David’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Location: Quissett Harbor, Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 41° 32.612′ N  70° 39.241′ W

We spent eight days in the Boston area, and it was a whirlwind of activity. Logistics first: We began our stay hooked to a mooring ball in Manchester-by-the-Sea, which is a charming small New England town northeast of Boston, with a very well-protected harbor. A couple days later we moved the boat over to Marblehead, which is also a beautiful New England town with a rich yachting history. Unfortunately, Marblehead Harbor isn’t very well protected, and we had a couple rough nights with surge from the bay. We even deployed our roll-reducer (flopper-stopper), but it wasn’t enough. We finally decided to move back over to Manchester-by-the-Sea for our last two nights, which was a good decision — we slept much better, and Piccadilly was also much happier during the day while we were off the boat.

My Aunt Sarah and Uncle Herb live in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a lovely town west of Boston. One of the reasons we came to Boston was to spend time with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Herb. They generously lent us one of their cars, so we had our own wheels for the entire visit — sweet!

Our activities in the Boston area began with Ayla delivering her Save our Seas presentation to a school in Tewsbury, which Kathryn documented in her blog. It was really a fun day, and it was a great start to Ayla’s “Fall speaking tour” — she’s had several other invitations, and I’m sure we won’t be able to do them all as we cruise down the east coast.

We spent Thursday in Cambridge, touring Harvard and M.I.T. It’s a bit early for Ayla to be looking at colleges, but as long as we were here we decided to show her two of the best. A friend of ours has a daughter who is a senior at Harvard, and she gave us a great tour of the campus, including behind-the-scenes looks at the living quarters and mess hall. Ayla was really impressed with Harvard, and I think she’ll keep it in mind as she gets older. We spent less time at M.I.T., but we walked around the campus, and visited the M.I.T. Museum. We have another friend who has a daughter who is a sophomore at M.I.T., and we met up with her and walked across the campus with her. M.I.T. didn’t resonate with Ayla like Harvard did, but she still had fun seeing it, and it gives her another school to compare things to.

On Friday we walked The Freedom Trail in Boston, which is a walk back in time through American History. We filmed and edited a video that Ayla submitted to a news magazine — we can’t post it on the web site yet, but we will at some point. It was a fun day walking around this very walkable city.

Saturday we ran errands. It’s nice when we have a car in an area that has a variety of stores (marine and otherwise). Of course, we didn’t get all the errands done that we wanted to, but the car was full and the day was at an end, so it was time to stop. I think the dingy floated a 6-8 inches lower as we transported all of our provisions and supplies back to the boat.

Monday was Ayla’s 13th birthday — woo hoo! Aunt Sarah and Uncle Herb hosted a celebration for her at their lovely home in Wellesley on Monday evening. Kathryn’s Mom and her husband Sandy were on the East Coast for a reunion, so they came over to Boston for Ayla’s birthday too. It was a beautiful evening, filled with love and family. I can’t believe Ayla is now a teenager!  🙂

Today we awoke early and slipped the lines from the mooring ball as the sun was coming up. We cruised across Massachusetts Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal to Buzzard’s Bay, and we picked up a mooring ball in Quissett Harbor. The cruise was uneventful and smooth — just the way we like it. We’ll stay here for a couple nights, and then cruise to Rhode Island on Thursday — Ayla is giving her Save our Seas talk at a school on Friday. From there we’ll head over to Block Island and wait for a weather opportunity to make a run for the Chesapeake Bay. If a good weather window doesn’t emerge, then we’ll hop down the coast via Long Island Sound.

Big hugs and kisses to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Herb for their warm hospitality and generosity. It was great to spend time with them, and we look forward to seeing them somewhere else along our voyage.