Isle of Shoals

Gosport Harbor, Isle of Shoals, NH, N 42 58.742 W 70 36.808

Ah, yet another nice day in paradise. My sister Nancy and her daughter Lena met us in Marblehead this morning and the four of us sailed of the the harbor. We were a little reluctant to leave because that place was so nice, and the Marblehead Yacht Club people were so hospitable.

But before all that, the dockmaster really made my day. I was waiting around the dock around 8AM and he said, "I have to go fire the cannon." Every morning at 8AM and at sunset each of the yacht clubs in the harbor fires their cannons. They are really loud and the first time I heard them I was very startled. Anyhow, I said, "Cool. Let me come and watch." He replied, "Better than that, would you like to fire it?" Wow! I did fire it and it was enormous fun. My two sons who are both soldiers would appreciate the feeling.

As we sailed out of the harbor we encountered a nice but gentle breeze. We were also treated to the sight of a hundred or more single design sailing boats on a sailing race leaving the harbor beside us.

We offered Nancy a choice of destinations, and she said "How about an Island?" The Isle of Shoals is a group of four Islands near Portsmouth NH, and it made an ideal destination. The sail up here was delightful. Winds about 15 knots. The temperature about 75F (24C), the waves less than three feet. Tarwathie made between 4.5 and 6.5 knots of speed all the way up here. We passed Glouster Harbor (pronounced Glosta Haba) and waved to George Clooney as we went by.

Just now we are moored near Star Island. Nancy and Lena took the dinghy ashore to explore the island. I regret that I don't have a video of Lena attempting to row. Obviously she had never rowed a boat before nor seen anybody else doing it because she had no idea what to do. They just kept circling ineffectively with the tide carrying they away from the island and out to sea. Just when I was about to call for help on the radio to get someone to rescue them, Nancy took over from Lena. Nancy is hardly and expert rower but nevertheless in a few minutes she had them safely ashore.

From Guest Logger Lena,
The island was cool. There was a turning thing in the back that we went through (like one of those spinning doors, only outside, and it didn't go anywhere . . . ) There was a path through some bushes and when we followed those we came to some rocks with lots of seagulls. There were some brown birds which we assume were baby seagulls. They didn't seem like they could fly; they just hopped around or bobbed their heads up and down. Also there were blackberries growing along the path. We tried some. They were very sour. Not ripe. On our way back we were talking to an artist guy who was painting the rocks and water. And . . . that's about it . . . We got the dinghy and rowed back (Mom rowed this time . . . heheh . . . I am not too good at rowing ^_^;; ).

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