It's a beautiful day in Newburyport!

What a spectacular day. All around. Colin and I woke up and went out to breakfast (we left Bill asleep on the boat). We had a yummy breakfast and then walked around downtown Newburyport. When we got back to the boat, Bill was busy trying to troubleshoot the AC / Heat unit and making phone calls.



Later in the afternoon, Colin, Bill and I took the new dinghy for a ride. Fighting the current, we went under the Rt. 1 bridge, which separates Newburyport from Salisbury. The other side of the bridge is spectacular. It is secluded and full of marshes. Very pretty.



Colin actually drove the dinghy back to the boat, and does a much better job than I do, by the way.



Lauren and Erin picked Colin up (and got a tour of the boat) around 3:00. Bill and I decided to stay topside and hang out and enjoy the warm, sunny weather. We are going to check out the first of the "series of restaurants" tonight (Agave - a Mexican restaurant downtown) in a few minutes.

Newburyport is certainly a fabulous place, and we have both enjoyed having Colin on board.

Newburyport, MA

On Saturday we got an early start for Newburyport. The weather was foggy, cold, and rainy (a New England trend we are starting to recognize!) To get to Newburyport, we had to go around Cape Ann since there is a fixed bridge in the Anisquam River (the “shortcut”) that sv Mary Elizabeth cannot fit under. The ride to Newburyport was not a pleasant one. Bill stayed topside while I “rested” down below. I am never seasick – but I did not feel well at all on Saturday. The waves were rolly and big and the fog was dense. And amazingly enough, there were still lobster pots everywhere! The whole trip took about four hours.

Getting into the Merrimac River in Newburyport was also a very interesting experience. The Coast Guard issued a warning since both the wind and the current were strong, which created even bigger swells than usual. Bill and I were both very surprised to see literally hundreds of small fishing boats in the Merrimac. Most had one or two people per boat who were reeling in big fish. Anyway, Bill had his first experience docking the boat while dealing with a strong (3 knots) current.

We are staying in Newburyport Harbor Marina, which is right downtown and beautiful. Jay (Capt' Dave's long lost twin) and Linda have been very gracious and extremely helpful. On Saturday, after getting warm again, we hung out, ate dinner and watched the Sox. The weather never improved.

Sunday we got up explored for a few hours before my father and sister picked us up. We met the rest of the family at my grandparents’ house in Kingston, NH to celebrate my grandfather’s 81st birthday. It was a great cookout – especially since it didn’t start raining until late in the afternoon.

And we are very lucky to have a guest on board with us tonight. Colin my 10 year old godson is spending the night. Bill had a fun time showing Colin the different parts of the sailboat. We are hoping we finally get nice weather tomorrow so we can take Colin out on the dinghy and explore more of Newburyport!

As Bill and I sit topside writing this, the strong sound of the current literally sounds like a boat (or several boats!) going by. As of right now, we plan on staying in Newburyport a little longer than we initially expected. We scoped it out briefly this morning, and there are just too many things to do here - never mind all the great restaurants that we want to check out. Newburyport really is an incredible place. And it is nice having my family relatively close. In addition to my godson Colin, my grandparents, uncle, cousin and his wife all plan on stopping by and seeing our home on the water.

Slideshow: Pictures of Gloucester, MA

Here are a few of the many pictures that we took in Gloucester, MA.

Gloucester, MA

We had a lot of fun exploring Gloucester. On Friday morning, after a lazy breakfast of bacon and eggs, we took a cab downtown. As I mentioned, we timed our visit to Gloucester perfectly (without even knowing it!) since it was the St. Peter’s Fiesta. There were lots of activities going on downtown, but we began our tour by walking along the water and seeing both the Fishermen’s Memorial and the Fishermen’s Wives’ Memorial. Since it wasn’t raining, we decided to keep walking and ended up at the Stage Fort Park, which features a huge playground, two beaches, lots of people walking their dogs, and beautiful views of the harbor. After the Fort, we walked back towards St. Peter’s Square, visited the house and statue of painter Fitz Hugh Lane (picture below), and saw the shops downtown. When it started to rain again stopped for lunch.

Afterwards, we headed back down to the beach to see the start of the Greasy Pole Contest. The Greasy Pole contest involves a 45 foot pole 200 feet off the beach in the water. The pole is greased and the object of the contest is to walk the pole to the end and capture the flag without falling off. The picture below is taken from the beach (which we shared with about 3,000 people) and is of the pole, the boats rafted up to get a front row view of the contest, the Navy ship, and the various Coast Guard and Police boats. There were 51 Gloucester men (many dressed up and most intoxicated) all vying for the title this year. People in Gloucester apparently take this contest very seriously.

The event took longer than usual since the Coast Guard ordered everyone off the beach / pole due to an impending lightning storm. After a short delay, the contest started and Bill and I enjoyed watching the festivities. It was certainly unlike anything either of us had ever seen.

We enjoyed a delicious sushi dinner before returning to St. Peter’s Square in time to see the procession of local Italian families carrying the statue of St. Peter and the blessing (in Italian) of the statue – which, again, was unlike anything we had ever seen….. All in all, it was a really fun, unique and interesting afternoon and evening.

America's Oldest Seaport

We had a very uneventful and short trip from Salem to Gloucester, “America’s oldest seaport.” We were unsure of where exactly in Gloucester we were going since we had reservations at different places. First we got a mooring with the Harbor Master. But… they only had availability for one night. Bill and I agreed we wanted to stay for two nights so we called around and got a mooring for both Thursday and Friday at Brown’s Marina. But… we found out they don’t have a launch service and since we don’t have a dinghy, we would be stuck on board for two days. We called back and got a slip at Brown’s. All set. But…when we were about 20 minutes away, they called to say that the slip where we were supposed to go wasn’t going to be vacant for awhile. So we called around and finally got a slip at Mad Fish, a restaurant in Rocky Neck, which is actually an artist colony. It is nice and quiet in here. And very pretty. This part of Gloucester is where Capt’ Dave suggested we go in the first place, so it all worked out in the end. Not having a dinghy really limits where we can stay, especially if there is no water taxi service. And staying in marinas is a lot more expensive in New England than it was in St. Thomas (believe it or not, it is almost twice as expensive!) So we decided to make getting a dinghy a priority.

After we settled into our slip, we took a cab to another marina where they sell dinghies. Success. We are very happy with our new tender (it is so new and clean) and two stroke engine (which is MUCH easier to start and is MUCH lighter and easier to handle than the engine that we had before). We drove the dinghy back to the boat and enjoyed happy hour at one of the restaurants here.

Today has been fairly cold and rainy, but the forecast for tomorrow looks great. We plan on taking a cab downtown and seeing some of the sights. Today we found out that we are here in time to experience some of St. Peter’s Fiesta. The St. Peter’s Fiesta is a “five day festival honoring the patron saint of the fisherman St. Peter.” The picture below is of a Navy ship that is in the harbor for the festival.

Slideshow: Salem, MA

Witches, etc.

Salem is beautiful. We woke up to a perfectly sunny day and took the water taxi into town. First we visited the Peabody Essex Museum. We saw lots of old maritime artifacts and paintings, etc. and visited the special exhibits on the "art" of marriage (how apropos) and the art of tattooing.


(Peabody Essex Museum)

After the museum, we got takeout lunch and ate in a local park. We then continued to walk around downtown. Salem is full of witch shops - some of which promoted witch tours, some sold witch t-shirts and other souvenirs, some sold pagan accessories. Salem has a rich "witch history" after all. And for a Wednesday afternoon, we were surprised at how many other tourists were around.

(Witch on a pole with Witch's Brew Cafe in background)

We continued our tour of the city by walking to Salem Commons via the Witch Museum (which we didn't go in since the line was out the door).

(Salem Commons)

Bill and I decided to take a detour and walked around several neighborhoods in search of the oldest house we could find. Most of the homes in downtown Salem are designated historic sites. The oldest we saw was the Derby House built 1762. We decided to skip the House of Seven Gables since the line was long there also and we were able to see most of the home without paying the admission.

(Derby House)

We ended our self guided walking tour with an antique shop, which had several old and rare books for sale and which was on the downtown waterfront where we were dropped off by the water taxi. (Rare books at the antique shop)

We came back to the boat and played a little backgammon. We are currently sitting topside, continuing to talk about and plan our next destinations, and watching the most incredible sunset AGAIN. The sky has literally been every color in the rainbow in the last 20 minutes or so. Bill will spark up the grill in a few minutes and we will settle in for dinner and a movie. We are back to cruising.... Tomorrow's destination - Gloucester, MA.


(Another beautiful sunset)

(This just made us laugh)

Salem, MA

Bill and I left the dock at Marina Bay around 9 am on Tuesday. When we left Quincy, the weather was perfect - sunny, warm, calm seas, etc. When we got more and more into Boston Harbor, however, it became increasingly foggier and foggier. At one point Bill even turned on the radar. As we passed Deer Island, it looked like the big water tanks were floating out of the water. It was equally strange to see a 600 foot tanker emerge from the fog. The pictures I took (such as the one below) don't capture anything near what it looked like out on the water....
As we got closer to Marblehead the fog lifted but we experienced more and more clouds and the weather cooled off significantly. Bill had a fun time avoiding all of the lobster pots. They are literally everywhere.

We easily got a mooring in Salem Harbor, sort of in front of Pickerings. The mooring field is full, but there are hardly any other transients here. We had a lazy afternoon. I finally finished a book - the first time in at least a month! Around 3 o'clock, the skies got really dark and we had a huge thunderstorm. It pretty much rained the rest of the afternoon / evening. We did witness a spectacular sunset though. Bill and I cooked on board - we got creative with chicken curry and jasmine rice - and watched a movie. We are down to about two movies that we haven't seen more than three times....

The wind generator ran at almost full speed all through the night so our batteries are charged. Good thing since the generator still isn't working 100% (although we could always run the engine of course).

Today the plan is to take the water taxi into Salem and explore. It is a fairly nice day, so we are lucky.

Why we didn't leave Marina Bay today...

Although very beautiful, these storm clouds (and the rain that they brought!) are the reason why we decided to stay at Marina Bay another day......

Well, we had another fun weekend. On Saturday I went to a bridal shower while Bill hung out. Sunday we had a BBQ on the dock with my parents, Andrea, Bill and Barb, David and Jim, Tommy and others - which turned out nicely. Thankfully the rain held off. What awesome neighbors we have had while we have been here in Marina Bay.

We decided to stay in Marina Bay another day since today the weather wasn't cooperating and why be miserable when we don't have to be. So instead we did errands - Bill returned the rental car, I did laundry, we had a nice lunch with Billy and now we are talking about our prospective stops along the way to Maine. But we are definitely leaving for Salem tomorrow morning around 9 am so we hit the tides and currents at the right time. Salem is only a few hours away so we will be able to explore a little tomorrow. After Salem we are thinking Cape Ann and then Newburyport.

sv Mary Elizabeth still in Marina Bay

Well, we are still in Marina Bay in Quincy. We decided to stay until at least Monday so that some work could be done on the boat. On Wednesday the teak was done. It looks 100% better. Not perfect, but definitely better. We are still deciding whether to have it sanded down and completely redone or whether or not to let it go natural. On Thursday the entire topside of the boat was waxed. And what a difference it has made. The exterior of the boat looks perfectly fabulous. The picture below is of ME all taped up after having her teak done.

View of the Boston skyline, UMass Boston, and the JFK library from sv Mary Elizabeth's slip.
The slip where we are in the marina is really perfect. We are at the beginning of the C dock so we don't have far to walk to the coffee shop, laundry room, parking lot (we still have our rental car) etc. but far enough from the "center" of the marina / boardwalk where all the restaurants and gawkers are. The marina gets pretty loud and crowded on Thursday through Sunday nights. There are five restaurants, all of which have some sort of live band / dj on these nights. We have certainly enjoyed the festivities also, but on nights when we want to stay in and watch a movie (like last night) we have enjoyed being slightly separated from the rest of the marina. That said, lots of other boaters have stopped to admire the sv Mary Elizabeth. The majority of boats in this marina are power boats - and there are some large motor yachts (although nothing like we saw in St. Thomas!), but sv Mary Elizabeth is one of the larger sailboats. Plus we have found that a blue hulled Island Packet is somewhat of a novelty also; most are that creamy yellow color.

Today Barb helped Bill move the boat to the fuel dock for a pumpout and so we could fill the fuel tank. Yes, gas is even more expensive in a marina..... Good thing we are a sailboat.

Let's see...other exciting news is that we met Todd Collins, the quarterback for the Washington Redskins. He has a boat in Marina Bay and very graciously stopped to talk to Bill and me for a few minutes.

We still do not have a tender, but we think we will be OK for at least the next few stops. We plan on going to Salem and then Newburyport next week, which will be a lot of fun.

That's about it. We are looking forward to a quiet weekend. We really don't have too much planned except for an informal BBQ on Sunday afternoon (hopefully it won't rain!)

Oh, and it has been exactly one month since I have been able to see the stats on how many people are reading. From May 19th - June 20th, there have been 683 views. That is WAY more than Bill or I ever thought. So, thanks for reading.

The Celtics won championship #17 this week. Here is a picture of the (now BankNorth) Garden from the bridge.

Here are some additional pictures that Melanie took on Saturday night with her camera.

June 14th finally arrived! Saturday morning I got up early and did a bunch of errands. My mother, father, Uncle and Aunt and I assembled the flowers for the tables at dinner. Bill and his mother had lunch and met up with Matty and Carolyn. Jill and Mark arrived from the Cape and everyone got settled and checked into the hotel.

The party at Venezia was perfect and we hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. Dinner was great. It was so much fun to have all of our good friends and family in one room all at the same time. And of course there was too much food.

The only thing is the night went by so fast. We wish we had more time to chat with everyone. We sincerely thank everyone for celebrating with us. It really was a special night, and we are so glad that everyone was able to come – especially everyone who flew in / drove from out of town.

We would love to see any pictures that everyone might have taken. Send us an email at svmaryelizabeth@gmail.com.

The plan for Sunday was to have a big cookout on the boat in celebration of Father’s Day. But… the weather just didn’t cooperate. Rainy + cold + boat = not a lot of fun. So… we took the “cookout” to Weymouth to my parent’s house after picking Katie and Rico up at the hotel and seeing Mary Alice, Matty and Carolyn off. It was a nice afternoon. Bill and I went back to the boat cleaned up and called it an early night. It has been one fabulous weekend.