Foreign Affair Sailing

We had a quiet night on our mooring in Gloucester's inner harbor. We called for the harbor launch and took it to Jacob's Landing to begin our exploration of downtown Gloucester. Our first stop was the Cape Ann Museum which has a wide range of exhibits covering local and maritime history, culture and art. The museum director gave us a ride to the White-Ellery House which was built in 1710 and is now a museum holding. We were fortunate in that the house is usually not open to the public but a few times a year and the day we arrived there were several experts on old homes and their restoration. We had a great tour of the home with experts explaining features of this house which makes it a particularly valuable historical structure. We could not have asked for a better opportunity to learn about the early settlers and the buildings they constructed.

We slipped off our mooring at 0645 to enter the Cape Cod Canal with a favorable tide. The current in the canal can flow as much as 5 knots which can either give your a big boost if you go with the flow or slow your progress to a crawl if you buck the tide. We made the entire passage at the maximum legal speed limit of 10 miles per hour.

We had a short and uneventful run of 25 miles today from New Bedford to Onset which put us into a great position to enter the Cape Cod Canal tomorrow. We were able to grab a mooring ball belonging to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and enjoy a peaceful evening before getting up early to catch the favorable tide through the canal.

Our run from Newport to New Bedford was short and easy. Two imposing engineering projects greet you at the entrance to New Bedford harbor. The most recently constructed of the two is the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier which is an almost 2 mile long rip-rap barrier with hydraulic gates providing access to the harbor. Constructed in 1958, it is the largest stone structure on the US East Coast. The next government engineering project clearly evident is Fort Rodman located on Clark's Point. A fort has stood on Clark's Point since the American Civil War. Fort Rodman was an active coastal defense facility until it was deactivated in 1946 shortly after the end of World War II.

We spent a very rolly night despite the fact the winds were low in the evening. The breakwater did little to dampen the effect of the ocean swells We felt like we were experiencing a Nor'easter in St. Augustine. We haven't been rocked so badly in months. We agreed we would pass on anchoring in Stonington harbor again in the future.