More brushes with fame

Today I took Cher to Gloucester, where I was photographed for a tourism brochure, sailing in a picture perfect postcard of autumn in New England. Perhaps someday I will see it and be able to share it with you. For now, this photo of They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships will have to do.

The whole story: Rosemary wanted to go up and see her (liberal cool) cousin Teri who lives in Gloucester and Teri agreed to show us where I could put my boat in while they took the dog for a walk on the beach. So she took me to Annisquam where there was an inlet not much wider than the lagoon we all love to navigate. So off i went, downwind where I noticed a man on the shore taking numerous photos of me. I hope he got my Red Sox knit cap in the photo (wait till next year!).

Before long I came upon a footbridge spanning the inlet with no way to get through. The photographer had made his way to the bridge and was still snapping away. Rosemary and Teri appeared on the bridge also, apologizing for the error. This is when they found out why the guy was taking photos. So I tacked back to where I had put in, against a mighty tidal current, which was tricky. Teri had this to say: "Sorry, but I'm not a sailor so I didn't know!"

Next she took me to various ocean beaches. No, that won't work either, waves crashing against rocks ala the Maine coast... I explained I needed something a little more protected than that.

The lightbulb went off and she took me to a road that dead ended on a tiny beach right on Gloucester Harbor. Perfect!!