New England…here we come!

Our plan is to explore the US east coast for the next 3 months, hightailing our way up to Maine to reach the northernmost point of our explorations and then meandering back down the coast. We must stay north of Cape Hatteras, NC until at least November 1st to avoid the Atlantic hurricane season.

We left Zimmerman’s Marina the morning of August 3rd, timing our departure to coincide with high tide as we made our way out through the narrow channel to the main Chesapeake Bay. It was great to be back on the water! We’d spent the prior 8 days at an AirBnb in Virginia, overseeing work on Catalyst, doing our own boat maintenance projects, meeting up with fellow Balance owners, and catching up on our US colonial, revolutionary war, and civil war history with fascinating tours of Yorktown and Jamestown – all while sweltering in the 90+ degree heat with stifling humidity.

Never ones to wade in, we resumed our maritime journey with a 3-day, 2-night sail to Montauk, NY, a delightful town at the eastern tip of the Long Island peninsula. There, we spent the next day on our e-bikes, exploring the town and checking out the Montauk Point Lighthouse, New York’s first lighthouse (built in 1796) and the fourth-oldest working lighthouse in the nation.

The next day, we sailed up to Buzzards Bay, MA, positioning ourselves for a morning crossing through the Cape Cod Canal. Built in 1914, the 17.5-mile Cape Cod Canal is actually a few weeks older than the Panama Canal and provides a 135 nm shortcut between New York and Boston. (We deliberately postponed exploring Cape Cod until September, when hopefully the crowds will be lighter).

We timed the next morning’s passage through the Canal based on the current; if it’s running against you, the current can be so strong that it prevents/minimizes any headway. We readily traversed the Canal, but then ran into such nasty weather that we cut short our intended sail to Gloucester and instead anchored in Cohasset, MA. What a serendipitous detour that proved to be! We spent the next morning walking through this quintessential New England town, stopping for coffee and purchasing live lobsters for dinner before setting sail for Gloucester.

We entered Gloucester harbor, only to discover that it was too commercial for our liking. So, after fueling up, we revised our destination to Rockport, MA and celebrated our arrival with a lobster feast. The next day, we walked through picturesque Rockport, an artists’ colony that’s home to more than 30 art galleries. (Luckily for our pocketbooks and Pete’s sanity, Catalyst’s limited display space, constant movement, and salty air precludes the purchase of precious or fragile artwork!) Rockport’s allure grew even stronger after we secured last-minute tickets to the evening performance of the amazing Abba tribute band, Arrival from Sweden…Mamma Mia, here we go again!