Trust the Gorton’s Fishermen

Gloucester is an amazing town!  There is a wonderful mixture of historic and modern in this working fishing town.  This harbor is the most well organized harbor I have ever seen, hosting a multitude of boats of every shape, size, and purpose.  This harbor clearly supports many people who make there living from the sea, but it is also very welcoming to visitors.  There are several dinghy docks located in each corner of the harbor, with a mooring field and anchor space in the inner harbor area.

When we first arrived we anchored near a large mooring field on the east side of Gloucester Harbor.  This spot proved to be pretty rough with a rolling swell coming through the harbor from the ocean.  The next day we attempted to move several times to find a calmer location (as you can see from our inReach map).  Unfortunately, the inner harbor was too crowded. We settled for the western side of the harbor, and launched the Whaler to visit the town for a wonderful lunch and a dinghy tour of the harbor.  

After returning to the boat we realized that our new anchor spot had terrible wave action so we decided to pack it in and head to Salem with the hope of finding a more protected anchorage.

It took us about 90 minutes to get to Salem, but we made it before dark.  Salem is also a welcoming town with places to anchor and a town dock. This was a very interesting town to visit.

The commercial side of Salem has fun with the witch thing.

All joking aside, the cemetery in Salem is fascinating.  The contemplation of what happened here in 1692-1693 gives this spot a much more somber feel as compared to the rest of the town, where they celebrate everything witch!  I love to read old dates on headstones, and this cemetery has markers from the 1600s to the 1800s.



Here’s a ‘sneak peek’ at a scene from a new Adam Sandler show...they were filming from Salem!

We are currently in Plymouth, Massachusetts and are watching the forecasts closely.  We plan to travel through the Cape Cod Canal on Thursday and anchor in Bourne, Mass for a few days until all remnants on Dorian are gone.  That location will give us better protection from the winds forecasted to start on Friday.