Sunday, August 21, 1994 - Goucester, MA

Paddled to a better part of the beach. Caught the 11:30 trolley bus to Rockport. We had to wait half an hour for the trolley that would take us to the quarry, so we wandered around. We were amazed by the number of people. Rockport is an artists' colony and popular tourist attraction. There are lots of galleries and small shops.
We enjoyed the narrated ride to Halibut State Park, where the quarry is. There was no admission charge. We took the self-guided tour around the quarry and watched the videos at the park headquarters. Saw a lot of old tools and learned a lot, but not enough to satisfy Roy, so we bought a book on quarrying.
After the tour, we walked down the hill to Folly Cove and ate lunch at a little restaurant that looked a lot like the one we ate in yesterday but had better food and lower prices. Enjoyed sandwiches and ice cream.
When the trolley bus arrived, we stayed on it for the other half of the tour, out to Loblolly Cove. Very pretty scenery and lovely homes. Got back to Gloucester around 5:30. Severe thunderstorms were predicted, but the sky didn't look threatening, so we walked to the supermarket and bought chicken and potatoes. By the time we got back to our Royaks, the wind was blowing pretty strong, the sky was black, and white caps were starting to form in the harbor. Several people stopped to watch us getting ready and to warn us it was rough out there, but of course we had to get back to the Jofian anyhow. The wind was in our favor, so it really wasn't at all difficult paddling back.
The sailboat that had dragged into us a couple of days ago did it again. The guy wasn't on it, so we pulled up our anchor and moved. This is about the fifth time we've anchored in this one harbor.
The rain soon started pouring down, and we were glad to be back on the boat. Filled the water tank again.
There are a lot of other things we'd like to see and do while we're in Gloucester, but time is running out, so we decided to leave tomorrow for Provincetown. A twenty-knot northeast wind is predicted.