years of a family living there. The house was purchased by the museum with most of the original furnishings. It was fascinating to see the bed styles, the functional bedrooms, and the storage. The tour discussed how the household changed over the years and through political changes. During the Chairman Mao era, the family was forced to give up some of the rooms to house peasant farmers. The speaker installed by the government, which could not be shut off or turned down, was still visible in the main foyer. We were told that the family’s descendants visit frequently.

By the time we had finished our tour, it was almost 3:30. The museum closes at 4:00, and we had had enough culture for one day. We wandered down Essex Street through the chaos of monsters, freaks, and people in costume, stopping at a few shops along the way. We decided, since we were downtown, to have an early dinner, rather than walk the mile to the boat, just to come back.

Our tour guide yesterday had recommended Rockefeller’s, which was right across the street from the Bewitched Statue. We went there and were seated in a dark corner near the kitchen. A waitress said she would be right back. We looked at the menu, and neither of us could see anything that interested us. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we just grabbed our stuff and left. (I think the tour guides get a kickback for recommending places.) We went across the street to an Irish pub that had a live Irish band playing. Much more our style. The band was excellent at playing traditional Irish music. Brenda had Bangers and Mash, and I went for the Cottage Pie.

Our legs were tired from walking all day. We’ve both gotten in more steps than our normal allocation over the past few days! So we hobbled back to the boat for the evening.

_{(Click gallery images to enlarge. Touch/Mouse over for captions.)}

Weekly Recap

This week, we traveled 183 miles, backtracking our route north. We got a train ride in Portland, ME. Visited with our old next-door neighbors from New Hampshire, in New Castle, and spent Labor Day Weekend with the Witches in Salem, Mass.

Next week, we continue south with stops in Scituate, MA, just south of Boston. The famous P-Town, Provincetown on Cape Cod, and back to Sandwich to go back through the Cape Cod Canal on our way to Newport, RI, for the Newport Boat Show.