Mile 2234-2300: Portsmouth to Boston

---

Portsmouth to Boston Current Location: Portsmouth NH Date: September 3 to September 8 Mile:  2234-2300 Locate: Ramble On Locate: Finnish Line 2.0 Google Photo Albums: Portsmouth (NH), Gloucester (MS), Marblehead (MS), Boston (MS)

---

Portsmouth NH (Wentworth by the Sea Marina)

We had about 40 nm to go today, so we got ourselves organized for an 8am departure. That would put us in Portsmouth in good time to get settled and enjoy a bit of the afternoon. Days are not as long any more and we really don't want to be entering these harbours that tend to have strong currents in the dying hours of sunlight trying to avoid the lobster pots!

Coast Guard base

In order to keep good time we motor-sailed the whole way --though much of the time the engine was not working too hard. This is just as well because I am still trying to identify the cause of my elevated engine temperatures. To our relief, today everything behaved. Although the engine was a little hot at times while leaving the harbour against a breeze, once we were motor sailing, the temps were right on target.

Very large, decommissioned
Naval Prison

Lobster pots are still everywhere but we were teased by a thinning once we were further offshore. Our fanciful thinking that maybe, just maybe, there will be fewer of them the further south we go, was quickly dashed as we approached Portsmouth harbour. The pots just got smaller and more frequent! The sun was causing lots of high contrast reflections on the waves which made it challenging to see these pots until you were right near them.

Crumbling wall of fort Constitution

Unlike earlier in the trip, we're no longer alone. Off of the coast of Gaspe and NB, we really were the only recreational boats around. Here there is regular recreational traffic in all directions!

In the afternoon, we passed a boat heading north towing a small Boston-whaler-style dinghy with motor. Nothing particular of note about this but we had watched the boat approach for quite a while. At some later point, when it was more or less abeam of us, and further offshore, I noticed that the dinghy was a couple of hundred yards behind and I could still see the tow line trailing from the sailboat. I did a quick AIS check to see if I could determine the boats name, but found nothing there and there was no name or marking on the side.

This is "Wentworth by the Sea" ...

With little left to do, I called on VHF 16

Dinghy retrieval!

"Sailboat with the blue bimini, this is Ramble On" ... a pretty useless call as there would have been a hundred boats in range that matched that description. I was going to follow that up with call of "Boat with the blue bimini that USED to be towing a dinghy with a motor ..." but at that moment, the boat hove to, and then eventually furled it's jib to head back and retrieve their dinghy. I got a quick "thanks Ramble On" call back. I guess the radio call was enough to get him to notice.

William Wipple's house (a signer of the Declaration of
Independence) with the chestnut tree he planted
in 1776 (from a seed from Philidelphia)

Wentworth by the Sea is where we have moorings for the evening. The current running by the gas dock was swift, not like we had in Chicoutimi, but enough to make it a little tricky to come along side. They have a free "self serve" pump out machine here.  Nice idea!

Once we finished pumping out, we motored to our slip. The current was almost non-existent once there. This marina is almost entirely comprised of double-finger dockage (each slip has a dock on either side, they refer to them as "single-loaded"). This place was designed for very large motor yachts (and there were many at the docks. I guess these guys prefer not to share slips?

We partook in a nice spaghetti dinner and some potent Cesar salad (vampires beware!) and then off to bed we went.

Nuclear Sub undergoing repairs

The second day here we had plans to explore Portsmouth a little, provision, and then find a place in town for dinner. Included in our dockage fees is access to a couple of courtesy cars, which we wanted to make use of. They typically allow the cars to be signed out for two hours at a time. We wanted to take a harbour cruise, do some groceries, and then later head into town for dinner. With some polite conversation with the office staff, Linda signed out the car in the morning. As luck would have it we were the only ones interested in a car that day so we had use of it the entire day!

We decided to do a condensed historic tour of the area via a tour boat. (I know, I know, didn't we just step off our own boats?!). Keep in mind, because of the Piscataqua River, the currents around Portsmouth harbour are quite strong, so the harbour cruise turned out to be a good plan. We got to sit and absorb the sights, and our boat captain, who was doing the talking as well, was well versed in the historic details of this very historic town. It turned out to be the best way to see the area as it is basically a collection of islands interconnected by bridges of various sizes. This is one of the historic US Navy Yards which date back to the 1700's and is now the nuclear sub base. There were two subs visible and two more deeper in drydock that we couldn't see. This yard in on an island of it's own and patrolled by well armed police vessels.

Finnish Line & Ramble On tucked in among
mostly  powerboats

There are a few forts in the area, some of which have origins back in the late 1700's. The harbour entrance has a handful of nice lighthouses as well. Later in the day, on our way to dinner, we again took advantage of the loaner car to putter around the historic neighbourhoods of the town. The shore-side roads are narrow and wind along haphazardly. The houses are lined with many 1700's houses, and a few dating from the 1600's This area of the town was very picturesque and looked like how it might have 200 plus years ago.

The Navy yard is well protected.
Notice the armaments on the bow

In between our outings today, Linda and I cleaned the boat and did some boat/engine maintenance. Linda dug deep into the refrigerator and did a full cleaning. This is a big task given that neither of us can really reach the bottom of the fridge without getting a shoulder and some of our torso through the opening of the fridge. It cracks me up every time I see her head first in the fridge with her legs waving in the air.

I spent some time cleaning and checking the wiring to my instruments, particularly the autopilot. It was misbehaving yesterday and the rudder reference transducer was erroneously telling the autopilot that the rudder was WAY over to starboard. Yesterday, this glitch caused the autopilot to make a hard left turn that had us jumping to disengage it. After checking, and applying some di-electric grease to all the instrument connections, the problem seems to be gone. We'll have to see how things behave tomorrow. We have relied heavily on this piece of equipment and want to keep it happy! I also spent some time identifying some "spots" on the engine to strategically check the temperature. Doing this methodically should help reveal where my engine temperature issues are coming from.

We have been monitoring the weather very closely these past few days. With hurricane Dorian working its way up the eastern seaboard, we need to figure out how to avoid its effect. W need to be sure we're somewhere secure when the remnants pass by. At this point it will be in this area on Friday or Saturday, but it's travelling very slowly, and we have to check for updates multiple times per day to stay on top of things. There will certainly be a few days where we will not be sailing. By the time it gets to this area the winds will be nowhere near hurricane strength, but they could be very strong and the seas will get large and uncomfortable.

---

Gloucester

Boston skyline in the distance

Schooner rendezvous participants departing

Very pleasant day, though no sailing involved.  The apparent wind was close to zero for the whole day, but it was sunny and warm, and the swell wasn't too bad.   We crossed a bay (not sure the name of) between Portsmouth and Cape Ann.  During the crossing, we got progressively further from shore and the lobster pots diminished to zero. Yay!!!! Unfortunately, this wasn't permanent. Booooo :-(   They returned again once we got closer to shore on the other side of the bay. We also saw a few large fishing trawlers reeling in their nets.

Dual identical lighthouses

The highlight of the day (for me) was the dual lighthouses on Thatcher Island.  This pair of lighthouses was originally built in 1771 and one of only a limited number of lighthouse pairs on the east coast.  They were rebuilt of stone in 1859 and they both stand 124' tall.  Only one of them still operates now and the other has a dim "token" light to make it look pretty.  (more details here)

After rounding Thatcher Island, is was only another hour to head westerly into the outer harbour of Gloucester.   Once inside, we could see this was a mixed port with lots of fishing still going in here.   There were a few mooring fields, and we had a ball reserved for the night.   Our attempts to locate our mooring balls was surely a comedy show for the woman on the other end of the radio.   We had to ask about 4 times where these mooring were to be found.   Her directions were not very helpful for newbies in such a busy harbour, and we spent a good 30 minutes poking about the mooring field until we found the two balls with the correct numbers on them.

Harbour had quite a number of
these rusty beasts

Fishing boats have gone by and dumped their unused chum into the harbour as they pass before taking their slip for the night.  (very stinky).  There is a fishing processing factory nearby that rumbles all night long and spews the aroma of deep fried seafood (less stinky).  During the later afternoon the mooring field was a bit rolly due to the traffic, but in the evening, traffic mostly stopped and we just had one grumpy seagull swimming around the boat making very weird sounds. Linda thinks he was grumpy because we had no chum to offer.

Bob, Chris M and I dinghied over to the public landing to look around the town a bit and grab some dinner.  Linda caught up on some napping back at the boat. There was a maritime history center but it wasn't too active at the moment, but there are some 100-year-old (or older) wooden fishing schooners up on the ways, in hopes of being restored. And a few other schooners moored nearby.

Spectacular reproduction of Columbia

Of particular note was "Columbia".  The original Columbia was built to compete against the Bluenose, but could never beat her!  The original Columbia was lost off Nova Scotia in the 1920's.

This Columbia was a very new reproduction.  Her hull was not built of wood, but perhaps aluminum, and had a deep blue/black shine that was immaculate.  Her rigging was traditional, though I'm sure hiding inside those beautiful wooden turning block were lots of ball bearings!   She is a private boat and must have cost a fortune to build.   I imagine that below looks nothing like the working fishing schooner is was modeled after, but rather finely finished and built for comfort.

The weather looks to provide us with two windows which should allow us to head to Marblehead tomorrow, and then Boston the following day.

---

Marblehead

View looking SW.
This is only half the harbour

Passage from Gloucester to Marblehead was short and relatively straight forward.  We had to dodge some shoals and some islands, but it was close to a straight shot between the two harbours.  Finnish Line sailed most of the way and we decided to motor and do some more engine temperature testing. 

Today there was a 12-15kt breeze on the head and some sloppy waves and swells.  This allows testing under a bit more load.  The results were good, and the temperatures were as expected.   Next tests will be at higher RPMs to see where overheating creeps in or possibly that the issue has been resolved.

The other half of the harbourscape

Marblehead harbour is truly a sight to see for any sailor.   It is one GIANT mooring field with boats packed as tightly as you could imagine in all directions.   There are a handful of fancy yacht clubs here, and they sport large, large immaculate clubhouses.  They all run tender services to get you back and forth to their club, or, as it turns out, anywhere in the harbour!

When we arrived, we were instructed to go near their "floats" (which means their floating docks at their clubhouse) and the tender will guide us to our mooring ball.  Very civilized. We had a hard time finding our mooring ball in Gloucester and there were hundreds more in this harbour (about 2000).  Without assistance, you could spend weeks searching for a mooring ball here! We and Finnish Line found our respective moorings, but they were quite far apart. Even sporting Canadian flags we still have a hard time figuring out where each of our boats are.

There is an AC 12 meter boat here that is available for day sails at $75/person.  Valiant, a "jumbo" 12M (US24) was built in 1970 America's Cup but lost the challenger series to Intrepid.  The boat is still raced regularly and participates in the Marblehead to Halifax race most years.


We have access to the showers, free laundry and other facilities at the club.  That, combined with using the launch as a water taxi made the $45 a steal (Boston will be much more expensive).  By the way, the tender drivers are superb in their pickup and dropoff maneuvers.  Their launches steer using a vertical stick/tiller instead of a wheel.   They can navigate the tight maze of moored boats much quicker with this "stick" than they could with a wheel.

After Bob, Chris M. and I paid our fees, we collected Linda and had the launch drop us off across the harbour (where the town is). The launch driver provided a lunch recommendation-- world-renowned as one of the best sailing bars. So we ended up at Maddie's Sail Loft, a bar with a lot of history.  It's a small pub that's been around for about 72 years.  We had a good meal with large portions of various types of seafood.  After lunch Bob, Chris M and I went off to look at the old town and Linda did similar but with shopping stops.  Not unlike Gloucester and Portsmouth, there were sections of town with small lanes/roads and slightly haphazardly placed houses, dating from the 1700's and later.  Many with little signs that tell you who built them, and when.   Many had a gold Cod fish over their door or on the sign.  Apparently this is a local thing to the area because the cod fishery was really what this area was founded on. The symbols pay tribute to this heritage.

We all caught the launch back to our boats, but Linda continued back to the club to get in a load or two of laundry.  Free machines are rare!

We were treated to a beautiful evening thunder storms complete with spectacular cloud formations and and wonderful sunset--Linda was in seventh heaven!

To top it off, the clubs around here all fire a canon at sunset when they take their flags down for the day. So at 1913 hours, we heard them all fire (though at slightly different times).

---

Boston

These guys blow by at 25kts

Boston harbour is a tangle of small islands, shipping channels, airports, water treatment plants and LOTS of traffic.   We could see the Boston skyline from Marblehead, but interestingly, you must set a course for noticeably south of the cityscape.   This is because the barrier islands force you into a dog-leg to approach the harbour. 

Logan airport in located in the bay

leading into Boston

While there was an increase in traffic, it wasn't too bad, and the biggest obstacles were the dredge barges and their accompanying tugs that shuttling around about 4-5 very large barges to and from the dredge site along the main entrance channel.   There was lots of water, and this didn't really cause us much grief.


Arrival day:

We ended up booking a mooring at Charlestown Marina instead of Constitution Marina.   A while back the people at Constitution Marina said there would be no problem getting a slip after labour day, and because at the time we were still unsure of our exact schedule we didn't book.   When we tried again, they said they had no space, and Charlestown did (perhaps the Dorian was resulting in ore people taking refuge in Boston) . Although, not quite as close to downtown, not too bad.   The Charlestown Marina was a high-end place with a good bunch of big mega yachts, as well other regular boats like ours.

Elaborate copper-work on many buildings

The marina was very well built with enormous steel piles and very sturdy looking docks.   If the hurricane does blow hard, we would be protected by some very large wind/wave breaks ... I mean yachts.  We are also nestled deep in the marina, so that will limit exposure too.  It still wasn't clear what impact the hurricane would have, but we were comfortable that this was a good place to hide.

Old Nantucket lightship

Since we had a few days in Boston we had plans to do some sightseeing and enjoy this historic town.  Peter and Wilma will be joining us the day before we depart, to accompany us to NYC.

Bunker Hill memorial bridge

Linda and I grabbed a water taxi to downtown.  It picked us up right at our marina and deposited us downtown, right beside the Tea Party wharf.  Since we had arrived in Boston early enough in the day, we planned to see some sights before meeting up with Bob and Chris M. for dinner.

In our travels, we saw Faneuil Hall and Qunicy Market. The city has placed patterned brick in the sidewalks all through the city as a way to guide you around to all the historically significant places.   It is called the "freedom trail".   While we didn't follow it around specifically, we found it helpful to know you are going the right way.   The trail stitches together many buildings, monuments, and historic places that revolve around the American Revolution.

We spent some time on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which is a park space that exists where the R.F.K Expressway used to be.   The Greenway includes paths, gardens, art displays, fountains, and much more.  Since it runs right through the city, it is also busy and well used. 

We coordinated with Bob and Chris M. to meet at Regina Pizzeria.   It's a interesting place.  They wouldn't even let us in the door to wait until our whole party was there (we were a little early). This place is renowned and the oldest pizzeria in Boston. As we stood in line waiting for Bob and Chris M. to arrive, a local also waiting in line indicated that this was the shortest line she'd ever seen here. She suggested we shouldn't leave the North End without a visit to Bova's!

Bobby Orr!!!

Once we had all arrived, we were seated quite quickly.   The place was full, and clearly a popular spot.   They were cranking out pizzas for both those in the restaurant and for delivery/take-out as well.   The decor was as you might expect, lots of eating booths, police department badges adorning the wall, a little bit worn and grungy, but the pizza was excellent and worth the reputation.

We finished the evening by heading just around the corner to the recomended "Bova's Bakery".  It's a crazy place--a 24 hour Italian bakery with a huge variety of cookies and cannolis! An Italian shop that's been operating for about 100 years by the same family.   We picked out a selection of sweets for desert once we were back at the boat. The lemon anise biscotti were a treat!

The "Constitution" at night

The next day the boys went to Bunker Hill to see the monument and small museum.   Turns out the battle of "Bunker Hill", where the Americans repelled the British twice and then failed to repel the 3rd attack (sort of considered a win), was actually fought on Breed's Hill, though Bunker Hill (the adjacent hill) was intended to be the better fortified hill that the Americans were originally intended to defend.

We then followed the Freedom Trail which led us to the Constitution (it was the other way around, but the line on the sidewalk told us we weren't lost).   The ship, though almost entirely unoriginal, is still a spectacular ship that is maintained in pristine condition (it's still a commissioned ship so gets the full Navy attention and resources).   While we were touring the boat there were workers sanding and varnishing woodwork.   Throughout the boats life, it has gone through many major and minor modifications and a handful of full rebuilds.  Changing from rope to chain anchor cable early in the ships life required a major reconfiguration as did many other "technological" upgrades. 

Cheers!

Since we were now close to our marina, we headed back to the boats to clean and scrub things so that new crew wouldn't have to put up with too much dirt and grime!

We also took the opportunity to secure things on deck and lash down anything that might get blown about as hurricane Dorian passed by.  Forecasts now suggested that this might be a non-event, but better safe than sorry. As we went finished dinner and went to bed, the wind did start to pick up. We expected some rain this evening, and
more from 5-9am tomorrow.

Bunker Hill monument

On our third day in Boston, Chris M. departed at 8am and then the remaining three took a hop-on-hop-off trolley to tour the city. Our first stop was lunch at a favourite place of Bob and Tarja's that they discovered on a previous trip to Boston.

The drivers of these trolley buses are real characters. They have the knack of talking continuously while driving and extolling all sorts of facts and trivia along the route. Although, each one had their own unique style of delivery. 

Tea Party reproduction ships

Other stops took us to the Boston Public Garden, "make way for ducklings", "Cheers" and the Trinity Church. At one stop, Bob and I went to the  while Linda found a Trader Joe's.

In our minds, I think we were thinking the Maparium was a museum of charts and maps.  Turned out to be something completely different.   It was actually a large (30' in dia.) stained glass sphere of the world that could could walk inside of made in 1929.   That's cool, but it was housed in the Christian Science building.   The building is certainly a significant piece of architecture, we felt a little weird hanging out in here waiting for our tour.  FYI, the acoustics where as you might expect for a sphere.   People in the same spot on the other side of the walkway sounded like they were whispering in your ear.  Very startling.

The sphere was quite striking and was originally intended to be updated regularly to account for changes in the worlds borders and country names.  But because of the depression, that didn't happen and they decided to leave it as it was build and so country names and boarders are not as they are now.

Now that's a shackle!

Day four involved more prep for incoming crew: more cleaning, laundry, shopping and a booze run.  Peter & Wilma arrived around 7pm and we had some boom boom shrimp and other nibblies waiting for them.

Next Leg:   We are heading to New York City, cutting through the canal that avoids going around the "Arm" of Cape Cod, stopping by Martha's Vineyard, and then working down Long Island Sound.