Mayflower II, a 1970 replica. Old growth Douglas Fir masts are no longer available, laminate sub

Astrological low tide at Plymouth Harbor

Another New England harbor mooring field

Ship has an eight foot draft, but watches the tides carefully

Leaving Plymouth Harbor tricky narrow channel at sundown

Astrological low tide in narrow channel, Plymouth, RI

Today's daily re-supply is via semi truck

Clam/lobster bake starts with pallet fire heating granite stones

Clambake stones and seagrass covered by canvas for steaming

Dramatic 'Unveiling' of the clam/lobster bake

Net result thanks to 'rock grass' steaming

Rock grass collected at high tide makes the steam over hours

Plymouth-Newport, RI

September 10 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

We had a beautiful cruise starting at sunset. Bow thrusters and 360 degree pods x three allowed the ship to push off the dock and do a 360 in its own length (250 feet) no problem. We’ve seen hundreds of historic forts, but Ft Adams at Newport is by far the largest, most complex and with myriad defense systems. No wonder it never saw action.

We explored downtown (a ACL coach gave us a lift), had a nice walk checking out the waterfront megayachts, and signed up for a ACL cruise of the Inside Passage of British Columbia (no stops due to the Jones Act) and the Inside Passage of Alaska to Glacier Bay next Sept (got a 15% discount).

The winds have picked up tonight with whitecaps in the inner harbor. We would not be comfy on a mooring ball here in these conditions, but they’ve been very rare so far on this cruise. We feel like we have a good grasp on how bad the conditions are (not nearly as bad as we thought) and that we CAN DO THIS in our own boat! On to Planning!

I’m amazed how a 250 ft ship with 2,400 HP burns only 100g/hour, when our 25 foot (!) trailer boat burns 13-30 g/hour with state of the art 2024 outboards!Read more