Beantown

We are underway out of Boston, where we had a nice but too-short four night stay in the harbor. A mix of brutal heat and rain aced us out of a good deal of shore time, and we're probably going to return before making our way south.

No comment.

Last Tuesday after I posted here we made our way through Hull Gut and into Hull Bay, where things were immediately much calmer than they had been on the passage. We worked over to the eastern edge of the bay in an area known as Sunset Bay, near the marina of that name, and dropped the hook in the enormous federally-designated anchorage (map). Unlike most other Special Anchorages in the Boston Harbor area, this one was mostly wide open, with mooring balls covering only a small section near the marina.

Sunset over the distant Boston city skyline from Hull Bay.

The marina property hosts a waterfront restaurant called Local 02045 and after a big post-passage nap we tendered over for dinner. Afterward we strolled a little bit; the only other thing in the neighborhood is a liquor store. We returned in the morning to the town dock for another walk on a gorgeous morning.

Sláinte, from The Snug, Hingham.

The long passage on Tuesday gave us yet another day before our next commitment, and after a very long look at the charts we decided to make a very short cruise over to a familiar anchorage in Hingham (map). I was hoping the Shipyard Marina there would let us tie the dinghy up for a small fee so we could walk to dinner, but they were not interested, so instead we made the half-hour ride at no-wake speed to the Hingham town dock. It was a cute town and we had a nice dinner at local favorite The Snug, an Irish-style pub.

Lightship Nantucket is less than a hundred yards from us.

An hour round-trip is a long tender ride and so we decided one night in this spot was plenty and we opted to weigh anchor for Boston Thursday morning. The last time we stayed in this spot for several nights, we were here to buy our then-new tender, and we just put up with the lack of shore access. The cruise to Boston was just an hour and a half, and we dropped the hook in our usual spot at the very north end of Federal Anchorage 1 (map), just a stone's throw from the runway at Logan, and abreast of the lightship Nantucket.

Downtown and the North End from our anchorage.

Boston Harbor is a very bouncy place during the day, owing to the wakes of numerous ferries and tour boats that criss-cross the harbor, and pleasure boat skippers who sometimes ignore the no-wake zone that starts at the airport Hyatt and runs all the way to the end of the harbor. But it's not the kind of steady roll that comes with ocean swell and is intolerable even in the daytime, and it settles right down after dark and can even be glass-calm overnight. The bounciness is really no better in the $70-per-night mooring field, and the anchorage is free and comes with million-dollar views of the city.

It's the nighttime view that is most captivating.

I had Amazon packages waiting, so we dropped the tender and I headed across the harbor to the dinghy dock at Atlantic Wharf, in the Fort Point Channel, for the short walk to the locker. That turned out to be hidden in a utility room at an office building; in that same building I found a high-zoot food court that seemed quite popular.

Few vessels anchor here, but we came home from dinner to find this Coast Guard cutter as our neighbor.

At dinner time we returned ashore and tied up at our secret-squirrel dinghy landing at Sargent's Wharf, just a few steps away from our friends' place at Lewis Wharf. It was great reuniting with Erin and Chris and catching up since our last rendezvous in Florida. We all walked over to the North End for dinner at Vinoteca di Monica, one of their local favorites that is still, well, local. The North End has become something of a caricature of itself, like so many other restaurant districts in popular tourist destinations. We ended up back at their place for a long (for us) evening.

Boston Skyline at sunset from our anchorage near Grape Island, Hingham.

Friday another heat wave hit, and even though I had intentions to spend the day ashore walking the town, it was just too hot, and we spent the day sheltered aboard with the AC running. It was just as well we were both aboard when the afternoon storm hit with 43mph winds; the tourists passing by on the harbor boats looked wet and miserable. We have a standing joke about that: "No refunds due to weather." It was all done and past by 4, when we tendered back over for cocktails and a home-cooked meal at Chris and Erin's condo.

We saw this spectacular sunset over the North End after the big storm.

Saturday temperatures were much more reasonable and after lunch I took the dinghy up the Mystic River as far as the casino, just before the locks. On my way back I also poked up the Charles as far as the Gridley Locks, with an eye toward maybe moving Vector into the river for a less bouncy daytime experience. I stopped to check out the dock at Lovejoy Wharf, and made a final stop at Burroughs Wharf for a quick walk around the North End, where I promptly ran into the Feast of St. Joseph festival. The North End is on the Saint-a-week program all summer.

Hanover Street on the Feast of St. Joseph.

At dinner time the harbor was a choppy mess and we decided on a shorter dinghy ride to Clippership Wharf, in East Boston. Wow, has urban renewal really taken off here since our last visit. We walked over to Cunard Tavern for dinner, arriving just as they were cleaning up from Oyster Fest. The food was good but the place was too noisy for our tastes. On our way back to the dock we walked pas the Tall Ship Boston, a permanently moored three-master that is now a locally popular bar. And by popular, I mean there was a long line to get in on a pleasant Saturday evening.

Cheers, from Cunard Tavern.

I once again had designs on walking town Sunday, but it rained all morning and well into the afternoon. It dried up by dinner time and we tendered over to Independence Wharf and walked over to the Broadside Tavern, where Erin and Chris met us for dinner. Afterward we walked a block to check out the Irish music at Mr. Dooley's, which was nice but not conducive to talking, so we ended up at the Dagny hotel for after-dinner drinks.

With Erin and Chris in front of Mr. Dooley's.

This morning other obligations meant we needed to be moving along, but we awoke to pea-soup fog in the harbor, and I turned on the fog bell. I wanted to get one more walk in, so as soon as I could make out buildings downtown, I took the tender over to Lovejoy Wharf. While the harbor was socked in, there was not a drop of fog in town, and I had a nice walk over the Gridley Lock gates, around the north side through Revere park, and back across over the old dam past the science museum, with a quick pass through North Station for good measure.

The largest of the three Gridley Lock chambers, from the upper gate.

Making this circuit let me get a good view of the lock chambers, the drawbridges, and the narrow canal, formerly the old lock, we'd need to transit to get into the Charles. I stopped in to the Museum of Science for a few minutes just for old times' sake, and North Station to see how the T has improved things ("no, he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned …"). The fog was just starting to lift when I made it back to Vector, and we decked the tender.

The canal through the old dam. DUKW "duck" boat for scale.

We'll be in the Massachusetts Bay region for perhaps the next three weeks, after which we will start heading south. I am hoping that Derecktor Shipyard will be able to take us in for a few days to repair the damage from our sailboat encounter in Hampton, along with all the usual paint maintenance. Beyond that, we don't have much of a plan for the fall as yet.

Passing Fort Independence and the Clipper Ship Monument on Castle Island as we leave the harbor.