Having arrived in Marblehead late last Monday afternoon we had access to wi-fi and that was when we discovered that ‘Irene’ was heading our way. We had the opportunity of a secure mooring at Marblehead but the early predictions were forecasting a period of very strong NE winds and at this Marblehead is very exposed. We motored the 10 miles over to Gloucester, a fishing port ( famous in ‘The Perfect Storm’) which is sheltered from the South through East to the W.N.W. Here all the moorings and slips (pontoons) had been booked but the anchorage seemed secure and we proceeded to remove sails, get 2^nd anchor ready etc; all in glorious hot, windless and sunny weather! We enjoyed a meal ashore with Rob and Linda from Twilight and visited some of the small galleries. The restaurants were all busy and lively.  Later forecasts were less NE and prolonged SW winds which is Gloucester’s exposed direction! We then re anchored and found the seabed is so soft the anchor was not as secure as we expected so we decided to move back to Marblehead! Again on Saturday there was total calm although it was by now cloudy and damp and while lots of boats had been slipped or moved there must still have been over a thousand boats on moorings and nobody aboard them!

We stayed ashore until Monday morning and then got organised. Chris and Erin from Barefeet (now sold) came up from Boston and we had a great lunch at the Landing Restaurant. Fun to catch up with them again – we had been with them in La Gomera, the BVIs and the Bahamas.

www.thelandingrestaurant.com

In the end we were spared the storm force winds and torrential rain but it was an anxious time for the whole week.