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Published: July 23rd 2007
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We’re currently doing an overnight passage from Point Anne Mass. to Penobscot Bay Maine, where we plan on cruising for the next month or so. We left 3 weeks ago today from Oakville, and when we reach Penobscot Bay we will have traveled 820 nautical miles. That’s slow going compared to a car, even though a nautical mile is longer than a regular mile.
At the end of the last blog we had just anchored in Newport Rhode Island, and gone in to check out the town. Newport is one of the famous boating places, and it’s easy to see why. While for sure it’s a tourist town it has so many sail and power boats, that you could spend days going around the anchorage checking out all the cool boats. There are big new ones, and beautiful old classics that have been expertly refinished. Sharon and I took an extra day in Newport to enjoy the town, and do some provisioning. In Newport (unlike much of New England) they have a very generous anchoring area, so we again avoided having to pay for a mooring. Sharon convinced me to get some exercise, by going for a 2 mile
coastal cliff walk that goes by all the rich and famous mansions like the Dupont, and the Vanderbilt estates. Rhode Island has made the coast line a historic and public property, so everyone can enjoy the beauty. The coastal walk goes right through the front of all the mansions.
After almost convincing ourselves to stay in Newport another day, we did leave for the Cape Cod canal. The Cape Cod canal is a short cut for boats heading up and down the coast to avoid going out and around Cape Cod. It was a rainy, foggy day so we stopped at the beginning of the canal, at the very pretty New England community of Onset. Onset looks like the typical town you see in Cape Cod area pictures, with big summer homes, mixed in with the wharfs, and docks of lobster and fishing boats. Onset had a beautiful sand beach. The current in the Cape Cod canal runs 4.5 knots, and Cape Cod Bay is 5 feet higher at the north end than the south end, so it’s very important to go with the tide. In fact they control your entry for favorable tide, and the maximum time you
can spend in the canal is 3 hours.
From Onset we went to Marblehead Mass. Marblehead is our favorite stop so far. Like Newport it is a boating community with lots of history. Unlike Newport, we found Marblehead to be much more quaint. On one side of the bay is Old Town, with houses dating back to the late 1600’s. On the other side of the bay is New Town, with the big new houses, and the Yacht Clubs. It’s hard to anchor in Marblehead so we took a mooring ball from Corinthians Yacht Club. It was pretty cool they come and pick you up at your boat and take you to town or the Yacht Club in their beautiful launch. It was well worth the $40.00 per night! Marblehead Old Town has preserved all the old homes of the original settlers, some as old as the late 1600’s . It reminds you of being in a lush old English town, with tastefully done flower gardens in most yards. You don’t get the idea you’re in a rich exclusive place here, although looking at a real estate book, poor people don’t live here either. Again boat watching is great
in Marblehead. They really take their sailboat racing serious here and had just hosted a race from Halifax to Marblehead. We’re not exactly sure what the meant but when we told people we met in Marblehead that we were Canadians, they all mentioned that “they had just had the racers in from Halifax, and that they were quite a crew”
When we started on the trip for Maine I wasn’t expecting the trip up the coast to be so nice. I now understand the New England charm that attracts so many visitors each summer. There is really something special about the fresh sea air, that makes sleeping easier, and the days more relaxing. It would be easy to spend the whole summer, visiting one coastal town after another, and enjoying the scenery.
Hopefully we’ll get some nice pictures that will show how we’ve enjoyed New England so far. We are still learning how to use the travel blog program, (Sharon does that, I certainly couldn’t figure it out).
P.S. We did get to Maine after the overnight. Maine is even more fabulous then we expected. Tell you more in the next blog.
Hope all is well.
Sharon and Doug
SV ABOUT TIME
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