Captain Watson

Gloucester Heritage Center

Good Evening,

I'm sitting in the chartroom listening to a young man play amazing jazz on his sax. Not the usual sounds I would expect to hear from the deck of a schooner but the Heritage Center is having their annual fund raising dinner tonight so there is a band on the wharf and people dressed to the nines. I hope it is successful the people here are gracious hosts.

Speaking of hosts, not long after we tied up Capt Burns of the Arethusa came and passed me a bag of fresh lobster and said he needed two hands to help him. They went away and came back with bags of corn and cases of pop. Unbelievable. He is a schooner master from days past and a wonderful story teller.

This morning started early with all hands called at 0630 and we heaved up the anchor at 0700. Nothing better than breakfast underway, sausage, toast and scrambled were the order of the day, and as always buckets of coffee. As they say in Lunenburg, "She's a feeder!".

We had hung the patch by 0930 and we let the tops'le crew hang out a bit before putting all hands back to work. The old girl needed a good scrub and polish which took the rest of the morning. After an early lunch we motor sailed into Gloucester Harbour with the escort of the schooner Thomas Lannon, master Tom Ellis. They always are there to greet us and are an integral part of our visits to Gloucester.

I'm being eaten alive by "no-see-ums" so... That's all for tonight!

Best regards,

Phil Watson
Bluenose II