Thursday, 17 July
Eastern Point Light stands atop the rocks at the entrance to Gloucester Harbor.
It’s only 16 miles, harbor to harbor, so getting an early start out of Manchester wasn’t critical time-wise. It was good to get going, though, especially after the soaking of the day before. Plus Rockport rates high on the list of all-time favorite stops so, after taking on fuel at Manchester Marine, Steadfast was on her way into Salem Channel at 0818.
With Little Misery Island to starboard, she turned almost due east, motoring over long two-foot swells from the south and with a light nor’easterly over the bow. Not a day for sailing but that’s okay. More time to admire the four lighthouses along the way. And avoid the lobster pots that abound off Cape Ann. Those are much easier to spot on a flat sea.
Completed in 1861, Thacher Island’s are the last twin lighthouses still operating in the US.
There’s also the challenge of snaking through the gap between the islands off the Cape’s northeast point, Milk and Thacher. There’s plenty of water in there for Steadfast…assuming she finds it and not the rocks that loom just below the surface on either side. Going the long way around the east side of Thacher adds a couple of miles and subtracts a great view of the island’s unique arrangement of twin lighthouses.
The first light on Straitsmouth Island was built in 1835 to mark the entrance to Rockport Harbor.
Granite is everywhere in Rockport, once fueling a thriving business.
The Rockport Harbormasters do a great job of managing the mix of resident boats, both work and recreational, with the many transient vessels that stop in season. After passing through the narrow gap in the breakwater, Steadfast was assigned “the back float,” a small two-boat pier in nine feet of water almost up against the rocks under Ellen’s Harborside Restaurant.
The 1630 Club meets most afternoons on aft deck of Bill Lee’s workboat, Ocean Reporter.
It was not quite noon, leaving all afternoon for a good stretch of the legs, out toward Old Granite Wharf and Pigeon Cove. Maybe later, a meeting of the Sixteen-Thirty Club on Ocean Reporter. There’s a lot to do in Rockport.
Good thing we got an early start!
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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