So, have you ever wondered about the difference between a nor'easter and a hurricane? Well, they're both counterclockwise storms. The name nor'easter refers to the direction of the winds along the coast. They're generally non-tropical coastal storms powered by contrasts between warm and cold air and often develop near the East Coast and move northeastward. Hurricanes are tropical storms powered primarily by warm ocean water. Nor'easters occur most frequently and strongest from September through April, whereas the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. Nor'easters can cause heavy snow or rain, strong winds, coastal flooding, rough seas and beach erosion but rarely carry the minimum 74mph winds required to be a hurricane.
Wednesday Sept. 30, 2026 Portland to Gloucester 85 miles and 8.5 hours
Two long travel days ahead but after being in Portland for a week waiting out this nor'easter to pass it was time to get going again. Light winds. Seas continue to settle, but still running 3' or better. Nice thing was they have a long 8-9 second period...so really just large swells. Lifts the boat up, lowers it back down. Not uncomfortable but when you stop you always have a case of the wobbles - feeling the motion even though you're in calm waters. Out Portland harbor, pass yet another cruise ship in port. The weather certainly didn't stop any of them from visiting, but can't imagine it was much fun for the passengers traveling from port to port. Then along the Portland shoreline passing the three lighthouses we visited by land, and eventually turning to starboard and making a direct long straight passage towards Cape Ann.
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Surprising how close the Portland lighthouses are to each other. Here's the
Bug Light closest to Portland. In the distance on the left is
Spring Point Ledge Light |
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From Spring Point Ledge Light you can see the Portland Head light
in the distance to the right |
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| And the Portland Head Light on a calmer day as we head out into the open Atlantic |
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It looks deceptively calm but there are actually 3' swells. Aegis was stuck in
the marina with us, but wound up next to us in Gloucester and Hadley Harbor. |
Somewhere off our starboard but unseen as they were too far away, we passed Kennebunkport left Maine and passed Portsmouth and New Hampshire and entered Massachusetts. Around the Cape and into Gloucester where we picked up a mooring ball for the night. Stayed in the same mooring field as when we were going north. Rather than fighting the extra time to retrieve and clean the anchor and chain in the morning, it's easier and quicker to simply drop the mooring line and go. Same issues with this being a commercial seaport - lobster boats leaving at 4 AM don't mind making a wake and rolling you out of bed.
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| Dog Bar Lighthouse at the end of the breakwater entering Gloucester Harbor |
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| Evening cruises on a windjammer in the harbor |
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| Overcast all day but got a little color at sunset. Aegis on a mooring behind us. |
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| Journey for Sept. 30, 2026 |
Thursday Oct. 1, 2026 Gloucester to Hadley Harbor 85 miles and 8.9 hours
Another long day, but making good progress. More open water to start. Running 10+ miles offshore as we pass Boston. Swells have died away but replaced with 2' shorter period choppy waves. Along with glare off the water, it's more difficult to spot the scattering of lobster pots that we still come across. Amazing to me they drop these traps in up to 200' of water. That's a lot of line to retrieve. We're crossing areas of 250-300' depths which allows Otto to take over for a few hours. Winds continue to pick up as we pass Plymouth and enter Cape Cod Bay.
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Picture of our mooring ball. You grab the attached line and secure it to
your bow cleat. The ball is permanently anchored to the seafloor. |
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We first met the 75' Lone Wolf back in Southwest Harbor.
Then in Portland during the nor'easter but a different marina |
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| Morning cruise offshore. Not much to look at but water. |
We timed the transit of the Cape Cod canal about perfect. Fight a slight outgoing current as we enter the canal, but it reverses to an outgoing current at the half-way point and we get a push out into Buzzards Bay. Still have several more hours to get to our planned destination of Hadley Harbor. A great small harbor not too far from Woods Hole. The owners of a nearby island have placed numerous free mooring balls for cruisers to use. To get there we are heading almost straight into the increasing wind and spray is starting to fly with each wave we hit. Boat is pretty salty by the time we arrive.
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Jetty at the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal.
That smokestack was a landmark for us from 15 miles out!! |
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| Giving the right of way to commercial traffic on the canal |
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The Patriot State ship looks identical to the State of Maine we saw in Castine.
Makes sense as we are passing the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. |
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| Wings Neck Lighthouse as we begin heading out into Buzzards Bay |
Upon entering the inner harbor we see it filled with sailboats at every mooring. Strings of pennant flags flapping from most. Part of a rendezvous from a yacht club out of Martha's Vineyard. No room for us, so we head back to the outer harbor where we drop anchor which grabs strong. Bull Island offers us good protection from the SW winds which will continue to build overnight and through Friday. After two long cruising days, we'll stay put until Saturday when winds and waves will again settle.
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| Entrance into inner Hadley Harbor is not for the faint of heart. |
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| Inching our way in slowly paying close attention to charts and depth finder |
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| The reward is a cove with free mooring balls. If only one was available. |
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Journey for Oct.1, 2026
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Friday morning we notice several sailboats heading out from the inner harbor. Surprising as I figured the yacht club rendezvous was staying there all weekend. Since winds will be switching 180 degrees to the north overnight, we decided to up anchor and hope that a few of the moorings were available. Chain comes up clean, but anchor had dug deep into a sticky muddy clay bottom requiring a bit of washing. Worked out perfectly as we had a choice of several open moorings. This will make our early morning departure super easy. Nice sunny day. Warm in the upper 60's. Thought about dropping the kayak to paddle around a bit. Haven't used them this trip. Wondering now why we brought them!
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