Craford Bay

There is company for the cruising sailboats anchored in Craford Bay.  A few barges, a couple of cranes and floating booms now mix with the southbound boats.  

Around the time of the civil war, the thriving waterfront town of Portsmouth had gas street lamps, something very modern at the time.  The gas for the lamps came from a gas plant located on a creek that fed into Craford Bay. 

The plant operated for nearly a century, all the while allowing contaminants to flow down the creek into the bay.  If you could look down through the water and layer of silt, you would see a plume of tar and oil-like substance spreading out across the bottom.  That material is now being removed.  Once it has been scooped up and hauled awy, the bay will be returned to its natural state of clean sand and oyster reefs.  How nice is that? 

I should be unpacking boxes and moving furniture back into the refinished living room tomorrow.  But with a forecast of nice wind and temperatures reaching close to the 70's, I hope to be sailing.  There will be plenty of cold, grey days for unpacking.

steve