Salt-Dipped at Last

 

Getting to the ocean took a little longer than usual this year, but I finally made it there on the final day of July.  It was a beautiful summer morning when I launched at Winter Island in Salem, MA and headed out past Fort Pickering Light (photo above) to Great Misery Island in Salem Sound where I landed...

...and recalled earlier visits when I participated in a Misery Island Race organized by the recently deceased rower Henry S.  Participating in his event was the closest I'll ever get to being in a Monty Python movie.  Other visits were when I paddled alongside and watched my daughter Heather pull away as she won her class in a later paddling race known as the Misery Island Challenge.

The islands (Great and Little Misery) are managed by the Trustees of Reservations...

After relaunching and paddling past a rock ledge extending from Little Misery, Bakers Island and its  lighthouse came into view...

The view to the open sea brought to mind the question of "what's over the horizon?"...

...as opposed to my usual pondering of "what's around the next bend of the river?"

Circumnavigating Great Misery brought me past ruins of a once ornate estate...

...that serves as a reminder of how temporary grandiose plans can be.

Turning about I looked back towards Winter Island...

...where I eventually returned to its diminutive lighthouse...

The trip was the complete opposite of misery!

Then it was back on the road for a16-mile drive northeastward to Gloucester, MA, "America's Oldest Seaport"...

...and Stage Fort Park where codfish were long ago salted and dried on fish flakes by the European fishermen that visited the area each summer.  At season's end the fishermen and their dried cod went back to Europe.  However, all that changed 400 years ago in 1623 when they decided to stay-over...thus  the City of Gloucester, MA is celebrating the anniversary of that first permanent settlement...

Prior to 1623, in 1605 Samuel Champlain visited the area and spent enough time to draw a detailed map of the harbor he referred to as "Beauport".  However it would be the English that got a toehold here and eventually laid claim to it...

  

Control of the fishing stage settlement here was in dispute with the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony sending their militiaman Miles Standish to the settlement in 1625 where some sort of dust-up played out between Standish and a Captain Hewes...

The compass beneath the nearby Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial on Stacy Boulevard reminded me that my eventual destination...

...lay a little further to the northwest at Cape Ann Camp Site which remains one of the most reliable constants in a rapidly changing Cape Ann.  I always find their tent sites without electricity offer the most peace and quiet.

The next day I launched at Long Wharf into the Jones River and spent the best part of the day paddling the waters of the Annisquam River on an incoming tide.  My first order of business was an early-morning saltwater swim from the south end of Wingaersheek Beach...

...followed by a brief venture out into a choppy Ipswich Bay...

Saw a good-sized and lifeless striped bass that possibly didn't survive an encounter with fishing tackle...

Paddled to the village of Annisquam...

...and its very sheltered Lobster Cove...

Turned around a little past the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge...

...and not far from the bridge was "The Boathouse" which I don't recall having seen before...

...where the Annisquam can be viewed from the unique vessel's "wheelhouse".

Looped back to the Long Wharf via the Jones River stopping to check out this impressive boulder...

...and a brief "top-of-the-tide" landing on one of the smallest islets behind Pearce Island...

Trash from Salem Sound included 8 floating "miniature alcohol bottles"...

The Annisquam had no floating trash but did seem to have contamination issues affecting the shellfish...

Enjoyed my three day vacation, but am left to wonder...can a retired person really take a "vacation"?...Hmmm.

A tip of the hat to fellow paddler Ozzy who earlier this week completed a two-day solo canoe trip down the Assabet, Concord, and Merrimack rivers from his home in Maynard, MA to Joppa Flats in Newburyport, MA.