Second Day: Annisquam, MA to Gosport Harbor, Isles of Shoals

Between Cape Ann, MA and Cape Elizabeth, ME is a long stretch of water called the Bigelow Bight. A "bight" is an indentation in the coast that is so shallow that, with the proper wind direction, it can be entered and exited without having to tack.  In fact, it is barely an indentation at all.  The shoreline is an extraordinarily long stretch of beach, stretching from Wingaersheek (at the mouth of the Annisquam) to Old Orchard (just inside of Cape Elizabeth).  The beaches are pierced by a few rocky outcroppings, but mainly by the mouths of rivers.  The combination of beach and river is a double-edged one for boaters.  Every river mouth is a harbor, but those harbors are often difficult to enter, subject to strong currents, and resistant to accurate charting of things like depth.  Once inside the river mouth, ones options for accommodation may be limited or complex.  Marinas often predominate; moorings may be unavailable; places to anchor may be severely limited.

Some might say that being able to poke up rivers is the whole point of owning a shoal draft boat.  We would not disagree.  But if you aren't sure of your own ability to read tide and currents, or you don't want to deal with drawbridges or marinas, one stop on the passage east to the more spectacular parts of the Maine coast that does not require crossing a bar or navigating a river mouth, is Gosport Harbor, at the Isles of Shoals, which is where we are this afternoon.

Three of the six and a half islands that make up this little archipelago are joined together by two breakwaters. One connects Star Island to Cedar, and the other connects Cedar to the poetically named Smuttynose.  The result is a harbor of extraordinary stillness in a environment that otherwise, looks, sounds, and smells thoroughly offshore.

The trip from Annisquam, on which we averaged five and a half knots over the bottom, is approximately 19 nautical miles.  We covered it in slightly more than three hours, under power, with a headwind, and a very calm sea.  We are travelling with children, something the original writers' of the Guide do not much acknowledge as a possibility.  To a ten year old and a twelve year old boy, an multi-hour offshore passage on beautiful day holds about as much appeal as long stint in a waiting room without any good magazines.  Had we wished to get all the way to midcoast maine today, we could easily have done so.  We would have just had to get up earlier and rest content with arriving in Casco Bay near sundown. The boys would have been intolerant of this plan.  I did it myself at their age, and I remember it as one of the longest (if also most memorable) days of my life.  

I also remember being enthralled by the Isles of Shoals as we passed through them.  Rocky, with scrubby vegetation, they have a bizarre mixture of buildings on them: a lighthouse on White Island, at the southernmost extreme, a large and somewhat ramshackle summer hotel, which is now the property of the Unitarian Universalist Association on Star Island, A large house on the tiny Lunging Island, a weathered obelisk commemorating Johns Smith's visit here, a submarine watchtower on Appledore island, and a famous garden.  And then they were gone.  Staying here, on a weekday afternoon, is not technically a solitary affair.  But it feels high lonesome, and quiet in the best sense.  

Bufflehead, as viewed from above and behind the Star Isl.-Cedar Isl. Breakwater.

The Breakwater itself, on a falling tide.  This mooring is the one furthest inside.  "If you can read this, you are aground."  Actually the water is quite deep here, even at low tide.  The six foot spot on the chart is somewhere off to starboard.

First stop: the Annisquam river

The Cruising Giude to the New England Coast has some pretty harsh words for the Annisquam River. It is, as the author's claim, "one of the busiest stretches of water in New England."  It is also one of the most demanding to navigate.  First a word about what it is.

The Annisquam is a fairly large tidal river, with its mouth at the northern side of the narrowest part of Cape Ann.  Its southernmost reaches are connected with Gloucester's massive harbor by a small cut, called the Blynman Canal.  The latter is both short and narrow, with a drawbridge over it at its (southern) entrance called "the cut bridge." Northbound (as we were today, coming from Marblehead) there are two more bridges to deal with: the MBTA drawbridge, and the 128-fixed bridge.  If your rig is more than 65-feet tall (highly unlikely for a shoal draft boat) do not attempt the Annisquam at all, as you will not fit under the 128 Bridge. The river is shown in detail on chart 13281, and is subject (like many tidal rivers) to constant shifts in the channel.  Some passages are dredged, but as the primary users of the river and canal are pleasure craft, money for maintaining dredged channels is scarce, and we have heard reports that recent hurricanes and noreasters have wreaked havoc on them.

The tidal current rips hard through the channel, especially at the Gloucester Harbor end. The canal and drawbridges should not be navigated under sail under any circumstances, and (as the Cruising Guide notes) your engine needs to have both balls and the ability to work in reverse.  Traffic in the canal and river on the weekends can be downright frightening, but on a weekday (like today) you have only the current to deal with, which is probably plenty.  Counter-intuitively, coming into the canal against the current (that is on falling tide, for a Northbound/Eastbound traveller; rising, for the opposite) is easier than going with the current.  It is a slower going, but you have more control over your boat.  Going with the current can be unpleasantly like surfing.

If the conditions are right (the tide is high and you have an up-to-date chart) there are several tributary branches of the Annisquam, on both sides, that are worth exploring and maybe even anchoring in.  Frankly we are reluctant to give names because we want to keep them to ourselves.  But if you don't have a good chart and the ability to read it, it isn't safe to visit these places anyway.

If you prefer a sure thing, Cape Marina has slips, and Annisquam Yacht Club and the Market Restaurant in Lobster Cove both have moorings.  The latter's moorings are more sheltered and are further up inside the cove, but they are also $50.  What?!  We went for it anyway.  This the view.

In the background is Wingaersheek Beach, possibly the finest beach on Cape Ann, and one of the finest on the whole North Shore of Boston.  And this is the view looking up the cove towards the foot bridge.