Easy Seas Again
Cruising conditions on day four stood in stark contrast to the previous two days; after a few hours of easy cruising across flat seas we made it to Gloucester, Massachusetts, an iconic fishing town that was cast into the spotlight by the book and the film entitled The Perfect Storm. It was there that Ellison— who suffers from a condition known as “being a sailor”—set out to find the “most affordable” fuel in New England. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scratching my head as Gizmo, a pristine yacht, wound up being squeezed into a tiny space between a sunken schooner and a fuel barge named Capt. Dan all in the name of saving a few cents per gallon. Ellison got the last laugh, though, as we ended up paying $2.36 (without tax) per gallon of diesel. This was down from the $3.36 they were charging in Plymouth.
With Ellison now wearing an I-told-youso grin, we continued on through the Annisquam Canal to the Gulf of Maine. From there I got a decent stretch of time at the helm, which I used in part to play with all the electronics. As I had hoped, I began to become familiar with the once-dizzying array, to the point where I found a particular setup that I preferred.
As swells started to build, we sought shelter in the lee of a group of islands off the New Hampshire coast called Isles of Shoals. Owned by a private religious organization, Star Island gave off a strange vibe (for movie buffs, it looked just like the island in the Leonardo DiCaprio film Shutter Island). As Ellison and I settled into a nice little spot there, a small ferry departed. A group that had gathered to see the passengers off began to sing/chant in unison, “You will come back, you will come back, you will come back!”