Summer Goes Out With a BANG!

Gloucester's end to the Summer season is usually marked by the Labor Day weekend with the annual Gloucester Schooner Festival. But the following weekend brought oppressive humidity that was ended by a series of strong thunderstorms. Here I included more fireworks along with the Schooner Parade of Sail. 

Late Saturday afternoon I grabbed my camera and headed up the hill behind my house in an attempt to capture the approaching storm. It didn't take long before the sky turned into a nasty posture. Distant rumbles of thunder crept closer and louder soon followed by flashes of lightning.. I was getting frustrated missing bolts of lightning and hung in there almost too long! Atop a hill in a thunderstorm is no place to be. After a bright flash entered my viewfinder I knew it was time to leave. The wind picked up as I headed down the hill with trees leaning over with the sound of breaking tree limbs! I made to my front door just as the sky opened the valve!

 Crowds around the Fishermen's Memorial.

 "Ardelle" "Adventure" and "American Eagle" at the dock.

 Training aboard the USCG Barque "Eagle".

 Stern

 Wind power!
                            
A line of schooners heads out.

 Hauling away aboard the "Liberty Clipper".

 "Adventure" catches the breeze.

 "American Eagle"

 Crowded deck aboard the "Roseway".

 A gull flies by.

 "Perception"

 Off the bow.

 "Roseway" and "American Eagle" converge.

 Side by side.

 Group heads out.

 A flash of lightning breaks through the menacing clouds!

 A bolt over the city!

 Battle of the bolts over Good Harbor Beach!