Summer Boat Trip to Massachusetts

 

A 2-week trip to the States to do some boating and visit Mario and Elizabeth, the first time since the Pandemic, was in order so on the last week of July with Phil and family following, we headed into Maine, pulling the boat through the hilly countryside along highway 27 to the coast. We stopped to camp the first night at Sagadahoc Bay campground, just south of Bath. Mosquitoes were abundant at night and in the morning but the kids enjoyed themselves and we were surprisingly able to build a campfire, even though it was hot and dry in the woods, the temperatures hovering around 30. Little did we know that was the coolest we were going to be for a while. The next day we put the boat in the water in Falmouth, just outside Portland, amazed at the amount of boats moored in the harbor, and said goodbye to Phil and Fer till we met up with them again in Wells. Marie and I returned to the now lonely campground, deciding to have an early supper at one of our favourite lobster shacks in Five Islands, twenty minutes away. After a quiet night at the campground we packed up and pulled the now empty trailer to meet up with the family who had called us from Wells. We arrived at the Webhannet River boat yard the next afternoon to meet the tired and exhausted sailors after a long day on the water of Casco Bay. Heavy waves and wind had made it a very unpleasant voyage and they were glad to see us pull up! After a lunch at the nearby restaurant, Hobbs Harborside, and in a sudden downpour we headed to Rowley, Massachusetts, the new home of Marie's brother, an hour away by road on highway 1.

Sagadahoc Bay Campground, Maine

Falmouth Town Landing boat ramp, Maine

Five Islands, Maine

At Mario's dock, Rowley river, Maine

Rowley, Massachusetts is a small town north of Cape Ann, along the Rowley river, a muddy and slow moving tidal river surrounded by marshland we got to know quite well the week we stayed there. Mario and Elizabeth's home is at the end of the river, accessible by a well weathered boardwalk at the bottom of their yard. We put the boat in at the local marina, Perley's, just a few hundred feet from Mario's dock where we tied up with it and the tender and were greeted by the ever present greenhead horseflies (tabanus nigrovittatus) very common to the area. It was hot and humid with temperatures in the low 30s when we arrived and perfect weather for these ornery creatures that were worse than any plague of mosquitoes. All along the river we could see the numerous black box traps that had been put up by the communities to control them but they pursued us till we got to the river mouth and the welcoming and refreshing breezes from the ocean. From here Boston was only a short trip on the MBTA commuter rail. We often waved as it went by on the bridge just beyond our mooring and had a chance to go aboard when we went into the city. We all enjoyed the hour long cruise from Mario's to the entrance of the river, going into Plum Island Sound and anchoring off Crane Beach, part of the town of Ipswich. This was a bird protected area of dunes an pine forests and we spent two pleasant times here, motoring in with the tender which we had towed behind us..

Crane Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts

Village Pancake House, Rowley, Massachusetts

The day we took the train into Boston was probably the hottest during our stay (35 degrees C or 95 F) so we walked about as little as possible. Phil and family had left earlier and we had promised to meet up with them at the Boston Museum. The air conditioned building was a welcome from the unaccustomed heat and we spent most of the day there exploring. A great place for kids and adults alike. We even took in a show at the planetarium.  It was the first time we had been to Boston since Phil was a kid, decades ago. We ate out a lot with Mario and Elizabeth while we were in Rowley and the surrounding area and they were glad to share some of their favorite restaurants with us like the Clam Box and the Ipswich Ale Brewery. We also took a half hour drive to what they said was the best ice cream place in Massachusetts in Boxford called Benson's Homemade Ice Cream. Hmm, I guess that's a personal preference....

train station, Rowley, MA

#4 Bobby Orr, Boston Gardens

Boston Museum

The Clam Box, Rowley, MA

Ipswich Ale Brewery, Ipswich, MA

After leaving Mario and Elizabeth's home in Rowley (we could no longer stay at the mooring) we headed to Gloucester, on Cape Ann, the smaller version of Cape Cod, with it's lovely Atlantic vistas, sandy beaches, seaside eateries and lots of colonial history. We really liked Gloucester, the oldest fishing city in the US where we eventually got permission from the very friendly and accommodating  Harbor Master to tie up to a buoy for three days in the inner harbor. We were able to use their own tender service to get back and forth to the boat which ran from early morning to usually 9PM. Marie and I found a place to camp (Cape Ann campground), the only place actually, within 15 minutes of the town and we were able to get together with the kids for breakfast each morning. From there each day with all aboard we sailed past the famous Fisherman's Memorial, under the drawbridge into Blynman Canal, past the Dunfudgin Public Boat Ramp where we would eventually leave from, and under the towering Annisquam River Bridge to our destination - Wingaersheek Beach. Amy and William loved it here, the water was like a bath and there was a wonderful outcropping of huge boulders called the Barn Rocks to wade out to at high tide.

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Gloucester City tender for the inner harbour

Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial

Gloucester Harbor

approaching Blynman Canal drawbridge

Amy at Wingaersheek Beach, Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Wingaersheek Beach

It was yet another sunny day when we left Gloucester, putting the boat on the trailer at the high school boat ramp and began our drive back home. Phil and his van went on ahead of us as we could not possibly keep up with him pulling the boat. They had planned to stop off at Old Orchard Beach and take in all the summer fun places for the kids, staying overnight there while Marie and I, after having no luck finding a motel, and just as well as they were all over $250 for the night, decided to pull into the Walmart parking lot in Farmington. It was quiet and free so we didn't mind. Pulling the boat up again through the Carrabasset Valley, past Sugar Loaf and we were soon crossing the border back into Quebec. It was a fairly uneventful drive considering the narrow, tight spots I had to maneuver around in places like Gloucester, missing parked cars by mere inches and hitting the top of low hanging trees on the back roads. I was pleased how well the truck ran, even up the steep mountainous roads in Maine. Perhaps we will do it again should we hang onto the boat but that will be another adventure.   gws

 

2022 Trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland (Day 46-48 Dublin, Ireland)

 

Our last few days in Dublin were going to be full so it was a relief to see the sun shining when we woke to begin exploring this old city on the Liffey river. We caught the bus into the center of town, walked past the Dublin castle and down into St Stephen's Green, a nine hectare green space in the middle of Dublin where we found the Memorial Sculpture of James Joyce, one of the most influential and important Irish writers of the 20th century. The downtown was crowded and, being Saturday, full of tourists, so it was nice to stroll among the leafy paths of the park for a while. From there we walked over to Trinity College's Library to see the famous Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created by Early Christian monks around 800AD - one of the great treasures of medieval Europe that you may not have even heard of. It contains the four gospels together with various texts and tables and is a masterwork of Western calligraphy, considered by many as Ireland's finest national treasure. You only get to see one page that is opened as it is protected and sealed within an airtight display case so nobody can touch it. From there we walked into the next part of the Old Library called the Long Room filled with over 200,000 of the Library's oldest books. Breathtaking if you like old books and even if you don't the beautiful barrel-vaulted ceiling is a joy to behold. Lining the central walkway are marble busts of famous philosophers and writers, the first commissioned in 1743, and the 15th century 'Brian Boru' harp, the national symbol of Ireland.

Book of Kells, Trinity College, Dublin

Brian Boru harp, Long Room

It was Saturday in the Capital so we first decided to go check out The Temple Bar area, a busy riverside neighborhood spread over some old and uneven cobbled lanes that you can easily get lost in, These crowded pubs are the center of Dublin's nightlife and it was nuts when we there although it was only early afternoon, impossible to move and everyone singing, drinking and high fiving. We didn't stay long, just enough time to take some photos then opting to walk to the National Museum instead, a treasure house of anything Irish and with a very impressive display of Viking artifacts found locally. A walk along the Ha'penny bridge (built in 1816 and officially called the Liffey Bridge, it was used as a toll bridge for 100 years and you were charged, you guessed it, a half penny) and time to call it another day. Tomorrow was the Cathedral and a bus ride out to the the Royal Hibernian Military School where my Grandfather William Steward and his brother Great Uncle Harry Edward were sent as a young boys.

Temple Bar, Dublin

Viking swords and axes, National Museum of Ireland

Time for a Guiness, The Bull& Castle, Dublin

Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin

The bus ride out to the west end of the city took forever but we arrived mid-morning at beautiful Phoenix Park and St Mary's Hospital where the military school buildings remain but now part of the hospital. The building has been repainted and looks exactly as it did when it was constructed in 1771. The institution originally went by the name Hibernian Society for the Orphans and Children of Soldiers (until 1846).  By the mid 19th century the school acted as a feeder to the British Army when children as young as 12 could enlist, By1922 it had moved to Folkestone. We wandered about the grounds and found the old chapel and another church where possibly my Grandfather attended. In the graveyard we discovered a sad part of the history of the school - the gravestones of dozens of young boys aged eight through thirteen. No records remain of the time he was there but we did get a feeling of how it must have been to be a boy there under the stern gaze of the instructors. What they endured can only be imagined.

Chapel, former Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin

We took another bus back to center town to see Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland, and home to many depictions of Ireland's most famous saint. Nobody knows exactly what he looked like so all the paintings and statues looked different. We spent an hour inside this, our last Cathedral to visit on this trip, and had a chance to see a display case featuring the death mask, one of his sermons and a cast of the skull of the writer Jonathan Swift. He is best known for Gulliver's Travels but it was interesting to learn he was also Dean of the Cathedral from 1713 to 1745. His pulpit is on display as well and I had the chance to feel its well worn surface. He is buried under the floor alongside his best friend Stella. After our visit we walked along the River Liffey to O'Connell Street to gaze up at the Spire of Dublin, a 390 foot stainless steel pin-like monument. It was erected in 2003 on the same spot where Nelson's Pillar stood until it was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966. Some opposition initially greeted the Spire and it has inspired a number of nicknames, as is common with any public art in Dublin - the nail in the Pale, the stiletto in the ghetto, the erection at the intersection and my favorite, the Stiffy by the Liffy. A nice meal and a toast to Ireland ended our day. Tomorrow we fly home after 48 days; over 4000 miles by car alone, 125 miles walking and memories too numerous to count.   GWS

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Spire of Dublin, O'Connell St

slan atha cliath (goodbye Dublin!)

goodbye to the green field of Ireland

hello to the white landscape of Canada