Scituate, Massachusetts

After traveling a lot, it’s nice to settle in for a few days, and that’s what we did in Scituate. This is a great stop for us because my brother, Frannie, owns the launch service here, and got us a mooring. We stayed for a week and never had to use the dinghy. Scituate is a great little town with lots of amenities (supermarket, boat stores, banks, restaurants, movie theater, book store, etc.) within walking distance. If you are cruising and need a great stopover, try Scituate. Call Cedar Point Launch on channel 16 or 09, and they can arrange for a transient mooring.

Plymouth, Massachusetts: A Fitting Stop on a Sailing Journey

Our first stop after exiting the Cape Cod Canal was Plymouth, where the Pilgrims also saw fit to put in after their long sail. Actually, we anchored in Duxbury, right next store, but why quibble over a half-mile. The fishing fleet is fully engaged here, and we threaded quite the maze of lobster pots and lobster boats (yummy crustaceans) when we entered the Plymouth Channel. The next morning we also saw these rather oddly shaped fishing boats. They say that people come to resemble their pets, and I guess that fishing boats come to resemble the their prey; the long bow sprits are used for harpooning swordfish (and also tuna, which don’t have long protuberances, but we’re quibbling again).

A Welcome at the Cape Cod Canal

There's nothing like seeing familiar faces. That’s why it was so nice for my sister, Linda, and her children, Lauren, Hannah, and Matt, to see us through the Cape Cod Canal. We spent the previous two nights at a cozy anchorage in Onset, right next to the canal. On the morning of our transit, Linda and the kids were on the shore with signs saying AHOY MR MAC WELCOME ANNE AND CHRIS. It was terrific, and nearly made me cry.

Block Island: Try It, You’ll Like It!

According to the guide books, Great Salt Pond on Block Island hosts nearly 2,000 boats on summer holiday weekends. Probably due to the poor weather southern New England has been enduring so far this summer, there was plenty of room to anchor. We spent several days exploring the island and still didn’t see it all. The first day was cool and blustery, but after that is was gorgeous: warm and sunny. If you visit, seek out the Greenways that meander through open lands and forests; they’re a bit hard to find (only some have granite markers to indicate trail heads), but well worth the effort. We saw all kinds of birds, and startled a deer at one spot. I thought this welcoming beach path was apropos of our arrival in New England, Anne’s home region!

Long Island Sound

If you want to know where the Manhattan rich have their country homes, look no further than Long Island, and we weren’t even near the Hamptons! The northern shore at the western end of Long Island was dotted with big (and I mean big) beautiful mansions that overlook the sound. We spent a couple of days making our way down the sound, stopping first at Port Washington in Manhassett Bay (pictured below), then in Port Jefferson Harbor. These were both on Long Island - we didn't get over to the NY-CN-RI side of the sound, so we'll save that for a future trip. We intended to spend the third night at Oriental Point, on the eastern end of Long Island, but we arrived there in the early afternoon, the weather was beautiful, and Plum Gut spit us out at nine knots, so we hoisted the sails and kept going; Block Island beckoned! A plus was that we got to see a submarine, escorted by a Coast Guard cutter, exiting the sound and heading south into the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty cool.

Gulf Stream, Northern Edition: The East River

To get from New York Harbor to Long Island Sound, you traverse the East River. It’s rather like an amusement park ride. First, you have to time your travel so you’re going down the Hudson River on the ebb (outgoing) tide, then up the East River on the flood (incoming) tide. Check; tide and current tables work well here. Then you avoid playing bumper cars with the multitude of ferries plying the rivers, because the tides are of course timed to coincide with the weekday morning rush hour. Check; credit Chris’ avoidance skills here. Then up the East River. The water pushes through here quickly (see the eddies and roils in the water here), especially at the narrow portion named Hell Gate (not a name to inspire confidence in the neophyte river traveler), and we hit 10.1 knots briefly as we man-handled the boat through the eddies and rips that wanted to turn us every which way. All in all, it was pretty painless, although the East River isn’t nearly as picturesque as the Hudson.

Manhattan Statuary

Manhattan has an eclectic array of art work, as you can see from these pieces:

tree roots at Trinity Church,

the 15th century King of Poland in Central Park,

and of course, Hello Kitty near the Museum of Modern Art (where else?).