Salem to Kennebunkport - We Finally Made It to Maine

From Salem we cruised to Gloucester, MA on Sunday July 7th.  Gloucester is probably best know because of the Discovery Channel's program "Wicked Tuna".  This show follows several blue fin tuna fishermen and their boats during their tuna season.  Keith and I have watched it fairly regularly.  Two of the boats that are on the show were in the marina where we stayed.  One was directly alongside of Southern Style.  The boat "Tune.com" departed to fish at 3 AM the next morning (that is dedication).  Keith and I left around 8:00 AM for Newburyport, MA.

The F/V Tuna.com from Discovery's "Wicked Tuna"

 From Gloucester we continued north to Newburyport, Massachusetts which was a great little stop.  We were docked at the downtown municipal docks and they were very nice.  The town had numerous restaurants and shops.  Their downtown was compact and easy to walk around.  Keith and I had brunch at this cool spot that looked like it had been in town for decades.  Then we walked around for a bit before returning to the boat for the afternoon.

The old customs house is now a maritime museum

Sunset in Newburyport, MA as seen from the bow of Southern Style.

     After an over-night in Newburyport, we headed to New Castle Island, NH on Tuesday July 9th.  New Castle Island is adjacent to Portsmouth, NH.  The marina we stayed at was Wentworth-By-The-Sea.  It was very up-scale with a resort and homes associated with the marina.  They also had a courtesy car which Keith and I used to run into town for lunch and some supplies.

"Lexie's Joint" was our lunch stop.  It was tiny, but the hamburgers were great.

The marina at Wentworth-By-The-Sea.  Southern Style on the end of the far dock.

View from the back of Southern Style looking up toward the resort.  Our friends on Kiwi III are right behind us.

Wednesday morning July 10th we finally cruised into Maine.  Hooray!!!  The weather was fantastic with some of the flattest seas you can get.  There were seals and dolphin in the water and we even saw what we think was a tuna jump out of the water.  Of course this was the one day Keith did not put any lines in the water to fish.  The locals, however, were trolling or course.

Barge we passed with one of the crew up top fishing.  You can just make out his fishing pole.

Lobster boats are all around.  This is a good sign.

Lighthouses also seem to be everywhere.

This one is from Massachusetts

This one from New Hampshire

Here is another one as we came into Maine near Kennebunkport

Pengi is excited to be in Maine.  Here he is along the Kennebunkport waterfront.

They have lobsters

Captain Keith is also very excited.  We biked around Kennebunkport on Wednesday afternoon.

Here are some pictures of the coastline from our bike ride around Kennebunkport.  The sky was a bit hazy and not very blue unfortunately.  The views are still stunning.

The Bush family summer residence in the background, called Walker's Point

Closer view of Bush estate

The tides here are crazy big.  This is low tide near the marina.  Notice all the exposed mud along the bank of the Kennebunk River.

This is high tide from same spot.  No more mud and notice the angle of the docks in the distance.

We had dinner Wednesday evening with our Kiwi friends Pete and Lynn Walton at Mable's.  It was exceptionally good.