August 18:  Liverpool to Carter's Beach

     We had talked about visiting Lunenburg on Tuesday, but instead we decided to leave Mahone Bay and continue on our journey along the South Shore.  We're starting to feel the push to get back, I think, both of us look at the map and think "Wow, we're not that far from Maine."  Dan has several projects he wants to get done before we head South along the Intracoastal Waterway, and we have been told not to delay our departure for that, but to get going before the end of September.  Hard to think about September when it's August!!
     So we again got an early start and headed out toward the fog and the prevailing Southwest winds that promised to kick up the seas at us.  The Volunteer had told us they were in Carter's Beach, which the guide book mentioned as spectacularly scenic, and they planned to spend another night there.  We looked at the chart and decided to try for it.  As the morning wore on, however, we decided to go up into Liverpool and get out of the fog and the choppy seas.
     Liverpool is mentioned and not at all scenic, and we found this to be true.  It appeared also not to be very cruiser-friendly, as there is a fixed bridge which precludes taking your boat into the town harbor.  There is a small marina in nearby Brooklyn, which offers day dockage (for $35) and it's a taxi ride or a very long walk to Liverpool from there, so we decided to anchor outside the bridge and take the dinghy in.  There's a strong current there, but our anchor was up to the task.  We took the dinghy into town and tied at the tiny, little-used (falling apart?) town dock.

Irving Shipyard in front of the fixed bridge to Liverpool.

     I was ecstatic to find a farmer's market!!  I walked through rows displaying baskets of just about every kind of fresh produce available and Dan took one look at my face and said he'd go find some ice.  I found, among other things, fresh local peaches and ripe cantaloup.  We loaded up our provisioning cooler and took everything back to the boat and then returned to town to make a run to the supermarket for meats.  There was a small VFW-type of building offering hamburgers and fish chowder all day for $3 so we decided to have supper there.  Turns out they were offering hamburger soup, not hamburgers, and they were out of fish chowder, but they had turkey soup.  So Dan had that and I had the hamburger soup, and we were amused to see the woman take styrofoam cups out of the fridge and place them in the microwave for us.  Still, it was only $3, and the soup was very tasty.
    When we got back to the boat, Dan admitted he was not comfortable with our anchorage and he suggested we leave and continue on to Carter's Beach.  The winds died down in the evening, so if the seas were calm, all we'd have to contend with was the fog.  It would take us about two and a half hours, we'd probably arrive just after sunset.  So that's what we did, and though there wasn't any wind, the sea was still a bit choppy and it was foggy.  The spectacular scenery of Carter's Beach eluded us - it was quite foggy there too - but the foggy sunset made up for it.