We were visiting the area with our girls and came for some introductory lessons on a rainy day…read more The owner was very nice and the instructors were very experienced, knowledgeable, thoughtful, and patient with our novice riders. The facility is large and well maintained. Great experience. We will return when we're back in the area.

My niece takes riding lessons here and has attended the summer camp. The culture is quite nice…read more The older kids are very responsible and provide great guidance and role modeling for the younger ones. My niece also is becoming a proficient horse rider, which is really cool. You do not need to own a horse in order to take lessons here.

Brenton and his team of sailing instructors are top notch! I've taken a number of ASA (American…read moreSailing Association) courses over the past 10 years 101, 103, 104, 114 and 106. With each course, the instructors have been outstanding. Their knowledge, experience and teaching skills are superb. Regardless of your experience, you will learn new skills, gain important knowledge that will make you and your crew's sailing experience better and keep you safe on the water. I highly recommend Blackrock to anyone looking to learn or increase their sailing skills.

Let me start my review by stating that if you are willing to jeopardize north of $5K on a sailing…read moremembership with no expectations that you will actually be able to communicate with the staff or charter the fleet, then read no more- Black Rock club membership is perfect for you. If like me, you view $5K as a substantial amount of money and you want to get on the water with a club you can trust, then read on. For starters, it is important to realize that Black Rock does not offer a la carte options for sailing memberships. Instead, there is only the all you can eat option, priced at $3000 - $3800 for the 26' Colgate fleet. If you are not a returning Black Rock Sailing club member, and if you got your ASA certification elsewhere, you will be asked to pay an additional $700 for "initiation fee and training." Add these sums together along with the optional $350 fee to access the fleet in RI, and you arrive north of a $5K investment. When we think through the ramifications of the arrangement I summarized above, it is important to realize that the $5K comes out of pocket first, and accessing the fleet then only will happen once the "training" happens. So the person looking to sail is at the mercy of the Black Rock staff executing on the training in a timely fashion, and with every day/ week that the training does not happen, an proportional amount of the $5K sailing time that was already paid for goes away. In my situation, the training was scheduled several weeks after payment. In order to do the training, I had to take time off from work as I was informed that the training could only occur during normal working week hours. I found it odd that there was never any formal correspondence confirming the date and time, and more odd still that there was no communication of exactly what to expect during the training. Having chartered now at other clubs for over 15 years, these trainings can come in the form of a relaxed session where the instructor goes over some do's and don'ts all the way to a military-style drill where the instructor sits with a clipboard and asks questions from the ASA101/103/104 course taken years ago. So one always wants to know expectations well in advance, but Black Rock remained curiously mute. While the prolonged radio silence from Black Rock led to some concerns about my choice for a sailing club, these concerns escalated to full anxiety upon my efforts to actually confirm that the training was even going to happen as scheduled. Again, after over 15 years of chartering at other operations, I had a suspicion that the radio silence from Black Rock thus far was not good. Over the course of 2 days immediately prior to the training, there were multiple emails, texts and phone calls sent to two individuals that remained unanswered. Finally at 9.30 PM the night before the scheduled training, I got a response that the training was cancelled. This is problematic. The prolonged radio silence prior to the training, combined with failure to respond to multiple queries led to a sinking feeling that the $5K investment I had made would be a total loss. This is because I was not in a position to identify the root cause of the silence--this could have spanned anything from poor communication in the best case scenario to Black Rock going out of business (with a possible a complete loss of my $5K) in the worst case scenario. There was no way to know what was the matter when these queries were met with silence. I then thought through the "best case" scenario of poor communication that I identified above, and thought about how that would play out in the case of an emergency on the water upon eventual chartering. I've been in a situation like that before where there was a problem with a charter while on the water, but nobody responded to multiple calls for help. This scenario was quite unpleasant, and I swore I'd never invite a situation like that again. So as the reader might have guessed, I am no longer a Black Rock Sailing club member, and the experience was so intensely negative I have abandoned any effort at sailing for the year with any other club. Black Rock truly beat the enthusiasm for sailing out of me.

This summer was the first year I've attended this camp and I loved it. It consisted of fishing,…read moreswimming, island and land exploration, boating, a beach day/ bbq on the last day with tons of beach games and activities it was also very informative and educational. Beth and Bob Bishop who run the camp were excellent and great to be around and are overall great people. All of the counselors are also very helpful and fun, as well as the fellow campers. I will definitely be returning to the camp for years to come. I highly recommend to anyone in the Essex county Newburyport area.

We have had a terrible experience with Coastal Discoveries, and I would strongly caution anyone…read morefrom doing business with them. I am from the area where they operate but now live in Arizona. I had signed up my 2 children to attend camp (we paid approximately $1000) Due to the COVID situation we were unable to have our children quarantine for 14 days after arriving from Arizona in time to attend camp. I approached Beth Abbot-Bishop with this information and she offered to send us a refund for both children. However, after 2 months the refund has never arrived and she has flat out ignored MANY phone calls and emails from me asking about her promise.

These guys are amazing. Capt Lu and his crew will take great care of you and you'll have a…read morememorable experience out on the water in his beautiful sailing yacht. Highly recommend!

We had two perfect sails with Capt Lu and his son Lucas. I've sailed my whole life but with young…read morekids wanted to make sure I wasn't responsible for the sailing this time. We took two sails across our extended family and everyone had a fantastic time from teens to toddlers and the adults too. They kept everyone safe while also allowing even the youngest "crew" to have turns sailing. They were happy to share info about sailing and Gloucester or just let everyone relax and chat on our own. Their 36' Catalina is a perfect cruising boat- lots of space to sit for up to 6 guests and a cabin with a "head" (restroom) just in case. We will definitely be back soon for more sails!

Absolutely beautiful excursion. Capt John really knows the waters and how to fish them. Always felt…read moresafe and comfortable. Opt for the shark fishing. You won't be sorry. He supplies everything. Bring your snacks, drinks and a fun attitude and it will be a day you remember.

The family and I had an amazing time on Artemis sailing with Captain Rick and his wife Deb. What…read morean amazing experience to sail on such a beautiful yacht and with such wonderful people. If you've never sailed or are an experienced sailor, you will truly enjoy this great experience and discover Gloucester and the surrounding area. This sailing yacht is super stable, fast and fun. Make new friends, new experiences and memories! Sail Artemis!

Great to go back deep sea fishing, great staff, friendly and funny and very helpful to all on…read moreboard. Just a tad difficult to get to (blaming google maps for this) but a call to their office rectified the situation. This time I want to catch a fish!

My experience with Gloucester Fleet wasn't very good. My son loves fishing and as a treat for being…read moretop of his high school graduating class, I figured his first ocean fishing trip would be a great reward. On July 8th, I booked a 3/4 day trip for July 20th and also an overnight stay at the Cape Ann Resort hotel. About 11:30 AM on July 19th as I and my son were starting out to the location from New York State, we received a call from Gloucester Fleet confirming the trip. Great! We took pics of the boat that evening. Next morning we head over to the boarding area. My son slept only two hours because he was so excited for the trip. There were no people around which was odd since we were only 20 minutes before the departure time of 7AM. Eventually, we called the Fleet number and spoke to the captain/owner who recalled his wife speaking to me the day before to confirm the trip. But, he had canceled the trip later on because too few customers to justify the fuel expense and called everybody - everybody except us (absolutely no call on my mobile account). So, WE lost money - my two vacation days from work, hotel expense, restaurant dinner, fuel for the trip, all totaled well over $1,000 and also about 8 hours of driving and the huge disappointment. Instead of being very apologetic and perhaps offering a free future trip and covering hotel expense, he said we could drive about 45 minutes (52 minutes per Google) to New Hampshire and if lucky get an 8AM boat that catches mackerel -- or, get this, go whale watching! He said all the other people were understanding -- but they were called the day before. If we'd received the cancelation call there would have been time to rearrange things. Curiously, there was a nearby fishing boat trip from a competitor that was sold out -- no lack of customers. I wonder why...

Learning to dive is something I've wanted to do for years, and I couldn't have asked for a better…read moreinstructor than Kirk. From the very first session, it was clear I was in expert hands -- not just in terms of skill and experience, but in patience, communication, and genuine passion for the underwater world. Kirk made complex concepts easy to understand, always took the time to explain the "why" behind every skill, and most importantly, never rushed the process. They created a calm, supportive environment where I felt safe, confident, and encouraged at every step. What really stood out was his attention to detail. Whether it was checking equipment, giving real-time feedback underwater, or sharing fascinating facts about marine life, they went above and beyond what I expected from a dive instructor. By the end of the course, I wasn't just certified. I felt like a true diver, ready to explore the ocean with confidence

Dive KS is the best!!! Kirk and his team are extremely thorough. Getting certified was a well…read moreorganized and fun experience. I felt so ready for all aspects of the skills of diving by the end. I recommend this shop to everyone I know looking to get certified.