Friday, June 12, 2009

Gloucester, MA and the Isles of Shoals

We arrived in Gloucester, MA, on June 5. The small anchorage was a bit crowded, so we opted for a city mooring. We called the harbormaster to be sure it was okay, but he did not respond to either the VHF radio or cell phone. We figured we had ourselves a free mooring, but he caught up with us the following day and let us know that our chosen mooring ball was in fact reserved, so we moved to another one and wrote him a check.

Sister Molly came that day and whisked us off to her lovely lake house in Littleton, MA. There would be a small gathering at her house that evening of 18 people. As she left to come and fetch us, her husband, Tim, was removing all the patio furniture from the deck and was pressure washing it in preparation for a paint job the following day.

“Could you put the table back for the party?”
“No, that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

On top of it, the house was a mess and there were piles of wood in the yard from the demolition of a fence and mountains of gravel intended for the new Japanese rock garden. All this, Molly explained while driving a hundred miles an hour in the left lane with me hanging on for dear life.

I reminded her of our maternal grandmother’s favorite adage:
“The cow is in the hammock
The cat is in the lake
The children in the garbage can
What difference does it make?”

Everything would turn out fine. She’d left Tim a list of things to do and it was a potluck party after all. Molly just had to make margaritas and guacamole.

She was right. It was a fabulous party with live music and roasted pork and trips out on the little lake aboard Tim’s homemade wooden moon-viewing boat. Molly is an excellent jazz pianist and most of her friends are musicians so parties are usually a nonstop jam session.

Tim’s wooden boat is equipped with an electric motor, so it is silent. The design is based on Japanese boats employed for romantic moon viewing outings. The boat seats about eight people comfortably. Tim usually wears some kind of Japanese habille while at the helm. The night of the party, one of the musicians brought a guitar out on the boat and softly sang Brazilian ballads with a Brazilian woman who was in attendance. Parties at Molly and Tim’s are always a treat.

As promised, the following day, Tim, son Woody, and his friend Garrett, painted the deck “burning red” and moved mountains of gravel into the rock garden, while I did one thousand loads of laundry. Later we all sat on the newly painted porch and drank champagne to celebrate Molly and Tim’s 15th wedding anniversary. Woody enticed us into games of badminton, which he always won. He’s a vicious player with no mercy.

The morning of our departure from Littleton we enjoyed a generous breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and fruit on the wooden boat. It is not exclusively for moon viewing. Back in Gloucester, our cruising friends Raffi and Lisa, who charter their beautiful 49-foot Hinkley ketch Windfall, had just returned from the Bahamas. Lisa took us on a world wind tour of Cape Ann followed by dinner at a funky, local, BYOB, seafood restaurant called the Causeway. The food was excellent, copious and cheap. (If anyone is ever interested in chartering a sailboat in New England, please checkout wwww.defiancesailcharters.com. Raffi and Lisa will treat you like royalty.)

On June 9, we took leave of Gloucester and headed for Isles of Shoals, six miles off the coast where New Hampshire meets Maine. Five of the Isles are part of Maine and the remaining four are in New Hampshire. We were torn about remaining there as we had an excellent breeze and could have easily sailed all the way to Portland. But the free moorings at the Isles are hard to come by in July or August so we thought we’d better grab one while they were empty. There was only one other sailboat moored there and it appeared to be unoccupied.

We jumped in the dinghy to visit the islands of Appledore, Smuttynose, and Star. These islands once boasted a thriving cod-fishing industry, and then became a popular vacation destination with the construction of two hotels in the mid 19th century. Today the Isles are the stomping grounds of Christians and marine biologists.

Arriving at Appledore we were met by an employee of the marine lab. She was very friendly and indicated the walking paths explaining that it was seagull hatching season, so the “birds were a bit more aggressive than usual.” The most prevalent specie of gull on the island happened to be the world’s largest: the Great Black-backed Gull with an average wingspan of 5 feet. Indeed, there were seagulls nesting all over the paths and they terrorized us every step of the way. One of them chased Kenny for several yards as he passed by a nest, so I took an alternative route at that juncture and was molested by another bird. Of course, the baby gulls were adorable – little beige fluffy things with black spots. Why did they grow up to be so huge and vicious?

After a very brief and frightening walk, we determined to leave Appledore and try another island. A boat was having difficulty landing at the dock, so we stood by to take their lines. The boat was full of students and professors who had come to visit the Shoals Marine Lab. The director of the lab walked straight up to Kenny and me, introduced himself and launched into a description of the experiments being undertaken at the lab followed by a discourse on the history of the islands. He was certainly a jolly and gregarious fellow with an enormous affection for the Isles. He would not allow us to depart Appledore until we promised to go and visit the garden of Celia Thaxter. She was the daughter of the lightkeeper on White Island who built a resort hotel on Appledore in 1850. Celia grew up to be a poet, painter and gardener who attracted all sorts of famous people to her father’s hotel. Painter Childe Hassam and writers Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were among those who visited Appledore. (Yawn).

We didn’t have the heart to tell him we were tired of being chased by seagulls and just wanted to get back in our dinghy and disappear, so off we tramped through the seagull gauntlet once more to Celia’s jardin. Next to the garden, which needed replanting, were the remains of the stone foundation of Celia’s house where more students were conducting an archeological dig around the perimeter. A friendly teacher’s assistant explained what they were doing when the professor approached to expound upon the cod industry on the islands such as it was in the 1700s. Such a friendly and informative bunch, we had never encountered.

Galloping back through the seagull gauntlet, we finally regained our dinghy and escaped to Smuttynose. There we were greeted by two goats and the keepers of the otherwise deserted island. They offered no lecture, so we headed off down the walking trail and were immediately greeted by an even more aggressive population of gulls than we’d encountered on Appledore. Forget it. We did an about face, jumped back in the dinghy and headed for Star Island, which we were told had fewer seagulls.

Star island is co-owned by the Unitarian and Congregationalist churches. The historic hotel is now used for religious retreats and as a conference center. From the dinghy, passed the hotel and down wooded paths to the rocky coastline we walked unmolested. Kenny suggested we walk back around the island on the rocky shore. I looked up and saw hundreds of gulls flying above the rocks.
“But the birds are there.”
“Oh they’re just up in the air.”
“Okay.”

We scampered joyfully over the rocks enjoying a bit of uninhibited exercise. This carefree rock bounding lasted for about three minutes before we were sprayed by the largest amount of birdshit ever known to descend on human beings. I’m sure that gull must have been constipated for days. How could we have forgotten my sister Mary’s wise words: Bird equals turd.

Kenny tried to rinse the spots off his jacket in the saltwater pools between the rocks, but I was hit in so many places I didn’t know where to begin. I had crap on my hat, my jacket and my jeans and it stunk! I removed the jacket and hat, held them at arms length and started retracing our steps back toward the dinghy as quickly as possible. Kenny and I argued the whole way about whether or not the bird did it intentionally. He insisted that they didn’t have that kind of aim. I resolved to Google the subject matter but have yet to do so.

Back aboard Mary T we jumped vigorously into the cocktail hour. Appledore, Smuttynose… who knew the Isles of Shoals would be more fun to say than they are to visit.

3 Comments:

Blogger Appledore Notes said...

It was good to meet you on Appledore this week. The truth is that nesting gulls have excellent aim. The ones along our main paths - such as the road and trail to Celia's Garden - are pretty harmless, but the ones that nest away from these paths always seem to have the best aim and worst impact on people. You need to come back in August, when everything is more relaxed (because the gulls are winding down their nesting season).

As to Celia's Garden on Appledore, we will transfor it next week, when the annuals that we plant each summer arrive by boat from their greenhouse at UNH. We plant great varieties - as faithful to Celia's 19th century plants as we can manage.

Hope the rest of your cruise is fun.

Willy

William E. Bemis
Kingsbury Director of Shoals Marine Laboratory
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
c/o Shoals Marine Laboratory, Stimson Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
web24@cornell.edu

June 13, 2009 12:37 AM  
Blogger Appledore Notes said...

It was good to meet you on Appledore this week. The truth is that nesting gulls have excellent aim. The ones along our main paths - such as the road and trail to Celia's Garden - are pretty harmless, but the ones that nest away from these paths always seem to have the best aim and worst impact on people. You need to come back in August, when everything is more relaxed (because the gulls are winding down their nesting season).

As to Celia's Garden on Appledore, we will transfor it next week, when the annuals that we plant each summer arrive by boat from their greenhouse at UNH. We plant great varieties - as faithful to Celia's 19th century plants as we can manage.

Hope the rest of your cruise is fun.

Willy

William E. Bemis
Kingsbury Director of Shoals Marine Laboratory
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
c/o Shoals Marine Laboratory, Stimson Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
web24@cornell.edu

June 13, 2009 12:43 AM  
Blogger Bruce and Esther said...

Hi guys, just finally getting caught up on you blog. Sounds like you are having a great time. Hope to see you South this year. Keep in touch. Bruce and Esther

June 13, 2009 8:37 AM  

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