Boston Light

200 or so passengers filled the Boston Harbor Cruises boat to the brim for a 4+ hour survey of Boston Harbor, looking for birds, mammals, scenery and a day out on the water. Though at times amazingly cold and windblown, there were plenty of occasions to enjoy the views and the wildlife under delightful, almost balmy conditions. Hats off to the boat crew and staff of National Park Service and Department of Conservation and Recreation for planning and managing this trip. The boat provided an excellent chili and a chowder at reasonable cost.

Boston Harbor and its wildlife remain a mystery to many people who have lived here for long stretches of their adult lives and these cruises are an excellent introduction to this outstanding resource. An acquaintance on the boat told me that she had lived in this area for 35 years and yet had no idea that she would see anything of interest out on the water.

The boat left the Quincy ferry terminal at 10:15 am, picked up passengers at Boston's Long Wharf at 11, cruised east as far as Graves Light and past the outer Harbor Islands including the Brewsters, then south into Hingham Harbor before dropping off passengers back in Boston and finally in Quincy by approximately 2:30.

A picture is of Boston Light, which is located on little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor. Boston Light is the oldest lighthouse in the United States. This one pictured is not the original, the first was destroyed by the colonists to keep it out of the hands of the British, who rebuilt it and then destroyed it. When they were driven out of Boston. It also has the distinction of being the only man civilian lighthouse in the United States. It is run by the US Coast Guard.