Aug 13-16, 2009 - First days in Boston, MA

On Aug 13, we awoke in Plymouth to very grey skies and inclement weather. It was a day to stay in port, not embark on a voyage to Boston. The marina in Plymouth had another reservation for our slip and were thus not prone to discuss extending our stay until conditions improved. We assessed our options....Robert had set up our route in the chart plotter. We had duplicated our route in our new little garmin. All systems were working well. It was not a great weather day, but it wasn't foggy. We decided we could safely make the run to Boston.

The trip from Plymouth to Boston took constant vigilance because of the thousands of lobster pots. We got pretty good at using simple terms. If I'd see a red lobster pot buoy on the left side we'd probably miss, I'd say, "Red, port, safe". If there was a lime green in our path, it was "Lime, straight ahead". If it remained in our path, I'd say, "Action to port or starboard" "Safe". There were times we were literally surrounded and Captain Robert would wend our way through.

We arrived at the Constitution Marina in Boston in excellent time. We knew we had almost arrived when we passed by the USS Constitution. The marina is across the Charles River in the suburb called Charlestown. The view was excellent.

We did some sightseeing in Boston by a trolley. I'll say up front that Boston is a beautiful city...clean with lovely buildings. When you visit NYC all you care about is seeing the tourist places seen in movies and on tv. When you visit Boston, you want to understand the history of the birth of our county. Here is the challenge...the historical sites are spread out over miles and are in random order so landmarks are not seen in chronological order. It is confusing and disorienting for the short time visitor.

Just in time, we found Ben Franklin in Faneuil Hall.
The old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was first read from the balcony.

This statue commemorates the black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry led by white Bostonian Robert Shaw during the civil war. The movie, "Glory" was based on the story of this regiment. Click here for more information.
The new Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill.

Near Boston Common is a very old graveyard called The Granary. We wandered around and found some well known historic folks. Below is Samuel Adams.

A memorial to Alexander Hamilton

I'm hanging out with Paul Revere.

Inside Grand Fromage

Some of you have requested some pictures of the inside of Grand Fromage. Almost three years ago, my daughter, who is a professional photographer, took these shots. My daughter, Daria Bishop and her husband, Andy Bishop, have a wonderful website and a blog you will enjoy.

Entering Grand Fromage's salon from the aft of the boat. Our comfy couch. The table goes up and down electrically for use as either a coffee table or as a dining room table.
Across from the couch are two very comfortable chairs. The 50" flat screen TV comes out of a cabinet in front of the little red box to the right of the chairs.
The salon looking down from the galley.

The area up the steps from the salon has three functions: galley, helm station and dinette. This picture shows the dinette, a corner of the galley with the helm station behind.

Helm station where Captain Robert drives the boat if it is cold or rainy. To the right of the helm station are the steps going down to the staterooms.

The helm station, galley and tip of the dinette table from the steps going down.

The galley. The steps behind the dinette are going up to the flybridge.

The dinette and steps to flybridge. The flybridge is our favorite place to drive Grand Fromage. We have wonderful visability plus the outdoor experience.

This is the guest room or the VIP stateroom. There is a private bathroom with shower attached.

The master stateroom. The door on the right goes to the engine room.

A little more of the master stateroom plus a peek into the master bath.

The port stateroom. There is a bunk that comes down from the wall above the bed. There is a bathroom with shower next to the port stateroom

Thanks a huge bunch for these great pictures of Grand Fromage, Daria!!!!

Aug 9 - 13, 2009 - Plymouth, MA

We absolutely could not believe that we had actually made it to Plymouth, MA on Grand Fromage. Click here for the Wikipedia article on Plymouth, MA.

Plymouth is brimming with tourists, but there is a small town feel. It seemed like the perfect place to offload a scooter and do some exploring.

The keyboard on Robert's computer was behaving in a truly bizarre manner...randomly, it wouldn't type T, U, 3, or Q. I did many diagnostics and finally came up with the highly technical answer...."It's broke". So, first stop in Plymouth was out to Staples to buy a new keyboard and mouse for Robert's computer. How historical can you get???? Back on Grand Fromage, we successfully installed the new keyboard and mouse.

Since we were right next to the Mayflower replica, that was our first serious sightseeing venue. Click here for information on Mayflower 2, the replica, Here is the Wikipedia entry on the Mayflower.

Exploring Mayflower 2 was extremely interesting. There were people in period costumes who were acting out particular characters from the Mayflower in the time period of 1620. There were also docents who were not in period costumes and were not acting out a role. This second group interacted from the current perspective.

Conditions on board Mayflower were pretty unbelievable...at least from the perspective of two people who live very comfortably on a boat for six months a year. There were 102 passengers, plus crew. The passengers, except for rare occasions when invited to come up on the upper deck, spent the entire voyage in the dark lower deck. It was gross.

One of the period characters
Robert walking on the deck
Looking up

Second sightseeing stop was Plymouth Rock. To protect the rock from scavengers, over time a fancy portico has been erected around the rock. To me, it was pretty funny.
The rock

Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum, is a three mile ride out of town. It is divided into two parts, the Indian Wampanoag tribal settlement and a settler village representing life in 1627.

The first thing you see as you enter the Plimoth Plantation visitor center is this funny statue of The Mooflower. Being simple folk, we thought it was hilarious.

Our first day visit to Plimoth Plantation we went to the Indian settlement of the Wampanoag tribe. The docents in this area are members of either this tribe or of another native American nation. Although they wore native dress, they are not representing historical characters and speak as modern people.

The tribal members were extremely interesting and I gained some new perspectives.

On our second day in Plimoth Plantation, we went to the colonial village. In this area, the staff is in period costumes and each plays a character from 1627. It's a lot of fun and extremely interesting.

Robert is walking up to the wooden walls of the colonial village. On the other side of the wall is a two story building. The first floor served as the worship center. The second floor was the fort area, complete with canon.
The path going down to the village
The houses were all constructed in a similar manner, with thatch roofs.
Some of the period characters

We greatly enjoyed Plymouth. In all honesty, however, Mystic, CT was a step above in every way. Mystic Seaport was immaculately clean with exceptionally courteous and friendly staff. Every process, including the purchase of tickets and memberships was efficient. The folks at Plimoth Plantation were pleasant enough, but the processes weren't efficient. In the exhibit area, there were piles of stuff that didn't belong, especially in the tribal area. It didn't seem well maintained. The gardens were weedy. The administration of Mystic Seaport was definitely superior.

Aug 9, 2009 - Cape Cod Canal to Plymouth

The town of Onset is right by the Cape Cod Canal, a seven mile human constructed canal that cuts through where the Cape Cod peninsula connects to mainland Massachusetts. Click here to read a very interesting Wikipedia entry on the Cape Cod Canal. According to the article, the concept of the canal was first proposed by Miles Standish of the Plymouth Colony in 1623. George Washington was involved in further investigations of the canal concept, but the ideas fell through. The construction of the canal was finally started in 1909 and completed in 1916. If you happen to have more time on your hands than is possibly good for you, you may click here for a webcan of boats passing through the canal....updated every 30 minutes. The Army Corps of Engineers has some interesting information here.

At the start of the canal going north is this railroad bridge

Directly in front of us going through the canal was this barge and then the sailboat. I had no idea that the Cape Cod Canal was such a tourist attraction. On either side of the bank is a paved walking path. It was not surprising that during our transit, many people walked, jogged, roller bladed, biked both sides of the bank. What was surprising was the number of people on both sides of the bank who brought folding chairs to sit and watch boats transverse the canal.

Going through the canal

When we exited the canal, we were in Cape Cod Bay for the easy ride into Plymouth Harbor. Easy, except for the lobster pots, but you are beginning to expect that statement if you have been following our blog.

We had an easy tie up to a tee dock. It was so exciting to go up on our bridge and have this view of the Mayflower replica.

Aug 7-9, 2009 - Fairhaven and Onset, MA

We had an nice trip to Fairhaven, MA on Aug 7 from Newport, RI. Our new little backup gps functioned well with our Furuno chartplotter. We were traveling in Buzzard's Bay. I got a kick out of this because many years ago, when I was learning the navigational charting software, Nobeltec on our California boat, the tutorial examples involved plotting a course on Buzzard's Bay. To be there in real life was amazing. My tutorial did not include all of the lobster pots we had to dodge.

Coming into the bay, Fairhaven appeared to be a huge city with many commercial fishing boats. We learned that Fairhaven shares the bay with a much larger town, New Bedford, MA.

Our marina was home to many commercial fishing boats. We felt like Grand Fromage was now part of the fishing fleet. The biggest commercial fleet was across the bay in New Bedford.
We were in Fairhaven one night. On Aug 8, we traveled to Onset, MA. This picturesque town is located right before the Cape Cod Canal. The closer we got to Onset, the more the boat traffic picked up, from weekend runabouts to large commercial boats. The path through the markers leading into the harbor was filled with lobster pots.

Once tied up, we dropped our dingy, Brie, to do some sightseeing. The city provides a free dingy dock in town. Onset was celebrating Cape Verdean days with a festival in the park. From all of the hundreds, if not thousands of participants, this is a popular event. Click here to learn about the festival and the Cape Verdean heritage.

One of the many quaint buildings in Onset.
The village of Onset couldn't have been in a prettier setting.

After enjoying the world's best hamburger and walking around through the festival participants, we took a long dingy ride around the harbor.

Since I've frequently mentioned our great navigational challenge, the lobster pot, I thought you might like to meet one, up close and personal. The pot, or cage is lowered on a long rope to the bottom. Each lobster fishing company has a uniquely colored buoy to mark the location of the trap. This one you can see is red and white with a stick top. The ones with the stick top are extremely hard to spot out in the ocean, especially if there is chop. The buoy lays down in the chop and the dark tops are nearly invisible. We "like" the lobster pot buoys with wide tops that are big and brightly colored....orange, fuchsia, lime green are crowd pleasing colors. The hiss boo lobster pot buoys are either blue or black with little dark tops.The lobster fishers usually drop a string of pots, connected to a rope. If you see one lobster pot buoy, this is the sign to look for more.

To learn more about lobster fishing, click here.