
It was a perfect day for a trip on the water. Temperatures in the upper 70s, blue skies and gentle breezes. About fifty NACCAPeans (okay, I just made that up) came on the cruise, while another forty went on a three-hour whale watching trip deeper out to sea. We were joined by a group of about forty kids who probably were on their high school senior trip or something. Anyway, we scouted out a spot near the bow (that’s the front) of the boat.
From L to R below, the back row is Roy Danielian (Programs Manager), Jeanne Crafton (Senior Admissions Counselor) and Angelo Mante (Admissions Counselor). The front row is Amanda Heinsch (Admissions Counselor), me and Kirsten Harrison (Communications Manager).

And you gotta love this photo of Roy. He looks like somebody's Uncle Vinnie. Fuhgidaboutit!

This picture is of the historic Gloucester marine paints factory, which painted the old wooden fishing boats with a copper-based paint that helped prevent damage to the boats. And then they discovered that the copper killed the marine life. You win some, you lose some.

They also showed us the Hammond Castles. This first one was built by someone named Hammond, naturally . . .

However, when his son wanted to marry, the parents did not approve of his fiancee, so Hammond Junior decided to build an even bigger castle just down the road, or shore, from his parents' shack. If I remember right, he incorporated three distinct eras in castle architecture into his new home, which are somewhat apparent as you look at the castle from left to right, with the most recent style (I think from the 18th century) at the left and the oldest at the right.

As this was a “lighthouse-n-lobsters cruise," they stopped along the way to pull up some lobster traps for us. I wondered if we would get a refund if the traps were empty but that was a moot point since they did pick up several critters. Everyone gathers on the port side of the boat to observe the drama, which caused us to list quite a bit. The captain did not appear to be alarmed, though.


As the cruise drew to a conclusion, they showed us this famous statue on the shoreline, dedicated to the thousands of fishermen who had lost their lives at sea over the years. I guess they thought it was best not to tell us about this part of sailing the ocean prior to departure.

1 comment:
Dude, you need a portable GPS. Is that something that could be shared by the office staff or are too many individuals out on the road at one time? It proved to be invaluable when we were driving to and from the Oakland Airport to Sonoma County.
Laura
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