We'll Never Look at a Crane the Same Way

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 6, 2022

Denisa just realized that the title of our last blog was very misleading. It was "Avoiding Boston and our new home town of Essex, Massachusetts." In no way are we avoiding Essex! It should have read, "Avoiding Boston and Loving our new home town of Essex, Massachusetts!" When we arrived last night in the rain to our camping spot here in Essex, we asked our host, Ernie, about the best local beach to go to the next day. He had to sigh as he told us that the local beaches are only available by reservation, and the locals book weekend slots up far in advance. Even if we could have gotten a reservation, it would cost us out-of-staters $35 to park at the beach. We resigned ourselves to a non-beach day, even though we are so very close to the ocean. 

Then we got a text this morning at 7 a.m. from Ernie. He and his wife Wendy, were taking their boat to a boat-in-only-nonreservation-local-beach, and they were inviting us to go with them. We never refuse a local invitation, and we quickly got packed up and ready!

We left from the Essex Harbor--which is available only to locals--and headed up the Essex River on this blue-sky morning.

As we got closer to the ocean, we could see a curious layer of fog on top of the water in the distance.

As we continued, we were soon engulfed in that fog. Ernie and Wendy told us that they make this boat trip most weekends of the summer, and they have never seen anything like this. The problem with this fog is that it is hiding a series of red buoys in this low water channel. We need to be able to see the buoys so Ernie knows where to drive the boat in the deepest water to avoid the sand bars. 

After retracing back to deeper waters, the fog finally lifted enough so we could see that little red buoy ball in the center of the picture. The tide is going out, so the channels are getting more shallow. By going close to that red ball we are safe to not hit a sand bar.

Today's beach trip is timed by the tides. We left three hours before low tide so that the water would still be high enough to get through the channel to get to the beach. We will be here for six hours--leaving three hours after low tide when the water will once again be high enough for us to get back through the shallow channel. Ernie parked the boat, and we anchored far enough out so the boat would still be floating even at low tide. This is why this is a locals-only beach experience. It takes knowing the locations of channels and rules of the tides to make a successful trip here. Notice that you can't see any sand behind the boat when we first arrived, and we must walk through quite a bit of water to unload the boat.

We have arrived to Crane Beach. Ernie explained that this tip of land was donated to the state by the Crane family--who made their fortune selling toilets. Ernie said that we would notice how many Crane toilets there were once we started looking for them. We'll never look at a crane the same way now! Ernie and Wendy are waiting for local friends to join them, and they are content with a relaxing day sitting on the beach. But we are wanderers, so we decided on a one-mile clock-wise loop that will take us up the calm bay side, across the dunes, and back around on the ocean side of this peninsula.

We have seen many horse shoe crabs washed up on beaches. But this is the first time we remember seeing a live one in the water. The ocean water is perfectly clear as we watched this big crab moving across the shallow water.

Ours are the only foot prints in the sand, as few people wander this far. Our plan to walk over the dunes was thwarted by some aggressive mosquitoes waiting for us among the sea grass. 

We decided that fighting off mosquitoes for a half-mile didn't sound like any fun, so we turned around to our bay-side beach. More local boats have joined us by now, but we all still have plenty of room on this long expanse of white sand. We ate our picnic lunch and visited with the locals that have gathered here for their usual Saturday fun at a beach that few people even know exists.

It's getting closer to 12:34--low tide time of the day. Now we can see that our boat is much closer to the beach sand in front of us. We can also see clearly the sand bar behind the boat that is now uncovered by the receding water.

As the beach gets bigger, we're taking our walk now counter-clockwise. That way we don't have to go across the mosquito-infested dunes to get to the point at the end of the peninsula.

Just a few hours ago this sand was covered by ocean water. It still has swirls and curves made by the  ocean motion.

When we got closer to the point of the peninsula, we were once again wading in the ocean. This walk would only be possible at the lowest tide of the day.

It's fun to see sand that is usually covered with ocean. 

The low tide beach is huge here at Crane Beach! We have wandered into more of God's wonders!

Once on the ocean side of the peninsular, we could see the waves of the Atlantic. But the ocean water is so shallow here at low tide that the waves have diminished by the time they get to the shore.

In fact, we could walk close to a quarter mile out into the Atlantic and it was still just up to our knees. We are on an unusually shallow sand bar at low tide here at Crane Beach.

After the calm water of low tide, the water began moving back into our bay. In fact, the water is coming in so quickly that it feels more like a river current. So we all walked to the end of the beach, and let the incoming tide current float us back to our boat. The picture below shows our heads just bobbing above the water as the tidal flow moves us.

While we were walking on the ocean side, we found some sea shells. We collected them for some beach art. In particular, Denisa was looking for the perfect shell to form the first letter in the word "Crane." It was the first time she could remember looking for a sea shell that was a C-shell.

We took pictures of the shells here on Crane Beach with our new friends. We can see that the ocean water is once again covering the sand bar behind us. It must be about time to head back to Essex.

At 3:00 the water was once again deep enough to make the boat trip through the channel. We found that we have the fastest boat on the water. Ernie has outfitted his boat with an over-sized engine that makes for a fast trip home. He thought it was fun that these wanderers that showed up last night in the rain enjoyed the speed.

While we assumed that they regularly take their Boondockers Welcome guests to Crane Beach, we found out that we were the first ones that they had invited. Because Cape Anne is such a fun place to visit, they had 120 different boondockers last summer, so we feel very honored to get this special trip to Crane Beach. While Ernie thought seeing a Crane toilet would remind us of Crane Beach--made possible by the toilet empire--he was wrong. Now when we think of Crane we will always remember this special day with the locals! We'll never look at a crane the same way! Thanks Ernie and Wendy!