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After landing in Newfoundland at Jersey Harbour, the following day we continued to the head of Harbour Breton and anchored in Nancys Cove in Northeast Arm. From there, we toured the area by dinghy and ended up running all the way back south to visit the town of Harbour Breton. With new jobs from the…

After fueling up in Boston we ran directly to Newfoundland, with a brief stop in Lockeport, Nova Scotia to clear into Canada. We adjusted course a couple of times to working through a mass of floats at Parker Ridge on the first night out of Boston and a group of fishing vessels off Nova Scotia…

Oil analysis is one of these practices where many people I know find it valuable and send their oil out for analysis on every oil change. We don’t on Dirona not because we don’t believe in it but more from a perspective that the hassle/cost-to-value equation isn’t sufficiently compelling for our usage. When I raced…

Charlestown Marina was an excellent home base for the six weeks we spent in Boston. We chose it mainly because we could get a good long-stay rate there compared to the other marinas closer to downtown, but the marina worked out very well for touring around Boston and we’d happily return. The marina itself was…

The Cape Cod National Seashore is a 43,600-acre National Park on the end of Cape Cod, about a 2.5-hour drive from Boston. The park includes popular beaches, historic lighthouses, and excellent walking and bicycle trails. It also contains the site of Marconi Station, where the first two-way wireless radio transmission across the Atlantic occurred. We…

Going out to grab a pizza is hardly an event, but it is at Regina Pizzeria. Founded in 1926, Regina Pizzeria is the oldest pizza house in New England and extremely popular with tourists and locals alike. After doing a couple of boat projects, we walked from Charlestown Marina to Regina Pizzeria in Boston’s historic…

The Charles River forms the border between downtown Boston, and Cambrdige and Charlestown. The famously polluted river was mocked in the Standell’s 1965 hit single “Dirty Water”: “Down by the banks of the river Charles … Well I love that dirty water Oh, Boston, you’re my home.” Swimming was banned in the river in the…

Boston Harborfest, the country’s largest July 4th festival, takes place from July 1st through 4th. Much of the activity is centered around the waterfront and included an excellent fireworks display on July 2nd. Since we’d had such a slow day after eleven hours spent touring Boston Light and then walking the Freedom Trail :), we…

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile route that leads past sixteen sites significant to Revolutionary Boston. The trail starts in downtown Boston at the Boston Commons and ends in Charlestown at the Charlestown Navy Yard or the Bunker Hill Monument. After our Boston Light trip, we took a self-guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail…

Boston Light on Little Brewster Island is a National Historic Landmark. It’s the oldest working light station in the country and the only one still actively staffed by the US Coast Guard. Tours to Boston Light include a climb to the top of the lighthouse with its fabulous 81-inch second-order Fresnel lens and sweeping harbor…