Part of what I love about living in New England is being pretty close to the ocean. We took a whale watch out of Gloucester today and went out about 23 miles out into the Atlantic onto Jeffreys ledge. Here are a few pictures of the trip. The buildings around the dock had a variety of old iron anchors. I really like old iron and the work it took to make these was pretty amazing. The picture in my avatar are anchors that were made at the local ironworks back in the 1800's. The copper paint manufactory buildings. This iconic building is where copper bottom paint was developed to keep barnacles off boat bottoms reducing drag. The twin lights at Thatcher Island. These were built around the 1870's. The story of the island goes back to the Revolutionary War. It was under British rule in the late 1700's and the early lights were destroyed and the keeper and his family were taken back to the mainland by minutemen as they felt the lighthouse was helping the British fleet. It is a great story to read if you like maritime history. Ocean sunfish. It was estimated to weigh a few hundred pounds. They feed at the surface. The body is stumpy, almost like it was missing half its' length. This was swimming alongside the boat. We saw 5 different whales and one surfaced 30 feet away from the boat. One humpback, 2 fin whales and 2 minkes. This is the schooner "Columbia". It is a steel hulled reproduction of the original that was built in Essex, ma. The original was lost in a gale off Nova Scotia. It raced against the Canadian schooner "Bluenose". This schooner has absolutely beautiful lines. It arrived today for the schooner festival that is starting in a week.
Looks like a beautiful day on the water! Those sunfish are pretty funky aren't they. First time I saw one I thought it was dying because it was basically floating on the surface. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great pics fishingpol. This anchor is about two hours from my house located in Texas City, Texas. It was the anchor from the SS Grandcamp whose explosion in 1947 caused the deadliest industrial disaster in U. S. history. Over 600 people died, and over 1,000 buildings were destroyed.
Piney, the humidity broke the night before so we had dry northwest winds 5 - 10 mph. Absolutely great weather. Knothead, I just read up on that devastating story. That 5 ton anchor in the picture was hurled a half mile and another anchor was hurled just over a mile and a half away.
