My View of Life on the Dock
Aug 22, 2025
Both Long Beach and Good Harbor Beach were closed to swimming again due to shark sightings –and seals, too, viewed from Good Harbor. Rumors about a beached Great White circulated and dissipated. Long Beach reopened to swimmers. The waves are tremendous.
10:30AM 8/21/2025
Buzz on Long Beach about the shark sightings. Harbor Master boats and police patrols on sand.
Gorgeous firework display in Gloucester last night. Looking forward to tonight’s!
photos: Good Harbor Beach. Long Beach. Inn at Good Harbor Beach. June 20, 2025. The weather forecast for next week is more unbroken fine summer weather for beach and Fiesta 🙂
Photos: June 19, 2025. Mesmerizing fog then the sun broke out and the sky was cloudless and blue. And June 12th.
video clip: Unusual seagull line up. They usually tuck in clumps along Long Beach for weather events.
zoom images: digiscoping hack (cell phone camera through binoculars)
Early spring. March 2025
not sure what they indicate.
The ocean was telling a story on Saturday. Long Beach near high tide was impressive.
photos | video: This much snow about 8:30 AM in Gloucester, Ma. 1/11/2025. Roads clear. Winter views back shore, Good Harbor Beach, Days Pond, Long Beach.
October 28, 2024. Surfside Subs is closing for the season— later this year because the weather has been warm, and they are slammed. On some summer days, they have record lobster roll sales. Can you guess how many?
Customers lined up one fall day for mudiga steak subs, turkey subs, tuna salad, pizzas, and yes, lobster rolls, which are on special this week. Also pizza. Buy any pizza and get a second one for $5, scrumptious fresh and hot. Too much? When you’re cold and missing a Long Beach Surfside slice, you’ll be happy you bought an extra to wrap and freeze for later.
photos and video from shore. September 23 and 24, 2024
The ocean and wind were telling stories on Friday afternoon.
August 14, 2024. 6pm.
Images: Exciting sightings! Shoreside views looking in the direction of Milk Island and Twin Lights from Long Beach neighborhood. Feeding and fast maneuvers between Twin Lights and Good Harbor Beach with the extended feeding seen in the images closest in line to Milk.
July 4, 2024
photo May 2024: picturesque spring step was David Lean-esque on Long Beach
photos: Long Beach April 5, 2024
photos: Long Beach status April 2, 2024 https://goodmorninggloucester.com/2024/04/02/long-beach-seawall-conditions-2024/
Photo series journaling the impact from the 2023-24 winter storms and tides. Much of the wall and walkway look great.
The packed soil walkway atop the Long Beach seawall shows a loss of 1″ to 6″ vertical height, scraped for stretches along most of the wall (and more than a foot high loss by the old hotel). There are new and old potholes and cracks in the concrete sections beneath the handrail, and a single rapidly enlarging sinkhole at the footbridge end which is ready for a caution cone or barrel.
pinch and zoom to enlarge; right click for description
There are a few repeat vulnerable spots that have not grown rapidly (unlike the one in the photo block above).
After a trio of March storms in 2018, the seawall pathway collapsed in two sections, revealing gaping chasms beneath (later filled). Fissures, cracks and seasonal pothole wear and tear were numerous. Thanks to immediate major repairs, the hollow underbelly sections were filled and packed down and the walkway widened pretty much the entire seawall. Rip rap boulders were shuffled into temporary pyres as extra wall support on the beach side.
photo caption: Same spot. Unlike the pathway which changed significantly, find the railing post to note the rough concrete chunk jutting out that has not changed.
Detail of the 2022 dislodged piece before/after
In 2019, hundreds of tons of boulders were added strategically, and later an impressive quantity of sand. Unsurprisingly the sand was devoured by tides and storms–even on the very day it was deposited, swept straight away. The rip rap–mostly unchanged–and new walkway have held.
Boulder pile 2019 still here 2024. The big rocks work.
Before the 2018 winter storm trio, people discussed the pros and cons about raising the height of the seawall, removing it, and so on. After the major upgrades in 2018 and 2019, a town committee was established to study future options for the Long Beach cottages and seawall which wrapped up March 2022.
The 2024 Rockport Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for April 6, 2024.
The detailed Long Beach seawall schematics from 2020 can be found here:
Rockport DPW does annual maintenance. I can’t find updated plans and diagrams about the scope of the proposed next phase of the Long Beach seawall project, but will add them here if I do. Based on the estimated 2.8M award reported in the FEMA press announcement May 4, 2023 to be combined with the town’s match of 1.3M, perhaps it was solely repair and maintenance, and spots that had not been addressed in 2018 and 2019. It’s a long seawall! The 2020 schematic labels 350 feet of wall from roughly #58-#70 as damaged. After the path was tamped down, the bowing was visible.
After this winter, there are new additions (e.g. the vertical loss on the path and that sinkhole). That 2023 press release described a deeper wall section slated for reinforcement, but it doesn’t indicate how long or diagram where. It describes new stairs on the Gloucester side relocated within Rockport. I believe that the replacement stairs installed after the 2018 storm damage were temporary (still standing).
Rockport DPW response is swift and sure. Other than the sand, the infrastructure repairs and maintenance are strong and steady and coordinated with state and federal assistance.
photo caption: 3/10/2024 at about high tide, views from Gloucester and Rockport, Long Beach, Twin Lights. Before the sun came out, the wind was strong enough this morning to move a portapotty off site 100′ down a street. Later, when the sun broke, waves in the surf matched up with a cloud filled blue sky.
porta potty almost put back to construction site. gray sky on left. blue sky hours later
-loading a few-
From the seawall, ricochet wave rolls
From Cape Ann Motor Inn
Photos above: C. Ryan 3/10/2024
March 9, 2024: The gray days are pretty, too. Snow buntings still about.
snow bunting dips- flying down from cottages over rip rap on the beach and back up again
Good Morning Gloucester 