Good Harbor Beach never disappoints. Autumn days are so pretty, with blue skies and blue ocean. The ocean and air temperature was still warm enough to go barefoot. Love the sand and salt water on my feet.
Tag: Salt Island
Suddenly, resplendent. Summer blue days #GloucesterMA
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.
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Even on a deary day
Driving by Good Harbor on a deary and cold spring day, realized how beautiful the beach always looks.
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Lonely Good Harbor Beach
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.
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This much fresh snow in Gloucester.
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).
Gloucester houses and rooftops
Good Harbor Beach Marsh views
Road to. Wingaersheek Beach
Robins
morning sun, Wingaersheek Beach
January 19, 2025
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Back at it! Good Harbor Beach Inn construction update #GloucesterMA
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.
Renderings
Drawings illustrating the final project will be public over the next couple of weeks.
BEFORE
July 1, 2024
April 1
March 18
2019 here
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Did you see the sunbeam rainbow? And the red sprites and night lightning on the ocean horizon? Long Beach #GloucesterMA #RockportMA
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!
sunbeam rainbow
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
video snippets below
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
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Did you see the red and white lightning on the ocean horizon tonight? Long Beach #GloucesterMA #RockportMA
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
sunbeam rainbow
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
video snippets below
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 .
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Good Harbor Beach cherished rock
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DPW added a new green shower footbath at Good Harbor Beach Witham St. #GloucesterMA
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.
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Thatcher and Salt Island on a pretty spring day
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Salt Island fence posts Good Harbor Beach #GloucesterMA
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
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Crisscrossing Salt Island sandbar | Good Harbor Beach at low tide #GloucesterMA
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.
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FIERY SUBLIME SUNRISE GOOD HARBOR BEACH
Saturday morning’s sublime sunrise at GHB
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WILD WAVE WEEKEND TOUR #GLOUCESTERMA GOOD HARBOR BEACH, TWIN LIGHTS, STRAITSMOUTH ISLAND LIGHT, BRACE COVE
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.
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A GOOD HARBOR BEACH GOOD MORNING!
Does Good Harbor Beach at dawn ever get old? I think not 🙂
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Good Harbor Beach Inn is open for the season, directly on the beach & sporting new awnings #GloucesterMA 🏖️☀️
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
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WHALES 5+ feeding between Salt Island & Long Beach visible from shore now! #GloucesterMA
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!
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Bomb cyclone winter storm: Good Harbor Beach, Long Beach, Witham Street #GloucesterMA North of Boston
UPDATED- link to post2 January 5th with video
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**
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#GloucesterMA Good Harbor Beach Salt Island: Greenbelt in GDT & lifeguards interviewed for NBC Boston NECN news
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
