Gloucester is a real working harbor. There’s a mix of pleasure boats, big fishing trawlers, crowded docks and dark industrial looking water front warehouses.

If a waterfront has an attitude, this harbor seems to say, “Gloucester, take it or leave it”. You see what you see.

I immediately fell in love with industrial funky harbor as I slid the anchor off my bow and buried it deeply in rich historic mud in the completely vacant anchorage, right in the center of it all. I saw Gloucester mostly at night walking streets(like many sailors have for centuries). It’s a mixture of new and old, smooth and rough.

In a local bar(there are quite a few in Gloucester) I listened to local musicians and talked with a couple residents that couldn’t say enough about what a great place Gloucester is to live, today(it's had it's ups and downs).

I can see why they love it here. Gloucester is in a well established renaissance . Incomes have risen 20% and property values near doubled in the last 10 years(city-data.com). Small city Bohemia pulses through the dark streets, it's got life. I'll return, for sure.

It’s quite a place, Gloucester. Take it or leave it.