Marblehead, Massachusetts

We picked up an Eastern Yacht Club mooring ball in Marblehead Harbor at 11 a.m. on Thursday (June 5). Starting out from Onset Bay at 1:00 a.m. earlier that day, Peter and I found ourselves somewhat frantic after we raised anchor because we had somehow neglected to notice on the charts that the marks for the meanandering channel into the bay are not lit, and Peter had not plotted a reverse course from our daylight arrival on Wednesday. Peter stood on the bow with a flashlight trying to find the marks from their reflectors. We veered off course once, but luckily into a bit of deeper water south of the channel, and we finally made it to the Cape Cod channel mark and turned to port. It was a bit of a harrowing experience.

We only encountered two tug boats going in the opposite direction while passing through the canal. In Cape Cod Bay, we were finally able to turn the engine off at 2:50 a.m., sailing on a port tack beam reach with no reefs in the main, cruising along at 7.5 knots. With the sail sets, I went down below to sleep; Shalako had just woken. Unfortunately, about an hour and a half later, the wind died and it was back to motor sailing. At 7:30, the wind clocked a bit, and we were able to return to quietness of sailing for the rest of the journey.

After we tidied up lines and things down below, we called for launch service and went to the very swank yacht club. I roamed around the rooms, and after Peter and Shalako finished their long, hot showers, we all went to lunch at the Patio restaurant. The hostess seated us at a table overlooking the harbor and then asked for our number. We looked at each other and asked, "What number?" "Your membership number," she replied. When we told her we were not members, she put her head close to us and whispered, "It's members only in the restaurant, but it's ok, just pay with a credit card." I guess we looked the part of the members of this exclusive club with its strict dress code. 

A meeting room at the Eastern Yacht Club

The formal dining room

View from the patio with the town across the harbor

The patio of the yacht club

The reading room

The foyer

Trophies

Shalako, Peter and Sherri ready for lunch to be served on the patio

Peter and Shalako with the harbor beyond

Lunch was delicious, and Peter and Shalako had burgers, getting a respite from my vegetarian cooking. Rain was predicted for Friday and Saturday, so we decided to take the launch across the harbor from Marblehead Neck, where the club is, to town. Peter noticed that American Promise, the boat used by the Rozalia Project to promote cleaning up the oceans, was on the harbormaster's dock. We went to visit and were given a tour of the interior by two volunteers on board. In 2021, we had encountered American Promise at Maniticus Island in Maine where we both had picked up moorings in the rocky harbor. Peter and Enis had assisted in them in a beach clean-up there. 

Shalako and Peter on the dock by American Promise

Then, we spent a couple hours wandering around the historic streets of Marblehead, founded in 1629, amazed at the number of lovely, well-preserved buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. About 300 existing houses and buildings were constructed before the Revolutionary War.

Fisherman's house built in 1683

Capt. Nicholas Bartlett House, 1800

House of William Furniss, a fisherman, 1751

Georgian-style brick house

House of John Watts, fisherman, 1723

Georgian-style home on Pleasant Street

Tower of Abbot Hall

We had overdressed for our first true day of summer weather and regretted it as the sun beat down on us. We rested for a while in the shade in Crocker Park enjoying the view of the harbor.

Peter and Shalako at Crocker Park

In Crocker Park, there is a plaque explaining that Marblehead is considered the birthplace of the American Navy. About 600 men (from a town with a population of about 950 families)--mostly skilled captains and mariners--volunteered, with their ships, to create General Washington's Navy, under the command of Colonel (later General at the age of 25) John Glover. It was Marblehead mariners who manned the boats the ferried Washington's Continental Army across the ice-choked Delaware River to Trenton on Christmas night in 1776 for a successful surprise attack on the British. 

In front of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, we ran into Ashley Sullivan, the executive director of the Rozalia Project, and some other staff and interns. She told us about a showing of the film Around Alone in the garden of the house in the evening at 8 p.m., a movie using footage from the five cameras onboard American Promise when Maine native Dodge Morgan sailed solo and non-stop around the world in 1985. (He had commissioned the boat for this purpose.) 

The three of us returned to Mantra to rest and then have dinner. Shalako, who had been up since the early morning hours, chose not to go to the film showing, so Peter and I returned to town without him. (He was falling asleep sitting up when we left.) 

It was a beautiful evening. Ashley explained the history of the boat. After his adventure, Morgan donated his boat to the U.S. Navy for training. Unfortunately, she was sunk during a practice in the Chesapeake Bay in 1991. In 2010, she was purchased by the founders of the Rozalia Project and restored. Since 2013, the non-profit organization has used American Promise as a "trash hunting mothership," sailing around the coastal communities of northern New England. 

We were captivated by the film, although Peter wished that more attention was paid to the actual sailing decisions rather than the psychology of being at alone at sea for 150 days. The size of the waves and the intensity of the winds he encountered a lot of the time are not something I ever want to experience.

After the film and question and answer period, Peter and I strolled back to the State Street landing to pick up the launch, admiring the historic buildings beautifully lit.

Back of Jeremiah Lee Mansion

Florest shop on Washington Street

Historic mansion on Washington Street

Historic house on Washington Street

Of course, we were pretty tired also, so we immediately went to bed and slept through the night until 7 a.m. Peter decided to stay on board and finish the online portion of the Safety at Sea course we are taking, while Shalako and I went to town. Our first stop was the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, a three-story Georgian style building made of wood but designed and painted (originally including sand in the paint) to look like stone, a not uncommon practice at the time in colonial America. We were early, so we talked with the University of Massachusetts-Boston student working on an archeological dig in the side yard.

Dig site

Sifting dirt through screens

We were the only ones on the 90-minute 10:00 tour, and the volunteer was knowledgeable and engaging. Although most of the furnitures are not original, the flooring on the higher floors and the wallpaper up the grand staircase and on the second floor are. Jeremiah Lee, who was instrumental in getting armaments and supplies before the war started, died before it commenced. His widow lived in the house for a while, and then it became a bank for about 100 years. It was auctioned in the early 1900s and was purchased for $5,500 by the new Marblehead Historical Society, which has owned it since then.

Formal parlor for entertaining dignataries and special guests

Fire place in the dining room with cast iron decorated heat reflector and English tiles

Family dining room

Original linen and paper wallpaper

Guest bedroom

Canopy bed and original wallpaper in guest bedroom

Guest bedroom

After a quick stop for refreshments, we then went to Abbot Hall, constructed in 1876 to house the town's government. The item which is most prized in the museum inside the hall is Archibald Willard's painting The Spirit of '76, created for the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There are also great exhibits about naval history, shoe manufacturing--the main industry of the town in the second half of the 19th century, the development of early amphibious planes by local manufacturer William Starling Burgess and other aspects of the town's history. A large public hall is located on the second floor with balconies accessed from the third floor. The wooden staircase to this chamber is lit by lovely stained glass windows.

Abbot Hall

Stairwell in Abbot Hall

Display of Brownie memorabilia with the women who started the Brownies in Marblehead in 1916

Balcony of the Abbot Hall meeting room

Stained glass in the stairwell

Woodwork on the staircase

To be continued...it is after 10:30 p.m. and we have to get a launch to the club at 7 a.m. tomorrow for an all-day U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea hands-on course.