Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to Gloucester, MA

Sunday, 30 August, 2015

This morning we finished up some things ashore.  The dogs had a nice, long walk with us, and then they were ready to be underway.  I think I saw a reluctant glance or two towards the end of the dock, which was the beginning of all our walks this past week.  We said hope-to-see-you-soon to our new friends we'd met here:  Rick and MaryAnn on the Grand Banks Rash Decision, and Mark and Joelle on the S/V Daruma.  We'd said farewell to Mark, the dockmaster, and Robert, on the Blue Mackerel yesterday.  

There was enough current on the way out to totally pull one of those three foot tall information buoys marking the "no wake" totally underwater.

We went out the harbor, enjoying the views that we had missed, due to the fog, on our way in.

We continued to the south, following the natural curve of the coast, rather than a shorter, more direct route.  The area south of Portsmouth as lots of houses, but as one continues south, much of the coast appears to be a sandy beach.

We entered the Annisquam River Inlet from the north, and it was like being in Fort Lauderdale on a week-end, with hundreds (thousands?) of small boats along the beaches, and rafted together in the heavy current.  We fell into a string of northbound vessels, constantly dodging the barrage of the numerous southbound, beachbound traffic.  

The river/canal has two interesting bridges: a railroad bridge that  is in a ninety degree bend that you can't see around (and narrow enough only one vessel can pass at a time), AND the Blyman Bridge which was packed with car traffic, in a spot in the river that narrows like a funnel under the bridge.  The bridge tender there tells the vessels headed up current to wait until the down current vessels are out of the way.

The one positive thing on the river, is that everyone seems to have the concept of giving the vessels headed down current the right of way.  The small boats also seem to have a sense of the law of tonnage.  (Get out of the way of any boat bigger than you are!)  We bucked the current coming into the canal,  and had it pushing us as we entered the harbor to the north.

We pulled into Gloucester's Inner Harbor and managed to get one of half a dozen transient moorings.  The harbormaster came around later in the evening and talked to us for awhile, had me fill in the necessary paperwork, and collected the city's $30 mooring fee.

In the morning, we plan to go into town.  Tonight we just enjoyed a lazy night on the mooring, grilling pork chops, and watching tv!  There are channels here!  Not much on any of the channels, but....