Words Words Words! Cape Cod Trip (Part 1, as it happened to work out)!

*ahem*

(tap tap tap)

Is this thing o(SQUUueeeeeAAAAAAALLLLLlLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!)

(frantic fiddling with squelch button)

sorry!

(ascending/descending scales)
mi mi mi mi mi miiii

no ah no ah no ah no ah no ah no ah no ah noooooooooo...

I am a mother pheasant plucker
I pluck mother pheasants
I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker
e'er plucked a mother pheasant

OH for a muse of FIRE that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, and men and women to uphold the swelling scene
Then should the warlike Harry, etc etc etc...

'twas brillig and the slithy toves...
******************
Oh, alright, enough warming up with random words by other people! Although TQ was rather impressed that I was able to recite the entire Jabberwocky poem by heart, I'll spare you the full recitation. I'm back, "minimalist blogging week" is over & here's a little more explanation of what was going on.

Tillerman nailed it on his Experimentation post - TQ & I just took the most marvelous vacation up in Cape Cod & although I did consider not blogging at all, I decided to just post my favorite picture at the end of each day. Just never bothered to explain it, sorry!

Quick recap time now! We simply couldn't have had a nicer 6-day sampling of the Cape's offerings, and we think we may have to go back sometime.

Day 1:

We started our visit by spending a very pleasant afternoon on Buzzards Bay with Dan Kim of Adrift at Sea and his friend Dave, aboard Dan's Telstar 28 trimaran, Pretty Gee. It was a light air day but a trimaran can take advantage of those better than a heavier keelboat, so we got a nice sail out into Buzzards Bay. Here, we're motoring back into the marina, with everyone (or at least almost everyone) keeping an eye out for lobster pot buoys and/or harbor seals. It cleared up nicely by the time we got back, and Dan & Dave gave us a quick tour of the Fairhaven side of the harbor entrance, where we saw the Revolutionary War-era Fort Phoenix and the massive, circa 1950's hurricane barrier & gates -


That's where I took the tree/rock/harbor picture that started me off on the no-words-only-pictures thing). Good stories continued to be told over a delicious dinner at one of Dan's favorite local restaurants, Margaret's, where I got in my first seafood of the trip (scallops, yum). Thanks again, Dan & Dave, for a wonderful day!

Day 2:

More great sailing, once again through the wonders of the Internet. I knew that tourist season was over but I was hoping to line up a sailing lesson, so I sent out a query over Facebook & through Joe Rouse at The Horse's Mouth, I got in touch with a gentleman who still had a boat in the water & was kind enough to take on a couple of relative novices. Flexibility really paid off on this one - he'd suggested waiting until we could look at 3-day forecasts to pick the date; Monday looked promising, but then on Monday morning he called from the boatworks where he works to say there was no wind & maybe we should shoot for Friday instead (which looked like the best day after Monday). We agreed & started getting ready to go kayaking instead - fortunately getting ready to go kayaking & getting ready to go sailing aren't all that different, so when he called again around 11:30 to say that the promised wind had finally filled in & that he was game for a sail if we were, we were able to run with that! And it was really, really great. We sailed from Cataumet to Marion and back, learning a few things along the way, we got to fly a chute (I don't think I've ever gotten to do that before), and his boat was fantastic, an Etchells which he bought 2ndhand, the deck was too waterlogged to save so he simply took a Skilsaw to it & rebuilt her as a lovely, fast, yet comfortable daysailor that he can singlehand or sail with friends.


Another really nice thing about this day? The owner of the Etchells has been instrumental at getting a sailing program started at Bourne High School. He asked that rather than paying him directly for an incredible afternoon, I make a donation to that sailing program. Couldn't help but thinking of the discussions I've seen on the sailing blogs about "Saving Sailing" - with people like this gentleman, and Jim and Holly at Sebago, and volunteers like them up and down both coasts and lakes & rivers across the country, seems like sailing is in some pretty good hands.

I'd originally thought this would be a nice early Christmas gift for TQ but I kinda hogged the tiller the entire afternoon, oops, so I'm back to the drawing board for that - may give him a "gift certificate" good for one dinghy-sailing weekend class at Sebago next Spring instead, I felt like this one ended up being more for me than him (although he did enjoy it)!

Day 3:

Day 3 was probably the touristy-est day of all - despite having grown up in Hawaii, I'd never seen a whale, and at some point it hit me that hey, they do whalewatching in Cape Cod! TQ did a little websurfing before the trip & found Capt. John Boats, which ran very affordable trips out of Plymouth. They took us out to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary where we had a very satisfying afternoon of whalewatching. I posted my flukes picture, which was the best of the day's whale pictures for me. I wasn't trying too hard to take pictures, the whales were a little too far away for my little point-and-shoot Optio, but their on-board volunteer naturalists came equipped with a serious camera & you can see more of what we saw on their blog post for the day!

We finished the day with a look at Plymouth Rock, and the Mayflower II, and then dinner at a local restaurant where I got a good lobster roll fix.


And since I'm back to using more words, words, words than I ever meant to when I started, and since that Capt. John blog I just linked to really gave a great recap of what we saw that day, I think I will break this off here & continue tomorrow!