Cranberry County Online: July 2017

Duxbury Beach Free Of Evil Red Seaweed... For Now

Duxbury Beach attacked the red seaweed problem on the residential beach today. The town beach by the bridge had already been done, and the Beach Park handled it privately. (M.E. Federici on the camera)

A smelly red seaweed from Japan has been all over South Shore beaches this summer. Duxbury buried it, but Marshfield, with her rockier beaches, is letting it rot in place. Given the tenacity of this seaweed, Duxbury may have just planted a new batch for all I know. Hopefully, everything works out.

The pictures with the seaweed are from less-responsive Nantasket Beach in Hull.

Heterosiphonia japonica was first identified off of Rhode Island in 2009. It looks like other red kelp swishing around, but it is smellier and more persistent. It can outcompete other seaweed and squeeze out life on any beach it hits. "The beach looks like cranberry sauce" and "It's like swimming in oil" are complaints we've heard.

Good riddance!

Harboring: Weymouth

Our series, Harboring, takes us up to Weymouth.

Weymouth does what they can with the space they were granted.

When you see a foot-high seawall, you know you're sort of sheltered as far as harbors go.

Weymouth and Quincy are pretty much the cutoff point of our coverage area.

Keep off the moors...

We add an extra B for "delicious"... oh wait, it was Botulism.

Coolest house on the harbor, for my money.

Not too bad for a few towns south of Boston.

I was up there rather early, and beat a lot of the pleasure-boatin' types to the dock, hence the inactivity.

This is the Moose, waiting her turn.

The way out to sea...

The most patriotic dock in town.

The Pru and the Hancock in the background, barely visible to my camera.

Stormy morning, to be fair...

The boat was named for a 17th century suffragist in England. She was once imprisoned for heckling Prime Minister Asquith.

If naming a boat the Stacey Ann or something isn't trendy enough for you, you can just use a symbol, like Prince did.

I only had so many vantage points to work with.

Got my own dock...

Thanks for having us, Weymouth!

Haboring: Harwich Port

Harboring goes to Harwich Port.

We had three harbors in town to choose from, so we chose to start at Saquatucket.

Sasquatucket, Wychmere and Allen are the three harbors in Harwich Port's "Three Harbors, One Port" nickname.

Good harbor space on southern Cape Cod is rare, and the waiting list at this harbor is 12-15 years... which is about the last time they painted this boat, now that you mention it.

They have about 200 slips here, and they fetch a pretty penny for them. Cape Cod yachty life don't come cheap, player...

Saquatucket has plenty of working boats.

I'm guessing that's the difference between tides in these parts. I'm not sure. I sank the only boat that I ever owned, and am not the go-to guy in this situation.

Well, if you're gonna break a part of the boat...

A nice shot of the Rose Of The Winds, also known as a Compass Rose.

The view exiting Saquatucket Harbor... sweet house, btw

I never trust aqua boats, I always suspect a Dolphins fan. This paranoia only increases when you factor in Cape Cod's tourist, washashore and snowbird populations.

"Rod Holster" sounds like that Putin/Trump joke that Colbert made a few months ago.

The good part about upper decks is that you can vomit down onto the captain if he drives so poorly that you get seasick.

History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.

Harwich has more three-story-high boats than most harbors, and I go to a lot of harbors.

This may be the actual shack that Captain Bob worked out of.

US warships should have goofy names now and then... "USS Neurotic" and so forth.

Yankee I is probably out, and you notice the empty berth next to Yankee II... but "What happened to Yankee I?" comes to mind even before I consider getting on the boat.