Plan “B”: Gloucester

Sunday, 20 July

There’s a nice little current running down the ocean side of Cape Ann this afternoon, nudging Steadfast along at an average of five-point-six knots over the southerly swell. Not much of the forecast five-to-10 northerly reaches the deck so Little Red does all the work.

The “back float” was Steadfast’s home in Rockport.

With farewells exchanged with Andrew and Ron at Sandy Bay YC, and Cap’n Bill on the wharf, Steadfast cast off from Rockport at 1215 and once abeam of Straitsmouth Island Light, turned south toward neighboring Gloucester, an easy 12 miles away.

The decision was made Friday evening, while studying the charts and the Maine Cruising Guide. From Rockport, it’s about 70 NM to Portland, ME. For Steadfast, and in all likelihood Little Red, that’s a 14-hour day. And Mount Desert lies another 120 NM east of Portland. Pushing that hard, then beating back against the prevailing so’westerlies, seemed inconsistent with the tenor of a trip averaging little more than 100 miles a week!

A list was made of a dozen harbors skipped on the way up. Add the several to be seen again and Steadfast has enough sailing ahead of her to fill the next eight weeks.

The Harvey Gamage tied off with Adventurer, each more than 110′ in length.

Which brings her to Gloucester, a working harbor more than a yachting center, homeport to the Andrea Gail before she ran into the “Perfect Storm.” And back in the day, to the schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud when she famously dueled Bluenose (see video at http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675075508_Gertrude-L-Thebaud-schooner_Lipton-Cup-Regatta_Bluenose-schooner_racing).

The 65-foot Thomas E. Lannon leads the double-ended “pinky” schooner Ardelle past the Gloucester breakwater.

That said, there’s no lack of handsome yachts here under sail on a Sunday afternoon, some with a decidedly historic look of their own. The artists’ colony on Rocky Neck is well worth a stroll. And in Smith Cove, a harborside table at The Studio, Rudder or Mad Fish adds an especially salty flavor to dinner.

The Tarr and Wonson Paint Manufactory has been a fixture in Gloucester since constructed in 1874.

Maine’s coast is unlike any other but Emerson’s words again come to mind: “Life’s a journey, not a destination.” And as journeys go, a setting a course through Gloucester ain’t bad.

Steadfast out.