A night in Salem

We left Provincetown early Sunday morning with the plan to sail to Boston and moor up for a week in the city for a change of scene, however as we reviewed the weather the week was due to be seriously hot, so we cancelled our reservation and opted to go into Marblehead. Enroute we tried to arrange a mooring with the help of a friend, however the harbour is tightly packed with yachts, mostly much smaller than Askari and the only mooring ball we were offered was right out in the swell. Andrew quickly studied the other options as it was getting late in the day and we headed into Salem while I called for a mooring.

Customs House Salem

Historic Wharf Salem - once one of the busiest ports in America

As soon as we got there we went ashore to explore this fascinating town. Salem is famous for it's Witch trials in the 1690s, where twenty people were executed accused of witchcraft - victims of fear and superstition. Now Salem offers a human rights award in their memory and has a beautiful memorial but also celebrates all things witchy, dark and spooky..... The town also has some lovely historic properties, a lovely old wharf, lots of great art and one of the top museums in the United States Peabody Essex Museum -unfortunately it was late in the day so we had to skip PEM and found a brew pub on the river serving german style beer.

Witch Trials Memorial

One of the victims - accused at the age of 71 despite being reported to be a well respected member of the community

Town Hall Salem

Main street with TidalShift Artwork - jelly fish made from plastic bags which are being banned from January

Bewitched Statue - from the US TV series

We really felt very at home in Salem - there is alot in common with our home town of Fremantle, arty and a bit edgy with a real sense of history plus some great community projects ongoing. There was quite alot of touristy action around the witch thing but beyond that it felt like a real town - a working town....

Beer German style by the river