Over a month ago we tossed off the mooring in Salem and headed for Beverly. Not much of an adventure to be sure but we absolutely made the best of it and settled right in. Beverly Port Marina is a run down family “owned” dump that has recently had a run in with the local waterfront revitalization community. The marina has fenced off a rather large section of the public waterfront for it’s private usage and the revitalization people want to take it back by imminent domain to continue the public hike and bike trail ultimately scheduled to go from Cape Cod to Cape Anne. The imminent Domain has already been won by the local and state voters so it’s inevitable that the marina will have to clean up their act and let the public stroll right through the middle of their shit. Anyway, We paid up front and they invited us to come in early. I did laundry on our first day there and it caused raw sewage to boil up from the floor drains to swamp a 2 inch funky bog throughout both the men’s and women’s restrooms. There is so much oil and toxic goo on the concrete between the docks and the restrooms that it’s guaranteed you’ll track it aboard on even a single trip to the head. We were there for almost a week when the old guy that runs the machinery caught us on the dock and told us we could no longer ride our bikes on the property of the marina. From then on we had to walk our bikes from the entrance of the marina to where ever we were going to lock them. Of course they had no bike racks so we had to improvise a safe spot behind a wall[…]
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