We had a fantastic visit with our very good friends, the Watermans, in their happy surroundings in Amesbury MA. It ended with a bit of an emergency situation when we fried the wiring of the cut-out switch of the forward thruster, filling the forward stateroom with smoke. With Nic's assistance we ended up at a local boat yard and were only delayed by one day in our departure for home. We spent last night anchored in Gloucester (first time to do that in the dark, but no problems). We had to leave quitelate to fit in the very small window when the Merrimac River bar was not closed by the Coast Guard. That river has some serious issues of tide, current, hazards and a wicked bar. We departed, however, with less danger than our arrival (which had been a low tide with rollers). The departure was near high tide, though it was quite rough. Nothing we could not handle. I was just glad to see lots of water under the keel the whole time.

We are now in one or our favorite spots: Cuttyhunk in Buzzards Bay, MA. We took a dock spot to give Luca a break (and because we were 12' too large for any of the moorings-- though we were prepared to work around that with the local guys). Tomorrow we are heading for Block Island and then need to decide how to route the return.