Boston is hot hot hot...
42:21.53N
71:02.73W “Dad – are you in Peter sounded puzzled on the phone, not expecting us to be
in this part of the world. But I
was even more puzzled. It was only
a couple of hours earlier that we had dropped anchor off
The voyage down from
The US
Coastguard’s tall ship, the USS Eagle, is escorted into
It was when we were safely installed at the anchorage and busy with the inevitable tidying and sorting that comes after any sea passage that we were surprised by Peter’s call. So how had he known? It turns out that he had just installed a new ‘app’ in his mobile phone for a website that tracks ships using AIS (an automatic position reporting system using VHF radio). And, unbeknown to us, someone on a passing vessel had taken
two photos of us as we motored into
Ananda entering Boston
Harbour: photo courtesy
of M Buckley, marinetraffic.com
In the
Whilst walking through the bustling streets we came across a moving memorial to the Holocaust, with quotations and the names of victims engraved on the glass towers. Our anchorage close to the waterfront, with regular tour boats squeezing past only a few feet away, was too good to last. After a couple of days, the police boat came and moved us on to a big ship anchorage across the river. Being stuck so far out into the river, with ships passing by on either side, felt most precarious - rather like being anchored in the middle of the M6 motorway. Even though we lit the boat brightly and used extra torches at night, we still did not sleep soundly. The highlight came the following day. It was hot, sunny and sultry. A hoot of a horn came from astern, and there stood the answer - a coastguard fire tugboat with fire cannon pumps going full blast! It was heralding the arrival in port of the oldest coastguard sailing vessel in the country, the USS Eagle. A picture of this event even made the Boston Globe, complete with beautiful rainbow arising from the pumped spray. Given their history -the English were rather less welcome in
Shower time
for the Brits, courtesy of the US
Coastguard
A short Metro ride from
John Harvard
– the first benefactor of the university. The statue is not a true
likeness, as no-one knows what he actually looked like. Students rub
his shoe before exams for good
luck… Other high points included a visit to the
The
... and a lovely exhibition of beautiful glass art by the American artist Dale Chihuly.
Soon it’s time to leave, as we have a date to keep at New England Boatworks – time to slip the boat and catch up with maintenance work. So it’s an early start as we head south, timing our departure to arrive at the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal at slack water in time for an evening transit. All is peaceful and, with only light winds, we avoid the big seas that can arise with wind blowing against tide at the entrance to Buzzard’s Bay. After a night anchored in Mattapoissett harbour we continue
the next day down Buzzard’s Bay towards Ram’s Head and on up to |