Author: patmorss

Another week enjoying our feathered friends, and the weather extremes.

There is never a lack of interesting happenings around here. Recently – historic ships coming to Cape Ann for maintenance by knowledgeable craftspeople; a mystery as to the animal contractors at Niles Pond; and celestial bodies showing off.

I’m back from the annual New England Museum Association Conference that was held “live” this year in Springfield, MA. We are fortunate to benefit from such diversity and density of museums in New England, including here on Cape Ann. I ventured out to a few of them, walking and on field trips.

A variety of encounters over the last week.

We’re getting some beneficial rain. Fall colors are now more than dry, brown leaves.

Maybe the Great White sharks are moving south, because the seals are back at Brace Cove. Yesterday I watched for 20 minutes as the initial rocks became exposed.

This week the annual Cape Ann Plein Air Festival is in full swing. The weather so far has been challenging – cold and windy. The opening event on Sunday was the Quick Draw, held at Essex County Greenbelt’s Allyn Cox Reservation. Competitors had two hours to complete their paintings, followed by a half hour to frame and submit them for judging and for sale.

Our wildlife remained active while we were distracted enjoying late summer.

There was a lot of cruise ship activity viewable from Gloucester yesterday (Friday) with Hurricane Fiona disrupting two of the prime NE coast itineraries – Bermuda and the Canadian Maritimes. “Maritime Traffic: Global Ship Tracking” (www.marinetraffic.com) is a great tool for seeing what’s going on. Following just the four ships sighted, Zaandam and Roald Amundsen docked in Boston Friday night. On Saturday morning Caribbean Princess (origin and destination shown as Boston, with no ETA???) and Norwegian Breakaway (destination NYC) headed around Cape Cod and were passing east of Nantucket. Queen Mary 2 is due in Boston from NYC this evening.

Here is yesterday’s activity of just the four visible from Eastern Point.

Yesterday our “historian” neighbor, Maggie Rosa, gave a few of us a climbing tour up the tower of Gloucester’s City Hall. The building was dedicated in 1871, following a fire that destroyed the previous structure which was only two years old. Our present City Hall was designed by Gridley J F Bryant, who also designed Boston’s Old City Hall. Maggie wants the public to know there will be tours of the tower on Saturday, September 24 from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm as part of Trails and Sails (Essex National Heritage Area). Here’s an appetizer:

No, they aren’t related. Smith Cove in the inner harbor reminds me of a coastal Maine town, only short on pine trees. And the swells from Hurricane Earl, way off shore, brought out the Jet-skis on Sunday.

Correction! Sorry bout miss-naming Ardelle. Too many boat names; used to sail on Arabella.

Here’s my brief personal take on a successful Gloucester Labor Day Weekend Schooner Festival. Saturday eveing down on the docks before race day, and on Sunday the Parade of Sail out to the starting line, seeing the race at a distance from our house, and then sailing out on Troll to welcome some of the 27 schooners back into the harbor.

A pleasant afternoon sail, well up into the Inner Harbor with views from water level.

The drought is continuing to empty Niles Pond. Starting here with a water level comparison to a year ago.

Sailing on our 21ft. sloop Troll brings me down to water level and close to the action.

We’re in our second heat wave, but Cape Ann is surrounded by water. There are ways to cool off.

US Coast Guard Barque Eagle (America’s Tall Ship) was tied up bowsprit-to-bowsprit with USS Constitution (Congressional Ship of State) at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, for public tours over the weekend. We attended a reception for the USS Constitution Museum on Friday evening, hosted by Eagle. It was special because these are the only two commissioned naval sailing ships in the country. Not only that, they both have their first female Captains.

This week Gloucester hosted the annual 2-day Bluefin Blowout tuna fishing competition. We saw a couple of boats come in and here are some photos of one of the larger fish, caught on F/V Lugnut. I need to learn more about onboard techniques for protecting the quality of the meat of these overheated high metabolism fish after a hard fight.

The extended heat wave finally made it to New England, so here are a few suggestions for staying cool.