And finally

 6/19- Pope Island Marina, New Bedford MA

  We got up to guess what this morning. I couldn’t even see the boat next to us. Everything on the boat was dripping water. It may not have rained but you could hear the water droplets landing on the deck. Even inside the cabin stuff was just covered with moisture. 

   We waited a bit and then said what the heck and took off. We did get to sail most of the way as the wind had a bit of a push in it. It kept looking like it wanted to clear up but we became an advertisment for virtual buoys. We must have gone by a half dozen buoys and never saw a one. Again the best we could figure was a little under a 1/4 mile visibility. 

   As we neared the channel for New Bedford we went by several buoys that we only saw when we were within 100 yards or so. Once we cleared the last set of channel markers miraculously the skies cleared and it became a bright sunshiny day. 

   New Bedford has this big breakwater stretching across the whole harbor with a big gate in the middle. When hurricanes or other big storms threaten they close the gate and keep the harbor safe. The tide gave us a good ride going through the gate and we took a mooring at Pope Island Marine. 

   This is a busy harbor but not just with pleasure boats. This is one of the biggest fishing ports on the east coast. There are several fishing boats docked right near us and we are hoping the wind doesn’t change direction if you know what I mean. 

   The wind is forecasted to be quite strong even in here tomorrow so we will have another lay day to explore some of this city we haven’t ever been to. 

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