My View of Life on the Dock
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.
Driving by Good Harbor on a deary and cold spring day, realized how beautiful the beach always looks.
Good Harbor looked so lonely on Wednesday, with cold weather. We know withing a few months happy beach goers will be enjoying the ocean, sun and sea breezes.
photos and video: Rooftops, beaches, and robins. Views from the road plus two winter walks on Wingaersheek Beach–yesterday vs. snowfall today. Jan. 19 (icy blue puddles and sheen) vs. Jan. 20 (yellow light, soft and silent).
morning sun, Wingaersheek Beach
Gloucester, Mass. July 3, 2024.
After a lull in construction on the Good Harbor Beach Inn site — reflecting 3 months fine-tuning the engineering plans just so– the foundation digging for the anchor lobby building has commenced for this scenic property across from Salt Island.
The Martignetti family who purchased Good Harbor Beach Inn a couple of years ago are diehard Gloucester fans. Mark Martignetti who is directing the building is overjoyed to be back at it.
“I’m managing the building for a family venture. We have always, always loved Gloucester! Part of growing up North of Boston is coming to Gloucester…to Good Harbor Beach, right? We had talked about the business for years and years. Now we are thrilled to own it. We can’t wait to open and be part of the community!”
Mark Martignetti. Good Harbor Beach Inn, July 2024
As reported with the demo here, the configuration of the Inn will remain roughly the same featuring a main lobby building with the guest room out buildings clustered on the hill. One local amenity that will not return is the rustic snack window takeout which was not grandfathered into the renovation. Stay tuned: A family familiar with the food & beverage and hospitality industry will no doubt have some attentive and creative ideas to satisfy guests.
The construction site will get busier now. Crews are lined up and final construction ETA may be 9 months out.
Drawings illustrating the final project will be public over the next couple of weeks.
July 1, 2024
April 1
March 18
2019 here
Gloucester and Rockport views all in one summer day, 8/13/2023: 5 P.M., 5:01 P.M., 5:15, 5:16 (w/Salt Island), 5:16 (turned), 5:58, 6:00 P.M., 6:12, 6;13, 6:25 (sunbeam rainbow shines on Twin Lights), 6:26, 6:27, 6:28, 8:22, 9:30 P.M. Note the ‘big sky’ scale of clouds compared with a car, homes, roofs, Salt Island, etc
photo block 5pm-930pm observed sky: The many weather moods in 4 hours on August 13, 2023. Capped off with red (sprites) and white lightning visible from Long Beach 9-10:00 P.M. The lightning looked a bit like far off fireworks. Red and orange bursts and dashes registered some on cell phone (4 sec video clips below). Bet there were some beautiful night and day photos!
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
7 seconds (tough to see: look for red in the middle of the frame at about 4 sec mark. May need to enlarge to full size to bypass the ‘play’ button)
10 seconds- look for dashes in the middle of the frame. White flicker on left was a drone
4 seconds- If this frame were split in 3 vertical strips, about 2 seconds in concentrate on the the left 1/3 to see a pinkish red pulse. Earlier in the evening there were sweeping arcs of diffused lightning
August 13, 2023.
Gloucester and Rockport views all in a summer day. Photo block 5pm-930pm observed sky: The many weather moods in just 4 hours. Capped off with red (sprites) and white lightning visible from Long Beach 9-10:00 P.M. The lightning looked a bit like far off fireworks. Red and orange bursts and dashes registered some on cell phone (4 sec video clips below). Bet there were some beautiful photos tonight!
8/13/2023: 5 P.M., 5:01 P.M., 5:15, 5:16, 5:58, 6:00 P.M., 6:12, 6;13, 6:25 (rainbow), 6:26, 6:27, 6:28, 8:22, 9:30 P.M. Note the big sky scale of clouds compared with a car, homes, roofs, Salt Island, etc
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
7 seconds (tough to see: look for red in the middle of the frame at about 4 sec mark. May need to enlarge to full size to bypass the ‘play’ button)
10 seconds- look for dashes in the middle of the frame. White flicker on left was a drone
4 seconds- If this frame were split in 3 vertical strips, about 2 seconds in concentrate on the the left 1/3 to see a pinkish red pulse. Earlier in the evening there were sweeping arcs of diffused lightning that .
Nice! Foot wash and outdoor shower rinse station added to Witham St. is a great add. This public beach amenity bookends the one installed by the footbridge on Nautilus Road summer 2017.
History
2017 GMG post about Salt Island for sale, again, includes a historic timeline and links to prior ‘for sale’ stories
Save Our Shores – Salt Island coalition including Essex County Greenbelt commenced October 2017 here
2019 sorted deeds
Low tide on Good Harbor Beach reveals a bonus extra visit-in-a-visit for beach-goers. Salt Island is a tied island. Crisscross this signature sandbar or ‘tombolo’ to explore the island features. Enjoy limbo adjusting wading depths as the tides rise and fall. Bringing lunch for an adventure away from our folks was always a thrilling dip into the waters of independence.
Salt Island was purchased back in 2017. Prior posts about Salt Island here and here.
Saturday morning’s sublime sunrise at GHB
Spectacular wildy waves after the March 6th storm. And stunning sunrise this am. Photos from around the back shore of Cape Ann, from Gloucester to Rockport, taken Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
Does Good Harbor Beach at dawn ever get old? I think not 🙂
Good Harbor Beach Inn is open seasonally, 1 Salt Island Road, Gloucester, MA (978)-283-1489 / TOLL FREE 1-87-SEASHELL. Snack bar opens after May 21
Update: we spotted five or six right whales at 6:30AM just off the shore between Salt Island and Thacher. They remained feeding in the area for 11+ hours. Two crossed past the Rockport side of Long Beach, and back again. They were surprisingly fast at times! Post was updated during the day with more photos and videos. I hope some photogs with professional lens will be sharing soon.
30 seconds 4 right whales out of 6 off Gloucester Ma, Long Beach, Twin Lights in backgrounds
1 min video tracking 1 of 6 right whales
How close? This close: here’s another image from an FOB whales out her window!
Is this Atlantic right whale detection app active?
Second post- close up
Third post after work– 3 whales still feeding here 11+ hours later!
2:15PM slush pond roads and closed by Witham and Thacher and Good Harbor Beach parking lot. Power outages this way.
GOOD HARBOR BEACH
Ocean is up on the deck outside the Good Harbor Beach Inn snack bar, though not to the street
LONG BEACH
There go the staircases
**Video coming when power-wifi back**
Salt Island, Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA, is for sale. Unimproved and undeveloped, Salt Island is a natural monument, a beacon. For generations,the Island seemed as free as the air and sea, the beaches and shore. All were welcome at the right tide– daily the beach and island are connected. There’s an innate understanding that visitors need to respect the natural property much as they would when visiting a national park. Yet Salt Island is owned privately; it’s simply left wild and public.
Yearly taxes were paid by the family. The City provided yearly services; for instance lifeguards to help stranded visitors, unaware of the tides.
Is it possible to compensate the owner in the most advantageous way (some combination of sale, waiving estate taxes, credit for donation) to clear up any future ownership confusion and protect the means of public access, minus vague qualifiers (“left open as resources allow”) or increasing any necessary costs? Land steward organizations sometimes sell property or limit access, laws and environment change, funds for care deplete. Is there a common sense path that considers Salt Island as Good Harbor Beach– it’s attached daily– and accorded the same balance of care that the beach has legally maintained since the 1920s?
above – Lifeguards have a summer suggestion in the VIDEO link For Sale in Mass: A $750K Island Packed With History. “This small island in Gloucester, Massachusetts has hosted a major salt theft, a lobstering hermit and a Hollywood production.” by Rob Michaelson for NECN NBC Boston
above- photos of Good Harbor Beach lifeguards moving a signature chair after a morning conditioning training session that involved swimming and running the length of Good Harbor Beach, twice. Foggy drizzle, low tide connection to Salt Island
below– link to Coalition Aims to Buy Salt Island: Greenbelt Negotiating Bid for Save Our Shores, by Ray Lamont Gloucester Daily Times
infinite moods of Salt Island
GMG post about Salt Island includes a historic timeline and links to prior ‘for sale’ stories published by Cape Ann Beacon and Boston Globe
Salt Island, Good Harbor Beach and Brier Neck are naturally connected. The five acre Salt Island is about 1000 feet from Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A sandbar links the island and beach at low tide. I’ve culled a few milestones in its history. Scroll down to 2017 to find the links for the Cape Ann Beacon and today’s Boston Globe.
History of the Town of Gloucester: Cape Ann, John Jame Babson’s published history includes a shipwreck of the vessel, Industry, at Little Good Harbor Beach near Salt Island in 1796
Joseph Parsons’ family operated a lobster business from Salt Island
silent movies were filmed on location
Parts of the Fox Film Corporation movie, Bride Number 13, were shot on location at Good Harbor Beach and Salt Island. The 15 part serial silent film –“the most costly pictures ever made…would consume expenditures of at least one million dollars.” It was conceived and written by Edward Sedgwick, directed by Richard Stanton aka “Salt Island’s Mighty Emperor”, and starred Marguerite Clayton, Jack O’Brien, and Ed Rossman. The script was inspired by Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
Here are a few fun excerpts from 1919 correspondence published in the book, “My father, a silent films pioneer,” by George E. Mcavoy:
“Again the picturesque Gloucester shores have been sought by a motion picture corporation for scenery and the noted Fox Film Company of New York, with its prominent director, Richard Stanton, has arrived at Hotel Harbor View, East Gloucester, to start immediately on the work of filming “Bride Number 13” at Salt Island off Brier Neck.
“It was decided that Salt Island in Gloucester, Mass., would be the setting of the silent film thriller, “Bride Number 13.” This island was an island at high tide and part of the mainland at low tide. Fox film Co. was building a wooden castle on the island, which was about one hundred feet high and hosted the actions of this silent film…”
“(This was five days before the real tornado blew the wooden castle out to sea.)”
Oct 24, 1919“Dear Mother: I left Mary and the babies in Gloucester. I am on my way through New Hampshire and Maine for a lumber camp location. I expect to be back in Gloucester Monday night…
the time for the blowing up of the castle on Salt Island and the rescue of the brides from the pirate band is rapidly approaching…
Billy Carr of Gloucester, Chief Gunner’s Mate on the Navy submarine R-1 that was assigned to the picture, was to play the hero who rescues one of the brides, slashes through the nest of cutthroats, leaps into the basket with her and off. It was now November 10th. A throng of 3,000 was at Good Harbor and all over Brier Neck to watch…On the fourth day Bill Carr was called away on duty and his place was taken by Tom Corbiey…”
“Mr. Sedgwick has achieved something heretofore unknown in moving picture production. He conceived the idea of the story, witnessed and helped direct the scenes, acted in them, had a hand in the grinding of the film, and in fact had a part in every process of the film production…”
“While all bid good-bye to Gloucester last night, there was a general expression of a desire to return and several of the company said that they intended to return here next summer for the vacation period if not in picture work.”
“The explosion was a heavy one and its shock was felt in all parts of the city. It shook the windows of houses on Mt. Vernon Street and vicinity, also at East Gloucester and as far as Rockport. It occurred at 4:20 o’clock and people who felt the shock readily attributed it to the blow-up of Salt Island.”
Then and now: filmmakers love Gloucester.
Fox Film Corporation returned to film the patriotic silent era Navy spy film, THE SILENT COMMAND on Good Harbor Beach, again on the Briar/Brier neck side.
1923 was a busy year for Gloucester, MA. In addition to the municipality managing the bustling tercentenary, Gloucester welcomed another major Fox movie production to shoot on location at Good Harbor Beach. The film was made in cooperation with the Navy. It was directed by J Gordon Edwards, and starred Edmund Lowe and Bela Lugosi in his first American film. It’s essentially a spy thriller with a honeypot formula: foreign power attempts to secure plans to the Panama Canal and blow it up. The villains are thwarted by the US Navy. The production required assistance from the city’s fire department and city electrician. The film crew stayed in Gloucester at the Harbor View Hotel and the Savoy. Local people were cast and spectators lined the beach to watch the thrilling production.
BEFORE CGI:
I love this excerpt from the Gloucester Daily Times describing the staged wreck and tremendous waves washing the crew (stuntmen and Gloucester locals) overboard:
“A crowd of several hundred thronged the (Good Harbor) beach for the picture taking and enjoyed the proceedings, which were interesting, and at times thrilling…The Good Harbor beach setting is a clever contrivance, and constructed to produce a natural rocking motion of a steamer in a heavy sea. The rocking is produced by four winches operated by a crew of 10 men…Storm scenes were filmed yesterday afternoon with local actors, Stuart Cooney, son of Marion J. Cooney, taking the part of the hero and making a thrilling climb into the rigging to the crow’s nest during the height of the storm. Fred Kolstee, a rigger, commanded the crew of the steamer. The crew were (locals) Alfred Marshall, Tony Amero, Tom Bess, Peter Rice, James Francis, James Whittle and William Byers. Rain was produced from lines of hose, and a most realistic effect was produced by two aeroplanes, the wind from the speeding propellors driving the water about, and rushing through the rattlings and rigging with all the vengeance of a real gale at sea. Three times the big tank of water was released and the thousands of gallons broke over the deck in a most thrilling manner. There was some concern among the movie men before the water was released that some of the men might get buffeted about and get hurt, and they were cautioned to hold on tight.
It was best expressed by Alfred Marshall when he stepped toward the ladder to leave the craft after the picture taking was done. Alfred was quite vexed. “Blankety, blankety, blank___, is this the best you can do? Blank, I’ve bailed bigger seas than that out of a dory. And he sung it right out so all could hear, too.”
Stuart Cooney ensured that the movie was a success from a technical perspective and “purchased the outfit and (took) it over” after the filming finished. He was a Gloucester pioneer in the film industry that’s still going strong. Film Cape Ann facilitates bringing local productions here, like the award winning Manchester by the Sea. The Wikipedia page doesn’t have any mention of Gloucester, but it helped me with an illustration for The Silent Command lobby poster.
See for yourself; here’s a link to the complete movie. A few of the Gloucester scenes (not all) 1:03:44, 1:08:54, 1:09:54 (some coast), 1:10:21, 1:10:52 (dory lowered from navy ship), 1:11:12 (beach island)
AFI for TCM brief synopsis: “This is one of those ‘Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean’ pictures. Full of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ patriotic to the nth degree with the navy floating all over the screen. A real hero, a vamp, and a flock of thrills.” (from Var review.) Foreign agents, determined to destroy the United States Navy’s Atlantic Fleet and the Panama Canal, after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain from Capt. Richard Decatur information regarding mine positions in the Canal Zone, hire adventuress Peg Williams to vamp Captain Decatur, thereby putting him at their mercy. Decatur, advised by the Chief of Naval Intelligence, plays along with the spies to gain their confidence. He leaves his wife and is dismissed from the Navy as a result of his association with Miss Williams. Finally, he goes to Panama, thwarts the saboteurs, saves the fleet and the canal, and gains honorable reinstatement and the gratitude of his country for his heroism.”
Guy Parsons used one of the old family fishing shacks as a summer place
By now the fishing shacks were no longer visible
Parson family sold Salt Island
James Kimball purchased Salt Island for $2000
Yankee Magazine article about Bride Number 13 Lights! Camera! Disaster! by Joseph E. Garland
Gloucester Daily Times article mentions that James Kimball “has no plans for the island, although in the past he has thought of building a summer home on the island. When I was young my family spent their summers on Brier Neck…So when the island became available I jumped at the chance.”
One of the designated “Special places in Gloucester”
“Special places in Gloucester” appendix list for the MA Heritage Landscape Inventory Program, MA Dept of Conservation and Recreation Essex National Heritage
GMG abou the Filming of Bride 13 on Salt Island by Fred Bodin
“Where is this film? I’d love to know. All sources indicate that Bride 13 was either lost or destroyed, as happened with many silent films. The reference used for this post was the May 1972 Yankee Magazine article, Lights! Camera! Disaster!, authored by the late Joseph E. Garland of Gloucester.”
and September 9, 2011 GMG Filming of Bride 13 on Salt Island Fred Buck Cape Ann Museum adds photos from the location filming
Salt Island listed for sale $300,000 plus beach parking passes for the family
Salt Island listed For Sale $750,000
Sept 1 Cape Ann Beacon “Salt Island is for Sale” by Jason Brisbois
Today’s paper: Sept 16 Boston Globe “A Gem or a Rock: For $750,000 Salt Island Could Be Yours” by Billy Baker
“If somebody buys it and builds, it’s because these guys didn’t step up to the plate and protect it the way my father did when I was a little girl, ” said Maslow, who pointed out that she and her siblings are not rich people with big summer houses. “I can’t help it if someone buys it and paints it purple and puts pigs on it.” – Karen Maslow
“…this island has been available for public use informally for generations thanks to the goodwill of that family. That point should not be lost.” — Chris LaPointe, Essex County Greenbelt
Trulia listing for Salt Island exclaims “Showings available only at low tide!”
Good Morning Gloucester 