Inner Salem Harbor

It promises to be a very nice  early fall day. September is often an idea time for paddling since the waters are still warn, not yet having chilled down for the season. With that in mind, we head to Marblehead to join our good friends Tom & Kay for an afternoon adventure.

Deciding to make it a more casual day, we opt to NOT attempt a paddle out to the Misery Islands from Manchester-by-the-Sea, but instead to just stay close to home and launch from Marblehead's Stramski Beach into Salem Harbor.  On a previous trip, we paddled around Salem Neck into Beverly Harbor, but today we have a high tide, so it's an ideal time to head to the south end.  

Tom & Kay ask, "Why are you still on the beach, Steve?  Let's go!"

"First things first," I reply.  "My darling wife requests a little push into the water."

We make it all the way to the south end of the harbor.  These rock formations don't always appear this way, because at low tide, this whole area is just mud flats.

The ladies would like to save a little energy to paddle back, so while they head back to the beach, the "mighty paddling guys" go exploring the far side of the harbor.

As we approached this lighthouse, I had the strangest feeling that I had been here before. 
It turns out there are more than one of these styles of lighthouses on the western shore of Salem Harbor.

We headed around one of the wharfs and came upon this tourist attraction.
The ship is called the Friendship of Salem.  It is a reconstruction rather than an original ship. 
It's masts appear short, but that's because the upper halves of them were taken down and are laying nearby on the ground. 

At a nearby "historic" building, there was a wedding party getting some photos taken, although I had a bit of a hard time "capturing the moment" as you can see.  

In any event, I was enjoying my time on the water.

Since Tom & I took a long detour, from the Friendship we decided to head straight back to our put-in expecting to find the ladies waiting for us.  As we approached, however, they were nowhere to be found.  We doubled back along the most likely path to look for them.  

We finally found them employing the "let's let the tide carry us back" technique.  
No paddling required.

Tom & I headed back to the beach to await their ultimate arrival.  
Any time now...

It turns out a little paddling is needed to get back to the beach, after all.

For Tom & I, this was a 2:10 excursion covering 5.21 miles.  I think I can now officially check all of Salem Harbor off as "done".