Thank you to all the Schooner Captains and Crews for providing a glorious 40th Annual Schooner Fest for us all to enjoy!
Schooner Strombus – Parade of Sail
Schooners Adventure and Strombus
Canon in D major composed by Johann Pachelbel, performed by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Music from the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music – Creative Commons – with attributes – non-commercial.
Gloucester Schooner Challenge 2024
Schooner Adventure and the Schooner Isabella, built by Harold Burnham
Scene from last night’s Schooner Challenge –
Schooner Strombus, restored by local shipwright Geoff Deckebach, and the majestic Schooner Adventure
Congratulations to seine boat crew ZFG and Coach Paul Giacalone for a hard fought victory!
ZFG crew Gilbert Brown, Jerry Ciaramitaro, Mike Harmon, Pete Mondello, Jared Morris, Kellen O’Maley, JJ Palazzola, Alex Rodolosi, Peter Taormina, Sam Taormina, and Vincenzo Terranova
Steve LeBlanc returns to the Greasy Pole for a stellar walk!
Congratulations to Derek Hopkins and the Hopkins Family! Derek is now a six time Greasy Pole Champion. Video to follow tomorrow 🙂
🙂
Congratulations to Max Allen! He is the third generation in his family to win the flag, following in the footsteps of his uncle and grandfather.
GRAND OPENING Angelica Seafoods Coming Thursday! Only selling local and US wild caught seafood, the beautifully designed, brand new retail location is offering a bounty of deliciousness, including Cape Ann lobsters, tuna, cod, haddock, swordfish, clams, sea bass, American shrimp (no gross farm-raised shrimp at Angelica’s!), and much, much more.
Nancy and Christina Marciano
Angelica Seafoods is owned and operated by Captain Dave and Nancy Marciano of Wicked Tuna fame, along with Dave’s sister Christine Marciano Sciola. The business is named after Nancy and Dave’s daughter Angelica. Captain Dave and Nancy’s area of expertise is of course seafood, while Christine is a successful business woman. The shop is a welcome addition to Gloucester’s working waterfront district. Wishing the family the best of luck in this exciting adventure!
Tees, hats, hoodies, lightweight jackets, and even bobbleheads of Dave are also available for sale. Limited editions, like the heather blue tee, will only be offered in-store.
If you need inspiration on what to cook with the fabulous array of super fresh seafood from Angelica’s, check out the recipe page on the Angelica Seafoods website.
Angelica Seafoods is located at 52R Commercial Street Gloucester, MA in the freshly painted peach colored building, adjacent to Saint Peter’s Square. Hours this first weekend are Thursday and Friday, 10 to 5, and Saturday and Sunday 10 to 3.
Love seeing the Coast Guard cutters from Niles Beach.
From wiki –
Design
Like her sister ships, William Sparling is designed to perform search and rescue missions, port security, and the interception of smugglers. She is armed with a remotely-controlled, gyro-stabilized 25 mm autocannon, four crew served M2 Browning machine guns, and light arms. She is equipped with a stern launching ramp, that allows her to launch or retrieve a water-jet propelled high-speed auxiliary boat, without first coming to a stop. Her high-speed boat has over-the-horizon capability, and is useful for inspecting other vessels, and deploying boarding parties.
The crew’s drinking water needs are met through a desalination unit. The crew mess is equipped with a television with satellite reception.
Operational career
On 15 August 2022, it was announced that William Sparling would be homeported in Boston, Massachusetts.
The vessel’s manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, in Key West, on July 20, 2023. She was commissioned at Station Portsmouth Harbor in New Castle, New Hampshire on October 19, 2023. Her sponsor was William “Bill” Sparling’s widow Caroline Sparling and her first commanding officer was Lt. Jacklyn “Jackie” Kokomoor.
From the Coast Guard’s website –
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 54th fast response cutter (FRC), William Sparling, July 20, 2023 in Key West, Florida. William Sparling will be the fifth FRC to be homeported in Boston.
William Sparling was one of the first Coast Guard enlisted members to be awarded the Silver Star Medal, one of the nation’s highest military awards for valor in combat. Sparling served as a landing craft coxswain during the Battle of Tulagi, a strategically important island in the Pacific theater, during World War II. The island was captured by enemy forces in May 1942, and Allied forces were concerned that the occupation of Tulagi would be used to threaten Allied units and supply routes in the region. Allied forces arrived at Tulagi on Aug. 7, 1942, to reestablish control of the island. The amphibious assault, supported by the landing craft piloted by Sparling and other coxswains, was the first U.S. offensive of World War II and was one of the first in a series of battles that defined the Guadalcanal campaign.
During the invasion, Sparling and other coxswains landed the first wave of U.S. Marines from USS McKean on the beaches of Tulagi. Over the next three days of fighting, Sparling and others made repeated trips between the Navy destroyer and Tulagi to deliver equipment, ammunition and other supplies to Marines as they engaged a determined occupying force of 800 troops. On Aug. 9, the remaining enemy forces surrendered, and the Allies successfully secured Tulagi.
The Coast Guard has ordered 65 FRCs to date. Fifty-two are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six in Bahrain; four in California; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon, and Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.
For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page
Pretty harbor scene –
Keep cozy on this longest night of the year, and throughout the season <3
David Brooks and Jim Knott
Riverdale Mills CEO, Jim Knott, Jr., was in attendance at Saturday evening’s wondrous Lobster Trap Tree lighting. Mr. Knott generously donated the 400 traps used in creating the 2023 Lobster Trap Tree. The gift of 400 traps is permanent and will be used in the building of future trap trees. 400 trees were donated to symbolize Gloucester’s 400th anniversary.
Additionally, the labor for building the 400 traps was donated by Brooks Trap Mill in Thomaston, Maine, and contributions were made by Three Lantern Marine Fishing and Supply, Gloucester.
Jim Knott, as quoted in the Gloucester Daily Times, “We’re here for the lobstermen, and we’re trying to support both the current event and the future,” he said. “The reason for the donation is that we wanted to help the community out. The lobster fishing industry is a big part of our business and we have a long history in the lobster industry making wire mesh that was invented in Gloucester. My father has two patents that date back to the 1960s and that wire mesh supplanted wood almost completely (for lobster traps).”
The wire mesh, called Aquamesh, that you see inside modern lobster traps, was invented by Jim’s Dad, James Knott, Sr. He spent summers on Cape Ann with his family, fishing for lobsters during his teenage years. Mr. Knott knew there had to be a better lobster trap. Since the mid-1960s, he “had been tinkering with designs for wire lobster traps. The traditional wooden traps were buoyant and needed to be weighed down with bricks or rocks to sink. Once immersed, they became water logged and extremely heavy. They also wore out more quickly than metal cages.” James Knott converted an abandoned mill on the banks of the Blackstone River, in Northbridge, Massachusetts, which had been used to manufacture bayonets during the Civil War, and founded Riverdale Mills to manufacture coated wire and Aquamesh.
For more information read here:
The Wall Street Journal: James Knott Pioneered Modern Lobster Traps and fended off the EPA
Worcester Business Journal: The Backbone of Lobster Traps
Gloucester daily Times by Gail McCarthy: Gloucester’s Lobster Trap Tree Grows
Left to right: Shawn Henry, Dave D’Angelis, Peter Asaro, Devin Carr, David Brooks, John Cooney, Andrew Nicastro, Steve Larkin, and “Fancy” Dave Pratt. Not pictured, but just as dedicated and hard working, are Shane O’Neill and Peter Cannavo.
Please write if anyone’s name is missing and I will add it to the post. Thank you!
We live here <3
The stunning Tall Ship Lynx rounded Eastern Point light just after sunset and headed in for its annual maintenance haul-out at the Marine Railways. Schooner Adventure greeted the vessel and they were firing off guns as they came into port.
The Tall Ship Lynx travels throughout New England in the warmer months and winters in the Golden Isles of Georgia at St. Simons Island.
For more information about the Lynx, visit www.TallShipLynx.org.
Tall Ship Lynx in Gloucester through the years
Last evening, the Tall Ship Lynx arrived to Gloucester Harbor just as the sun was setting. The sky grew rosier and rosier long after the sun had dipped below the horizon.
Tall Ship Lynx and Schooner Adventure
Autumnal Equinox Sunset Ten Pound Island Lighthouse
From the Tall Ship Lynx website – The Tall Ship Lynx is an educational organization dedicated to hands-on programs that teach the history and present examples of America’s struggle to preserve its independence. The ship is an interpretation of an actual privateer built in 1812. The maritime challenges during the War of 1812 are taught aboard Lynx utilizing a comprehensive, interactive program designed to enrich personal achievement through teamwork and the discipline of sailing.
In 1997 Woodson K. Woods embarked on a journey to build a privateer inspired by the original historic tall ship from the War of 1812 – The Privateer Lynx. His goal was to create a living history museum to educate children and adults alike about American history through active sail training aboard a real wooden sailing ship.
What went into Lynx was not just wood, rope, brass and canvas. It was not just sweat, blood, heartache and laughter either. What went into her goes far beyond history, ambition, inspiration, determination and commitment. In 2016 Lynx was purchased from Woods Maritime LLC , by the Lynx Educational Foundation, Lynx hails out of Nantucket Island, Ma. Donald Emmons Peacock, President and captain. Our partner in education is Egan Maritime Institute in Nantucket. Lynx winters in city of St Petersburg, Florida our winter home. Since 2015, Lynx Donald E. Peacock, president, and Captain Lynx winters in St. Simons Island, GA, November through May.
On July 28, 2001 in Rockport, Maine Woods’ vision was realized. Past and present converged as Lynx was launched in a gala event ordaining a magnificent future on the high seas.
The creation of Lynx embraces eternal truths: passion, sacrifice, perseverance, honor and courage. All of these emotions gave her a soul long before she tasted her first saltwater. At sea, Lynx is the legacy of her creators: the thinkers, the designers, the builders, and most important, the dreamers…
Pretty clouds over Gloucester harbor skyline this morning.
Look to the sky over the next few days. Sunrise will be directly east at 90 degrees and sunset, directly west, at 270 degrees. 
Waves, wind, and a beautiful sunset –
Mother Ann awash in waves today
I love trying to capture friend’s boats during the Parade of Sail. Here’s our neighbor’s Geoff and Mandy’s beautiful Schooner Strombus that they built and launched back in 2017, and the sweetest crew of East Gloucester friends!
The Schooner Strombus won the 2023 Betty Ramsey Award in the Marconi Rigged Class!
Strombus Schooner Launch Party, from July 2017-
A new schooner was added to Gloucester’s growing fleet. The schooner was launched today at 11am from the Rocky Neck Marine Railways. Strombus, built by Geoff Deckebach, with help from his wife Mandy, was twelve years in the making. They began gutting and restoring the boat all those many years ago when work and raising a family slowed progress. About a year ago, Geoff decided to turn his full attention to the restoration. The schooner is simply beautiful. More work will continue on the interior and it will be ready enough to motor along in this year’s upcoming Schooner Festival.
What glorious weather for the entire 39th Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival and Parade of Sail!
If interested in the name of the schooner, click on the photo; most are captioned.
Scenes from the Gloucester Schooner Festival Challenge August31, 2023
Schooners Isabella, Ardelle, and Thomas Lannon – all three schooners were built by Harold Burnham
You’re a Grand Old Flag!