42:36.626N 070:39.352W

It is Tuesday morning and we are on our last leg motoring around Cape Ann to set a course for Isle of Shoals and then into New Castle early in the evening when the tide is high enough to approach. 

Yesterday morning we left Provincetown with 10kts out of the NW but it quickly died and we set a straight 50 mile course on almost totally flat water for Gloucester.  The wind never came up but it was a great day anyway.  About noon, we met up with a hump back whale about 700 feet from the boat.  He/she had surfaced and was just lounging on the surface between a couple of ten minute dives.  The first dive was spectacular; we saw the full crown of the back and then the huge flukes curling out of the water rising high and then down it went.  Other lesser events very close to the boat and soon after our whale encounter was harbour seal sunning himself and then what we think were sharks corralling and feeding on a school of fish. 

We made Gloucester by 4:00 and anchored in the inner harbour.  It was a wonderful visit; a very real working fishing harbour with great sounds, very warm people, and air that changed almost with each breath...sometimes wonderful and at times, eye watering.  The light as the sun set was incredible so we took tons of pictures. 

George