Portsmouth

We had a nice run to Portsmouth, past Portland's multiple light houses in the dawn's early light.  First, as we were leaving, the Bug Light.

Then the Portland Head Lighthouse

Once we arrived in Portsmouth, we left Latitudes at a mooring at the Portsmouth Yacht Club and took a few days worth of stuff to friends' Gail and Eric's house.  That "stuff" included Smokey. She wasn't pleased at the ride on the launch (the yacht club boat that comes out to get you), nor did she like the 5 minute car ride to Gail's.  She did a quick, skiddish survey of the house and then we showed her the upstairs apartment where we would be staying.  Once there, especially with just the 2 of us, she settled down quickly.  And why not!  She had a bed to hide under and to sleep on with us, big windows to sit in and watch the world, plus a nice sunny carpet to stretch and play.  Smoke stayed happily up there all 3 days, with apparently no interest in going downstairs to the main house.  It worked better than I had hoped.

Our friends Marina and Dave are the ones who winter in FL and summer here in NH.  So, we get to see them on each trip!  They've moved to a new house (from the apartment at Gail's) and had us over for dinner.  The house is beautiful and I loooove it when someone cooks for me

Gail and I did laundry, groceries, had a girlie lunch, and ran lots of little errands.  The boys went to the rifle range and plinked with Eric's black powder Civil War era musket. Here is Eric, hard at work....

On Thursday Marina and I did pedicures again!  Nice sparklie toes again!  Dave, Eric, and Luke took Dave's runabout out on the Piscataqua river, through Portsmouth, and played at fishing.  The Piscataqua river is  known locally as the second fastest running river in the country, up to 4 kts, they say. Locally they don't know what the fastest river is.  We had a last dinner at Gail's and scooped up Smoke to take back "home".  She leaped aboard the boat, took a quick inspection, and then settled down into one of her favorite nests.  She slept there all night, apparently never budged.  Ahhh...home is comfortable.

This morning we left way too early, at 6 a.m. First we passed the twin lighthouses of Cape Ann.

We went out of our way to cross the Stellwagen Bank, world renowned for it's large population of giant bluefin tuna  and whales.  Apparently the way to catch tuna is to use a use a kite or helium balloon, and a hook baited with live pogies.  Tuna as large as 1000 pounds have been caught on the MA bay, sold for over $20,000 to the Japanese market.  The local fisherman that catches the prize tuna gets about 1/3 of the money. We saw the kites and helium balloons today in the myraids of boats. No, not quite sure just how those kites and balloons work, but apparently they do! 

We did see whales, too, two of them. One only showed its back, the second flashed its flukes - just like in the movies! I am sure that one  also passed directly under the boat.  The depth finder went from 265 ft to 9 ft, setting off an alarm.  The 9 ft depth slowly changed, getting a little shallower and then slowly deeper.  About long enough for a 50 ft whale to pass!

We are again in Plymouth, MA.  The 11 hour trip got us here late, and we simply anchored outside of town. Smokey is back to her old spots, watching the water, birds, and other boats.  Quite happily, I might add.

 

  Tomorrow we hope to go through the Cape Cod Canal --- One step closer to home.