Portsmouth Harbor - Can you say; Lobster Pots?

Isles of Shoals to Kittery Maine

Portsmouth Harbor / Kittery Maine

We had already decided that Portsmouth Harbor would be our next stop, so wee left Isles of Shoals and never looked back. Nearly out of food, we needed to re-provision, so we set our course and headed out. It was only about a two hour sail across from Isles of Shoals, so we would be getting there well before sunset.

Sure enough, before long, we caught sight of the Whaleback Light at the mouth of the Piscataqua River and altered course to head up river and into the harbor. We knew we were heading in against the tide and we knew to expect lobster pots, but what we weren’t expecting was the MINEFIELD of lobster pots in the entrance; Holy Mackerel, they where everywhere! In some sections, there were so many clustered together I could barely squeeze in between them. Worse still, many were just below the surface and I couldn’t see them until I was almost on top of them.

Needless to say, it made for an interesting entry! Slowly but surely we weaved in and out of the floats attached to the lobster pots and made our way towards the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse. Leaving it to port, we headed towards our anchorage just off Fort McClary. We worked our way around a few more lobster pots in the anchorage and dropped the hook for the night! Wow, that was way too much like work!

Rib-eye or Ramen; it’s all good!

Ramen!

As I’ve mentioned before, part of our style of living is balance – sometimes it’s Rib-eye steak and sometimes it’s Ramen; we were out of everything except our pantry items, so tonight it was Ramen! Now, just because it’s ramen, doesn’t mean it has to be bad… nope! In this case, I sautéd onions & cubed spam in some olive oil, added some tomato paste and some red pepper flakes, then a bit of chopped candied ginger and once the ramen was done, topped it off with some julienned romaine leaves & diced up a tomato we had left in the fridge! Yum!

Our simple dinner complete, we spent some time lounging in the cockpit before calling it a night and heading below. We had a good nights sleep, but woke up around 4:30 AM to lots of rocking & rolling – the lobstermen were heading out in force and, of course, we were sitting parallel to the wakes! Oh well, all part of the lifestyle! We got up around 6:30, made coffee and sat out in the cockpit for a bit simply enjoying the morning and watching the world go by.

Time to re-provision

The river heading up to the city of Portsmouth has a pretty fast current, so we decided it would be best to be cautious and time our dinghy trip to take advantage of the tail end of the flood tide heading up and the beginning of the ebb tide coming back… we’d simply hang out today and make the trip tomorrow.

The trip up river took about 20 minutes, but was mostly uneventful – a few wakes from fishing boats to maneuver around, but that’s about it. I made my way up towards the Memorial Bridge and before long spotted the Prescott Park docks run by The City of Portsmouth, NH. I turned to port, headed towards the dinghy dock and within a few minutes, I was tied off and walking towards the harbor master’s office to check in.

Checkin completed, it was time to head towards the supermarket which was about 1.5 miles away… not a bad walk and I got to tour a bit of Portsmouth in the process. I walked past a couple of historic buildings, found the laundromat and took a quick detour around the downtown area before continuing on towards my ultimate destination. The supermarket was actually very good. They’re not always, so it’s a pleasant surprise when they are!

I did my shopping, loaded up my backpack, cooler bag and a couple of supermarket bags and started to head back. Yep, sounded like a lot to me as well, guess I overdid the shopping! I had only made it across the parking lot before reality set in and I realized there was no way in heck I was going to make it back to the dink carrying this load! Fortunately, Portsmouth does have cab service! So, a quick call on the phone, a 10 minute cab ride and $9 bucks later (including tip!) and I’m back at the marina loading up the dink for the rise back down river – Nice!

We spent a couple of more days anchored in Portsmouth harbor waiting for a good weather window – it was time for our next leg; north to Casco Bay, Maine.

Next stop, Jewell Island, Maine

Till next time,

Carlos & Maria
SV Rocinante…_/)