Boston to Maine (10262 miles to date)

Beautiful Maine

I leave Boston in thick fog using radar and crawling along just outside the shipping channel hoping no one else is doing the same. The fog clears after a couple of miles and I keep out from the coast. Boston is in Massachusetts and the next state up, New Hampshire has not a lot of coast and then you reach the longer coast of Maine. The chart below gives an overview of the area. The border between New Hampshire and Maine is near Portsmouth

And those names! Not very original! and remember I had been in New London and would end up in Dartsmouth, NS which is across the river from Halifax in Nova Scotia (beyond the righthand side of this diagram.

I stop at the Isles of Shoals, ironic as there are no shoals! but it is in the right place, just off the coast at Portland and I wouldn't have made Portsmouth in daylight so I pick up a "spare" mooring for the night. The isles of Shoals are lovely, there is an old hotel and some summer houses, amazingly peaceful and yet only a few miles out from the busy town of Portsmouth.

Interesting enough the state boundary splits the islands, the south three are in NH and the north ones in Maine! You can see the state boundary above.

And away in the morning, no fog thank goodness, I can see some on the mainland so being out to sea is a definite advantage.

I next drop the anchor in a gorgeous wee sheltered anchorage, I have to navigate through tens of thousands of lobster pots. Imagine one pot dumped into a tennis court and repeat that as far as the eye can see for miles in every direction. If they would lay them in lines you could pick a path, if they did what Portugal and Ireland do where they put one flag down and then run lines along the seabed between pots - they could put a hundred pots down and recover them much more efficiently. But no, one buoy or often two on each pot. <sigh>

Casco bay has a stack of lovely little islands, some with houses.some not. Parts of the bay are national park too  I think. I pick an anchorage for the night from the chart and from the Active Captain App (a bit like trip adviser for sailing)

In the morning I leave by a narrow gap, knowing it is high water - tides are back! though ranges are only 5 feet or so.  There are various golden sand beaches too, just realised the photos don't show these.

And then past a headland to Hupper Island and Port Clyde - a hamlet with a store, cafe and restaurant at a ferry pier.

Well buoyed, there are some shallow bits but easy enough apart from the pobster lots

I pick an anchorage half a mile from the hamlet and visit it the next day.

Lots of fishermen live here as well as people in summer houses 

I get to buy a loaf of bread and some beer, what's not to like?

and they do coffee and buns, with free WiFi! (there has been poor phone reception in Maine - all other states have had full strength 4G 95% of the time.) the opening photograph is taken from here.

The dock at the general store has fuel, which I don't need but an Ocean Crusing Club (OCC) boat is taking on so I go and say hello - having joined the OCC a few months ago. They are heading south after an OCC rally in Maine that I was too late for. 

And then to Belfast 

Belfast - is 30 miles up from the extreme top right in the screenshot above

To Boston (10115 miles)

Scary boat in Boston

I enter the Cape Cod canal in peasoup Fog, there is a convention that you keep to the right in the canal so hopefully if everyone did the same speed there would never be a problem, In the end I get shouted at by fishermen standing on the bank casting in front of me. Sometimes I can hardly see them. A couple of speedboats and a cat overtake me, They are going faster than the declared speed limit. I see one yacht going the  other way and see two other vessels on the radar.

No more photos as I got too busy.

On the other side the Radar and AIS proved useful

The red rings are sentry alarms - useful, often false triggers on wavetops but better safe than sorry. On the close in 3 mile range on the radar I see even small boats. Nav marks give big echoes too.

The fog comes and goes, I get another thick bank as I approach Boston's outer area.
One eejit does 27 knots and comes within 600 feet of me.I have measured the visibility at 1000 feet by creeping past nav marks and I can see the speed on my AIS. Not a safe speed on fog.

The outer area of Boston is an archipelago of islands, some of which have been made into parks  - lovely!

Ferries galore, they go fast too.

And into Boston proper

A small free anchorage across the river from the main town, it's quite a distance and I make sure I have fuel - It would be a difficult row - ferries and lots of pleasure day-triipper yachts about the place. See the fog is still there, it is just up in the air a bit! The anchorage is beside the airport but there is a large hilton hotel in the way that masks the plane noise almost entirely. Apart from some wash from water taxis the anchorage is perfect and very peaceful.

As usual, lovely at night - still fog in the upper parts of those buildings though,

A marina across the way allows me to park my dinghy for a few hours whilst I explore - it is raining and foggy a bit though.

The marina looks after its ducks!

Boston has a historical train - just follow the red line! great idea

My impressions are that Boston is a lovely city, nicer than New York in many ways, I love the old buildings, tastefully blended in with the new, I find the streets full of tourists but not too full - a quarter the people density  of NY - though maybe the weather kept people away. Near the docks the Vibe was good - good cheap cafes and restaurants - not too cheap but good looking food at good prices. Music from street buskers was nicely done and I think I will return to Boston some time. Matt had recommended the Cambridge area near the university but I decided to press on - the rain was a bummer.

Yet another lightship!

Goodbye Boston