Wot, no Whales! - Boston

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 10 Jul 2013 01:27

42:21.7N 71:02.0W

 

 

Mon & Tuesday – 8th & 9th July

 

We took the opportunity on Monday to go ashore at Provincetown as this provided Sarah with another opportunity to tour the many and very varied art galleries. The weather was a bit mixed through the day and a fairly dense fog swept through the anchorage in the late afternoon as the wind swung round to the north.

 

On Tuesday we made another early start, but this was exclusively in order to sail out to the Stellwagen Bank before heading over to Boston itself. There was very little wind and a fairly flat sea, but sadly the fog remained with us for most of the day, simply varying in its intensity. We did manage to spot some pilot whales and a lone fin whale as well as a few random camera shy seals, but the real stars of the show – the Right Whales – remained elusive. There were not even any whale watching boats out which probably tells us that we had picked a bad day to go out there.

 

We made our way then the 20 odd miles to Boston harbour and again used our new sail to wonderful effect, managing a sprightly 7+ knots in just 9 knots of true wind.

 

By 1600 hours we were in the centre of Boston harbour, opposite the site of the infamous Tea Party and we moored up in Boston Harbor Shipyard just as we did last year. The wonderful manager, Pat Gately was there to greet us and she handed over various parcels that we had had sent to us c/o the marina. They have shoehorned us into a 40ft slip with the promise that they will move us as soon as one of the bigger boats moves from the 50ft slips on Thursday.  We met our new neighbours here and took full advantage of the good showers and facilities.

 

Tom, our eldest has arrived safe and sound in Australia (Perth) armed with a working holiday visa which allows him two years to see how he gets on.  This is a big adventure for him and his first few emails have been very positive indeed.