2022: Gloucester Mass to Portland Maine

 29 July 2022

Depart: Gloucester, MA anchorage 10:05

Arrive: Kittery, ME anchorage 2:30 - 4:00

Distance: 40 nm

Late start today while Clark reset the parameters for regulating the battery charge on the new battery bank. He hoped to get a call back from customer support to assist with the configuring of the data. By 10:00 he decided that he was not going to get a call, and we should leave. Later, as we motored along he saw he had a missed call from Illinois but had no success trying to reach someone calling back. 

Clark said it would be a short travel day today - only 40 nm which translates into 5 hours piloting time. As we travel through Massachusetts towards New Hampshire and Maine, I feel like I am on the boat tour of NE lighthouses. The history here is amazing, and a lot of the lighthouses have an interesting history.

Sailboat Races

Colorful Fishing / Pot Boat

Our first lighthouse pictures for today are of the Cape Ann, Thacher Island, Lighthouse twins. Depending of the angle of the boat to the lighthouses, it appeared to be 1 or 2 at differing distances apart.

We saw some tall object poking up out of the water. "What's that!?"

Iron Spindle Bay Beacon

The next lighthouse we passed was the "Isle of Shoals" Lighthouse. This is actually a set of islands close together. 

Isle of Shoals

We got out into deep water today, so the shoreline was too far away for sightseeing. 

Our view for a good part of the day.

And I thought 120 at Block Island was impressive!

The next lighthouse on today's tour was the Whaleback Light Lighthouse.

Whaleback Light 

As we entered Portsmouth, NH harbor, we passed a number of forts. Interesting to note that the waterway here divides New Hampshire from Maine, so if we drifted from port to starboard, we crossed the state line.

Portsmouth Harbor Light

Fort McClary, Kittery, ME

Pots! How to transit to get to anchorage!?

Fort Constitution, NH

It took us one-and-a-half hours to drop anchor. We tried to anchor by Fort McClary, but Clark thought we were too close to pots, mooring balls, and other boats. After trying twice to get situated, Clark decided we should try a different location to drop anchor. That turned out to be worse, so Clark thought maybe we should grab a mooring ball. He called around and found no place that could take us. So, after all that, I convinced him to go back to the first spot and try again. 

As Clark struggled to find a spot to drop anchor, the harbormaster came by on his boat and pointed Clark to a place that would accommodate us. He said a 180' boat dropped anchor there last week, so we should have no issues. I could tell Clark was not convinced, but we were out of options. It all worked out well, we did not drag anchor and we did not hit anything around us throughout the night. 

After finally dropping anchor in the afternoon, Clark tried once more to contact a support person. He was successful, but the person he talked to admitted he did not know how to address Clark's problem. He said he would try to get another, more-experienced person to assist. Clark never got a call back before they closed for the weekend at 6:00 ET.

30 July 2022

Depart: Kittery, ME anchorage 9:20

Arrive: Portland ME anchorage 3:40

Distance: 49 nm

Planning on a relatively short trip for today, only 50 nm, we had a relaxed start to the day. Having researched the battery problem, he decided he had an idea of how to reconfigure the parameters for the battery. After he reset them, he was much happier. 

As we prepared to leave this morning, a canon boomed nearby. I yelled, "We're under attack!" About every 10 minutes, or so, Fort McClary would fire their canon. Perhaps this is a special event for a Saturday? 

To get underway, we had to pass through the pot maze. It is definitely challenging.

Close up look at a pot marker.

I read on a boater's forum that the way you know how to pass a pot is to look at the marker. It will point to the side your vessel should pass on. Cool!

Fort McClary - took the picture right after and
before they fired the canon - could not get a picture of
the smoke billowing out of the fort.

Today's exciting view on the way to Portland, ME

We did see 2 somethings briefly swimming in the water in front of our boat today. Although we did not get a close look, we both thought it was a pair of sharks!

Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park

Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

Fort Scammel Point

Once again we went shopping for an anchorage. We looked at anchoring near a marina with a bunch of big boats and sailboats nearby, but decided we didn't like the space available.

Then we dropped anchor in front of the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in Simonton Cove.