You might be wondering how we choose which ports to visit and, more importantly, where to “park” Patronus for the night.  In addition to the internet, we have three “cruising guides” for the New England area: The Cruising Guide to the New England Coast, Dozier’s Waterway Guide: Northern 2011, and A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast.  We also have Cruising At Last, by Elliot Merrick, which is a memoir of Merrick’s years of cruising the east coast with his wife.  It includes lovely descriptions of sailing as well as the ports.  I find them romantic and inspiring, even though the harbor details are outdated and cannot be used as a guide.

The cruising guides list each port in order, from South to North.  They give general information about each port, explaining the approaches, listing the anchoring/mooring/docking options, and describing the availability of other facilities, such as water, diesel, pumpouts, electric, groceries, ice, laundry, showers, and repairs.  They often list points of interest, such as museums, restaurants, tours, hikes, and other things to do.

When planning our trip, Chris and I talked incessantly about where we wanted to go.  In New England, Newport, Gloucester, Wellfleet, and Bar Harbor were all high on the “must-do” list.  We both grew up boating in the waters between New Jersey and Massachusetts, so we are reasonably familiar with the options.  The next step involved charting distances between ports to make sure we were planning reasonable trips.  This was especially important for the first part of the trip, because we do not want to overwhelm the children with long, exhausting passages that may sour them to the voyage before it even begins.  Hurricane season lasts until November 1^st, so we are not in a rush.  We have until then to get to Beaufort, North Carolina, the jumping off point for Bermuda.  We cannot leave for Bermuda until then because our boat insurance policy dictates that we stay out of the “hurricane box” until the season is over.

If you go to the “Floatplan” page, you will see our itinerary through the beginning of September and a very loose idea of where will be for the remainder of the year.  As we settle into a groove, we will have more time to sit down and night and do research so that we can fill in some of the empty spots.  Once we have our floatplan “set”, we will still need to remain flexible.  Weather, boat repairs, and other unexpected delays could all throw a wrench into our plans (get it?).  In addition, we may fall in love with a place and decide to stay longer, causing us to modify the plan.

For the next few weeks, we would like to spend as much time in Maine as possible.  Once we return from our year-long trip, it will be unlikely that we will have an opportunity like this to explore Maine’s gorgeous coast for an extended period of time.  So we’ve been talking to locals, poring over the cruising guides, and using our charts to figure out ways to plot our path.  From Marblehead and Gloucester, the next obvious place to visit was Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Portsmouth is a city that has many amenities.  We knew we would be able to get fuel and water.  We also knew we would be able to find lots of places to explore.  Portsmouth is 36 miles from Gloucester, a nice day’s sail.  The cruising guides suggested several places to get a mooring, but anchoring is not much of an option.  We called ahead to the Portsmouth Yacht Club to reserve a mooring because of their location near the mouth of the river, near the downtown, and the availability of fuel and water.

storms acoming…

You can read about our downwind run from Gloucester to Portsmouth in Chris’ blog.  After approaching the Portsmouth Yacht Club, on the Piscataqua River, we docked in a heavy current and completed a two hour wash down of Patronus.  As we were finishing, I banged my head hard on the boom.  I saw stars and had to sit down for a while.  We fueled up before heading to our mooring and then came into the yacht club for showers.  We met a lovely family on a catamaran who have been living aboard and sailing between Maine and the Bahamas for six years!  Their daughter was lovely and we hope to catch up with them as we head Down East.

After dinner, we prepared the boat for a heavy thunderstorm.  The heaviest part of the storm passed to the east of us, so we dealt with high winds and rain, but mostly we sat in the covered cockpit enjoying the thunder and lightning show.  I was relieved to see that Porter’s previous fear of lightning has disappeared.

The next day (July 18), we took the dinghy to Prescott Park, passing the Naval Shipyard, which was built in 1800!  They were working on a submarine, which was very cool to see.  We spent the whole day at Strawberry Banke, an outdoor museum.  The museum was a restored village with original homes from Portsmouth dating back to the 1700’s.  We really enjoyed touring each building and watching demonstrations of pottery making, colonial cooking, and children’s games.

pocket shutters. beautiful.

Some of the houses were set up to show the processes used in homebuilding back then, so they had areas of exposed lathe and plaster, framing, and foundations.  Chris really enjoyed those exhibits.  As usual, I spent most of the day texting pictures of cool architectural details to Steffanie, with whom I share this passion.  My favorite detail remains the pocket window shutters.  I am totally doing that in our house someday.

a favorite demonstration: the very charismatic potter

We had a lobster roll lunch at Geno’s, which was within walking distance of the museum.  It was right on the water and everything was simple and authentic.  I fought the urge to get the blueberry pie for dessert.  I’m holding out for the real thing: blueberry pie from Maine (a technicality, because, if I was better at throwing, I could have thrown a blueberry pie to Maine from Geno’s, as the Piscataqua River divides New Hampshire and Maine.)

flailing in the current

When we got back to the boat, I insisted on doing my daily swim, despite the fact that the Piscataqua River has the second swiftest river current in the United States, and we were currently at max ebb.  I donned my wetsuit, we set out a safety line, and I amused my shipmates as I attempted to swim four strokes before being sent down the river.  I had to grab the safety line and pull with all my might to get back to the boat.  I tried several more times, but I was getting more of a workout by pulling myself back to the boat than by flailing my arms and legs in a panic while swimming.  Watch and laugh here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjskhoGHlBU

bardwell and conway children

We were excited that our friends, the Bardwells, could visit us here.  Michael, Patty, and their children Madison and Peyton, are from Georgia, but they were in nearby Salisbury Beach, visiting Michael’s parents for the week.  They brought Michael’s father and brother-in-law along for the ride, so it was fun and festive to have everyone on the boat for a nice visit.

We headed back to the downtown area for dinner at the Old Ferry Landing restaurant and ice cream, of course.  We were torn about where to go.  We had had recommendations to two places.  It seems that my penchant for ice cream has become a bit of a well-known fact.  Michael had heard that Izzy’s was good and the launch operator at PYC suggested Annabelle’s.  Well folks, history was made that night.  Annabelle’s seemed like a good old typical harbor town ice cream place, but it was THE BEST ICE CREAM I HAVE EVER HAD.  I have no idea what anyone else had, because I was in such a state of heavenly bliss with my Toffee Heath Bar Ice Cream that it was all I saw, smelled, felt, and tasted for a good 15 minutes.  And if ice cream made sound, it would have been all I listened to, as well.  For me to say it was the best I’ve ever had is not one of my typical overstatements or exaggerations.  If I could only have one ice cream for the rest of my life, this would be it.  Not Carvel.  I know.  Shocking.  Not even Haagen Dazs.  Even more incredible.

So basically, all you really need to know about Portsmouth is- Go to Annabelle’s Ice Cream Shop.

thistle…so pretty

Bryson finds a secret door

Porter enjoys a super-fast dinghy ride

Reese pretends to cook over an open fire

a war-time general store

Bryson figured out what it is. Can you?

porter at the restored village