Rockport, MA

Jonny took Archie in for a quick walk on Malaga Island on the morning of Friday, September 2. Smuttynose Island is next to it and because it was low tide, you could walk between the two in the shallow water. A man on Smuttynose was with a group of boys and called out to Jonny to warn him that the morning wake-up cannon was about to go off and he didn’t want to scare Archie. But Archie was oblivious and unfazed by the cannon fire and only wanted to run over to greet the man.  By the way, Smuttynose has that name due to all the bird droppings on it and there is more than one Smuttynose Island in Maine. Lots of islands here and lots of birds!

We left our mooring by 8:35 for a three hour cruise to Rockport, MA. It was a beautiful day with sunny skies, highs in the low 70’s and no wind to speak of.

We dropped anchor in an anchorage adjacent to Rockport’s mooring field across from a beach,  We took the dinghy around the point to Rockport Harbor and tied up at the dinghy dock there passing by Motif #1, the red boat house made famous by so many artists. The last time we were here, seven years ago, we were able to tie up to it.  This time there were three other boats already there.

We started to walk up one of the main streets bound for a restaurant that Jonny’s cousin Aviva had recommended to us. It was owned by a young woman she had met in Spain. But then Jonny realized we needed fuel for the dinghy and there are no marinas in Rockport.  He found a nearby Cumberland Farms and walked back to the dinghy to get the fuel can.  But unfortunately this Cumberland Farms had no fuel so we proceeded, fuel can in hand, to the The Whale’s Jaw for lunch.

What a cute restaurant! We met Kristin, the owner and Avi’s friend. who was very warm and gracious. She even loaned Jonny her car to drive to the gas station for fuel.  We had a very delicious lunch and enjoyed the performance of a local singer-guitarist who played lots of great songs from our era. Jonny made a quick trip to get fuel and drop it off at the dinghy so we didn’t have to lug a can of fuel around the streets of Rockport,   He was chagrined when he returned because the handle on the passenger door fell off when he tried to open it! But Kristin assured him that she knew about the problem and neglected to tell him.

After we left, we walked all around charming Rockport, a lovely and interesting town. It is very old and artsy with lots of cool shops and funky New England style cottages around every corner.

On the way back to the dinghy dock we met a woman who was walking her dog. She was very friendly and urged us to follow her so she could show us the walk along the headlands. What a beautiful rocky walk with panoramic views over Rockland Harbor! She was justified in being proud of this vista and her historic and quintessential New England town.

We headed back to Zendo after exploring a closer option for tying up the dinghy.

We had leftovers for dinner and while I was washing dishes afterwards, the water stopped flowing! What to do? Jonny ran around trying to discern the problem and decided that we had a leak in our fresh water system.  It was dark and late and there was no way to start looking for the source of the problem at 9 p.m. so he shut the system off.  Fortunately we had a couple of gallons of distilled water to tide us over for the evening,  It is also Labor Day weekend and we were bound for Provincetown the next day.  Finding help to fix the issue and even finding a marina to stay at was not at all feasible,  So we managed to clean the rest of the dishes and decided to go out early the next morning to that Cumberland Farms store to buy a bunch of water to tide us over until we could get to Falmouth and fix the problem.

Never a dull moment on the high seas!