Rockport, continuing to the Canal

On Thursday we headed from Isle of Shoals to Rockport, an impossibly small harbor on the tip of Cape Anne. That's a treacherous point of land that juts out into the Gulf of Maine about half way between Portland and the Canal on Cape Cod. Gloucester is there but we opted to visit Rockland instead. To see the amazingly high breakwaters in the mouth of the harbor suggests that the seas get really big. At low tide they have to be over 25' tall. In a local book store we saw a photo of seas breaking solidly over those same walls during the "Perfect Storm". Water rushed down Main Street many feet deep and all white foam. Fortunately, while we were there it was much calmer. The harbor is so small that I could barely turn Pandora around in the channel. I was told that the waiting list for a mooring in the harbor is 25 years. Judging by the age of the folks getting off of their boats on the two days that we visited suggested that they may have waited even longer. We took a spot on the only guest float in the harbor. We were lucky to have been able to get it. I always want to be close to the dock so I can get ashore easily with Rip. In this case I couldn't have gotten any closer. This is a shot of the yacht club, a very friendly place.If you can't get a float the only option is to tie up to the pilings. Some prefer this as they can get right ashore. However, you have to climb up 12' of slimy ladder at low tide. The range of tide here is over 9'. It would have been a tough call to convince Brenda that this was a better option than the float. Not sure how I would have managed getting Rip ashore. You can see how high the docks are, and it's not even low tide yet. They say that this is the most photographed red building in America. How do they know that? I added to the number of photos I guess. It's very picturesque. And the lobster boats really add to the ambiance. Below us on our float. Very convenient to the dock. On our trip out of Rockport to Situate we saw a massive sea turtle. Too bad that we couldn't have gotten closer. He took a good luck at us and swam away. I was struck by how serene he looked. Not in a big rush but easily able to dive away and avoid us.

A lovely schooner headed across our stern into Boston, I think. Not much wind today and we had to motor much of the way.

Cape Anne is guarded by twin lights. This gives you an idea of how serious this area is and the need to avoid running ashore. This is the eastern approach to Gloucester and a very busy area for commercial fishing.