Rhode Island to Maine
We left New York on the evening of September 17, destined for Newport, Rhode Island. We cruised overnight along the coast of Long Island, reaching Newport early the next morning. As you will conclude from the pictures, our first destination would be explored in the rain. Fortunately, it was the first and final day of rain during our voyage. We went ashore for a bus tour of Newport and surroundings. The weather was such that we spent most of that trip on the bus. Not good for photography, so most of my pictures were taken in and around the harbour.
Today’s first photograph features the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, a tall ship. The ship is named after the American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819), the hero of the naval Battle of Lake Erie(1813).
It measures 207 feet (63 m), and is a three-masted square-rigged vessel, making it the largest privately owned tall ship and largest civilian sail training vessel in the United States. The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry sails as Rhode Island’s Official Sailing School Vessel and “good will ambassador” for the state.
On the return transfer to our ship, we passed another cruise ship, the Norwegian Escape. They seemed to be on an itinerary very similar to ours. We shared harbours with it for the remainder of the U.S. segment of our cruise.
This photograph shows both of the cruise ships, the Norwegian Escape to the right and our vessel, the SS Mariner in the background. Our ship is considerably smaller (784 guest capacity) than the Norwegian Escape (4,266 guest capacity). This was our third cruise with the SS Mariner and we’ve grown to prefer the advantages of a less populous vessel.
Moving on, we arrived early the next morning at the Port of Boston. While awaiting clearance to disembark, we sat on our balcony and enjoyed watching the activity on the container terminal, adjacent to our mooring. I was impressed with the crane operators’ skills maneuvering the containers aboard the MSC Zlata R and the speed at which they did it.
Once we did disembark, we boarded another tour bus to ferry us around the City of Boston. Again, it was challenging photography amid the many tall buildings in the city core. I didn’t miss the opportunity to photograph the elegant Massachusetts State House, seat of the state government.
An interesting landmark in Boston is the Cheers bar, located on Beacon Hill. What many people don’t realize is that the show’s pub is actually based on a bar in Boston, and the exterior shots of Cheers were filmed at the real-life watering hole that inspired the TV show. The episodes were filmed in Boston, Massachusetts, and Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California. Boston provided settings for exterior sequences; interior sequences were filmed in California.
Regrettably, the exterior of the pub was under renovation (not good for picture taking) but there is still a pub inside, open for business while the work continued outside.
Our last excursion ashore in New England was at Bar Harbor, Maine. We didn’t stop for lunch at this seaside restaurant, fortunately. But, its weathered appearance appealed to my photographic instincts. It was located at a fishing port in Islesford on the Cranberry Isles, near Bar Harbor.
I took this last photograph in the Town of Bar Harbor, while awaiting our tender to transport us back to the ship.
In regards to my previous post, entitled “A Glimpse of Autumn”, let me clarify a couple of things, beginning with the title, “A Glimpse of Autumn”. That’s the name the cruise line, Regent assigned to this cruise, founded on the presumption that we would see autumn colours in the course of stops en route to Montréal. Due to extended summer weather on the east coast, that didn’t happen. That should explain why you’ll see almost no autumn colours in this and subsequent posts.
I also made reference to some photographic challenges I encountered, particularly in New York City. This was not unexpected and resulted from my choice of camera for this trip. I chose to bring a camera that is ideal for travel. It’s compact, light and the picture quality is comparable to that of the larger, Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras I normally use. I chose the Fuji X100F, pictured below to simplify travel and to avoid carrying the lenses and accessories I would otherwise need with a DSLR. The trade-off is the inability to adjust the focal length of the built-in lens, making it more difficult to compose the pictures. A good compromise.
