On Sunday we left Isles of Shoals and made it to Gloucester. We sailed 15 or 20 miles to Rockport where we wanted to stay (haven't been there yet). But when we tried to anchor, the sound of the pointy tip of the anchor dragging across granite was clearly transmitted up the chain. We tried five different spots but all we found was rock, which was frustrating because others had reported good holding mud in that area. We radioed the harbormaster for advice and to maybe just stay on a mooring ball but he was busy "looking for someone" and they had a boat out in the harbor with six divers in the water. We never heard back from him so we motorsailed around the peninsula and stayed in Gloucester.
We were able to find a spot to anchor in Gloucester's inner harbor where there is room for 6-8 on anchor. Then we rushed to shore to try to watch the second half of the Vikings game. It was not nationally televised so we were not successful. On the way back to the boat we stopped to chat with Steve from the boat Thursday's Child. We met them in Stuart, FL and had seen them about six weeks ago at the SSCA gam in Rockland, ME. He had been up to Nova Scotia while we explored Maine.
The next day we stayed put as the winds were not favorable for moving on. Louise got a walk, we had Domino's for supper, and Anna got a key lime pie. As we were walking around town we saw a large film crew near the waterfront filming for a movie called Coda.
On Tuesday we sailed to Provincetown, MA out on the tip of Cape Cod. The wind was a solid 15 knots just off of the stern so we made pretty good time, averaging 6.5 knots. As we left the protection of the Gloucester peninsula the waves built up to 3' and fairly close together so we were rolling back and forth the whole way. Aaron went to shore to walk around for an hour.
Today we woke up and figured that the waves would become unreasonable as we approached the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal--20+ knots of wind. So we stayed and will go tomorrow when we should get close to Martha's Vineyard. We plan to spend a couple days there. Now we (all three) are heading to shore for a walk.