Return to Boston

The ship made another night passage to Boston to take advantage of the tides. We passed through the Cape Cod canal at midnight, otherwise I would have loved to see that. Full breakfast was at 06:30 rather than 07:30 and everyone disembarked by 0745. The crew was very busy doing ‘turnaround’ with the next set of guests being bused in at 11:30 for lunch.

Delta has been calling for military (AD and retired–me) and vets (Eileen) before Zone 1 first-class passengers–that’s new. It took us only 90 minutes to empty everything off the boat before taking it over to Pelicans Perch marina tomorrow to start the fiberglass repairs (mostly cosmetic) after being lifted off the trailer onto jacks. I hope to get some pics tomorrow. Then I’ll take the trailer in for repairs. We do miss the super-luxe F250 Lariat, but the new more spartan F350 does everything we need (and 20,000 pound conventional towing rating) with 1,049 foot-pounds of torque. I have to be careful at stoplights not to press the gas pedal much to avoid spinning the rear tires, but I’ll get used to it.

Our most important goal of this small cruise ship exploration of the ports of New England was to decide, based on eyeballs on the water at and between each port, if we and the boat could accomplish the Downeast Loop, and we’re delighted to think that we can indeed. We can finish our Great Loop from the top of the Chesapeake around NJ and up the Hudson to Albany…only 450 miles. Then we can fly the Gold Looper flag, though we have to buy it. Then continue up the Chambly locks to Lake Champlain to Sorel and cruise down the St Lawrence and around the Canadian Maritimes back to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park, then again bounce down the New England ports back to NY. This will total about 1,800 water miles (which we just did on the Great Lakes & Inland Rivers adventure over six weeks, no big deal) rather than the traditional 2,400 miles via Lake Ontario to Kingston, ON.

The Winter get-away will be six weeks at the Pink Shell marina in Ft Myers Beach prior to the Hontoon Hoot in March. We pay $31/night including power, massive buffet breakfast, free laundry, bikes, kayaks, three heated pools etc etc. PM me if interested in staying over 30 days. For us it’s cheaper than staying at home, and a lot warmer.

Safe travels!Read more