It was a cloudy, overcast and chilly day on Thursday, August 17th. Cloudy weather certainly wasn’t going to stop us from doing some sightseeing in town by foot. As mentioned in a previous post, we both had been to Gloucester before but usually we just drove through the city on our way to someplace else. The city has a lot to offer visitors but unfortunately between our continued effort to unpack all of our bins, the lack of transportation and an unexpected visit with family, our four night stay didn’t provide us with an opportunity to do or see as much as we wanted.

Anyway, once we were ready, we radioed the launch for a ride into town. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name but we were super impressed with the launch driver – he was super friendly, full of information about the area and very helpful.  By making restaurant recommendations, suggesting things to do and even offering to take us on a tour of the entire harbor by launch, he went above and beyond to ensure that we, as visitors, enjoyed our short stay.

The first item on our agenda was of course, breakfast. After the launch dropped us off at one of the docks, based on the driver’s recommendation, we walked over to Mom’s Kitchen. Despite the fact that it was a weekday, it was still busy so we had a short wait for a table. We just had a basic two egg breakfast which was very good and very well priced. Surprisingly we neglected to take pictures.

After breakfast, it unfortunately started to drizzle slightly, but that didn’t dampen our spirits and thankfully it didn’t last long. Strolling along Main Street, there were an array of interesting shops, restaurants, art galleries, and gift shops. Always fun window shopping!

In the midst of all the shops and restaurants, looking quite stately at the top of a small hill along Main Street, was the historic Sargent House Museum. This Georgian style house was built in 1782 for Judith Sargent Murray and her first husband, John Stevens, a merchant in the West Indies trade who died in 1786. In 1788, Judith remarried John Murray, the founder of the first Universalist Church in America. Judith was an early American advocate for women’s rights, an essay writer, playwright, poet, and letter writer. The Museum houses a small but exquisite collection of American decorative arts and furniture. Open only on weekends, $12 general admission, $10 seniors, $5 students.

Located along the waterfront is another museum which might be of interest to visitors, the Gloucester Heritage Maritime Center. Part of it was under construction when we were there so we didn’t have an opportunity to visit. According to their website, “the mission of Maritime Gloucester is to inspire students and visitors to value maritime heritage, marine science, and environmental stewardship through hands-on education and experiences.”  The Center is open Thursday-Monday 10am-4pm. Admission for adults $12; seniors, military, students, teachers $8; children under 2 – Free. 

Located on a small peninsula in Smith Cove is the Rocky Neck Art Colony, one of the oldest working art colonies in the country. Working artists comprised of painters, potters and textile designers, photographers and jewelry makers, display their work at the Rocky Neck galleries during the summer months. Although we didn’t have an opportunity to visit there, we stumbled on a different type of art offering in the form of very vibrant murals that were painted on the sides of buildings.  We didn’t realize at the time that there a map showing the location and a picture of each of the murals throughout the city which can be found here. So we only saw a few of them. The very colorful one below was dedicated to Judith Sargent Murray.

The mural below features iconic Gloucester architecture, its seafaring history and examples of its sea life along with a separate painting of the iconic Man at the Wheel.

Of course, there is nothing more iconic in the seafood industry than the vision of a stubbly-faced fisherman in a yellow slicker clutching a helm wheel! That fisherman is a representative of Gorton’s seafood which has been headquartered in Gloucester since 1849. Gorton’s was the first to develop a frozen convenience food in 1944 when it launched the frozen fish stick.

Walking by that iconic sign sure brought back a lot of memories for me. Gorton’s Fish Sticks and Cod Fish Cakes were a regular supper staple during my childhood! The sign is located across the street from the Gorton’s Seafood Center. We thought that they might have tours of their facility but no such luck!

 

At the recommendation of our launch driver, we had to check out the new Mariner’s Lounge in the Harbormaster’s building. Access to the building and use of the facilities (new showers, restrooms) is included with the mooring rental. A VIP Port Package which provides helpful visitor info, provisions, specials, and maps is available to boaters.

After seeing the lounge, we walked down the dock where we boarded the launch for a ride back to our boat.

It was a quiet evening watching the various boats come and go. The fickle fog rolled in around 5:00 p.m.

Then by 7:00 p.m., it had lifted slightly but it was still surprising to see a sailing schooner tour boat head out. If it was supposed to be a sunset cruise, the passengers will be pretty disappointed!

Having had a day of fun, the following day was spent taking care of business!  Before we headed out on the next leg of our journey, we would need diesel fuel. We had been told by the launch driver that the cheapest fuel was at Brown’s Yacht Yard, after Rob called to verify the price ($4.05), we dropped the mooring and headed over. This would be the first time filling up our two 165 gallon fuel tanks. And fill them we did, the total was $1035, yikes, definitely a case of shell shock! But that would easily last us the rest of the season.

Another to do item was to try out the “new to us” dinghy that came with the boat. After fueling up Rob untied the dinghy from it’s ramps and attempted to slide it horizontally off the ramps as they are designed to do. That didn’t go very smoothly due to the dinghy not being balanced properly on the ramps. The weight from the engine almost caused the dinghy to topple over backwards instead. Well that’s not good.

To bring the dinghy alongside the swim platform so we could get in and out more easily, the ramp arms needed to be removed. They are each about six feet long and cantilever off a couple of fittings mounted on the swim platform making them difficult to remove, and even more difficult to store. Well, that’s not good either!

Next we went for a ride in the dinghy. The engine worked well. But, whereas we have always had a soft bottomed dinghy with a flat wood or aluminum floor, this one was a single hull fiberglass “RIB” which is a fiberglass hull glued to soft flotation tubes. The single hull design makes for a not flat floor and also makes it very deep. That makes it uncomfortable to ride in and difficult to get in and out of. Not to mention this dinghy had PVC tubes which don’t hold up well when exposed to sunlight. They get sticky over time, Hypalon fabric is more expensive, but is much preferred. Well, more things that aren’t good!

The worst part was getting the dingy back up on the ramps, it was very difficult to say the least. That was the last straw, there are so many issues with this setup, we pretty much decided then and there it all had to go. We haven’t settled on a replacement option yet, but it’s likely to be a more comfortable dinghy with a setup similar to what we had on Quantum Leap which made it relatively easy to deploy and retrieve.

Now that all of our chores were completed, we were ready to have some fun the next day!