WORLD'S END AND HULL

He Said:  Hello from Hull, Mass.  I need to start out by giving my normal weather forecast.  I think being a weatherman here would be much more difficult than back in AZ. The past week we have had extreme heat (93), cool weather in the low 60’s, thunderstorms, fog, humidity, and every other weather stuff that exists.  The only thing we don’t have is what you desert people have all of the time, dry heat!  

Enough about the weather.  We had a very good weekend doing boat-stuff.  I meet the nicest 19 year old on the 150 ft. boat that we showed you in our blog.  He had the weekend off and really wanted to help.  Grant (pronounced Gront in South Africa) was more help than I could ever imagine.  He has terrific boat knowledge and knows how to do lots of stuff, so we spent the weekend mostly caulking, painting and some other stuff.  Grant left us 3 days ago for Alaska on a much bigger boat.  The dude is like a walking ball of muscle.  He modeled underwear for Calvin Klein - his last name certainly wasn’t Belt.

 

The 3 of us took the dingy about 5 miles into the open water to a place called World End, a big time hang out for all kinds of boats.   Grant brought his spear gun, along with his fins and mask, but there wasn’t enough visibility to nail a fish or whatever they call it. We got back to our boat later that afternoon and we paid Grant with food and beer.  I went to give him some $$ but he must have left half way thru the nite.  

 

This past week has still been involved with finishing up some last minute projects on the boat. It’s mostly mechanical and tv/stereo stuff that should be finished when we return on July 5.  It’s hard to believe that we have been in the NE Area for 5 weeks.  We’re heading out this afternoon for the mid-west.  

 

Yesterday we moved the boat to Hull which was about 30 minutes by water from Hingham.  The owner here is heading up most of our boat stuff that needs to be finished up.  This marina is about 20% the size of Hingham Shipyard and much more personable.  When we got here yesterday the owner was waiting for us at the dock and radioed us to simply back into our spot.  Holy shit! I’ve never done it I told him.  But between the 2 guys on the dock, Pat on the boat, and me on the wheel we had no problems.  I’m not saying I wasn’t scared shitless.  We walked into the little town of Hull and found a cute little hole in the wall joint and threw down a few drinks.  Last nite we ate here at the marina at the Sea Dog.  It was pretty good food but pretty bad service, oh well.  We found a little beer joint after that and meet some locals.  It was open mike nite, not too much going on.  

We appreciate the comments that we are getting from some of the people reading our blog.  Thanks and it is great hearing from you. Need to get going -  got some boat stuff to do, get packed for the airport, and jump on the boat to Logan Airport. 

Take Care and I am certain we will blog again late next week after we arrive back in the Boston area. L8R, Jack

 

She Said:  It’s been a busy week.  Nothing big or eventful has happened, but we’ve been keeping busy. 

 

On the boating front, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .”   Our month at the Hingham Shipyard was up (it’s hard to believe that we were there a month), we needed a change of scenery, and we lined up a guy do some work on the boat for us while we’ll be back in the Midwest. So we moved the boat from our home in Hingham to Sunset Bay Marina in Hull.  Hull is in the Boston Harbor so we didn’t have far to go (about 45 minutes), but the Boston Harbor is full of obstacles and you really have to navigate your way through it all.  I had my chart in hand, the GPS on, and a waypoint set.  Off we headed for Hull.  As we approached the marina we were directed to back in on the starboard side.  PANIC.  We’ve barely got a forward docking mastered and now we’re being asked to back in.  But guess what – Jack did it!  The guys on the dock helped by shouting out things like “reverse port” and “bring the bow around.” Safe navigating and docking - it was indeed the best of times.  Earlier in the week things weren’t so great.  We had lots of good dockings, but we did have one that wasn’t so good.  Jack was a little too close to the dock and I thought we had a fender out (which we didn’t).  The end result is a scratch – not one that can be buffed out, but also not a gouge.  At least we’ve got our first ding under our belt.

 

We were able to enjoy life on the water this week.  With the dinghy motor working we’ve been able to venture out.  We took the dinghy to World’s End one hot, sunny afternoon and hung out with the big boats.  We ran into some of our dock neighbors and tied up with them for a couple of hours.  The motor doesn’t hold much gas so we had to fill up with gas along the way.  One day we packed a picnic lunch and took the dinghy down the river.  One aspect of boat life that I’ve been nervously awaiting is accidently falling into the water.  I’m not the most graceful of creatures and my depth perception isn’t great so I’ve been on pins and needles waiting for the splash.  Well it finally happened.  But it wasn’t me – it was Jack.  I was sitting in the cockpit (previously erroneously called the aft deck) and heard Jack yell my name.  I looked up in time to see Jack fall in.  (I find myself chuckling now just thinking about it.)  Fortunately, he had nothing in his pockets or hands and everything was OK.

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve also been doing exterior maintenance work.  We sanded and repainted the side vents.  Check out the before and after photos.  We also removed some old caulking and re-caulked a few sections (still more areas to do).  These projects were started with the help of Jack’s new friend, Grant.  Remember the picture of the yacht Jack posted awhile back?  Well Grant worked on that yacht.  He’s the nicest kid – 19 years old and from South Africa.  He had a couple days off work so he helped (maybe taught is a better word) Jack with general boat maintenance.  We sort of adopted him for the short time he was around.  He was hired to work on another boat (bigger, so more experience for him) that will be doing an around-the-world fishing trip.  He was hired one day and flying to Alaska the next day.

 

Not a lot to report on the culinary front.  We did have one last lobster dinner; we will definitely miss the fresh lobster.  Several people recommended a place called Kelly’s Landing.  It was too far to walk so we hopped the local bus.  Jack was a bit disappointed when we first walked in – too much restaurant and not enough bar.  When our waitress told us there was a separate bar/restaurant next door, Jack cheered up.  It was exactly the kind of place he likes, and the kind of place that I know I shouldn’t order wine.  We wanted to try something local so our bartender recommended the baked, stuffed scrod.  He even solicited the input from another table of patrons and it was all thumbs up.  It was great!  The bartender was really good.  He gave us a line on Jimmy Buffet tickets for the next night (it didn’t work out) and shared a lot of local info.  He told us that there’s a Kelly’s Landing in Ft. Lauderdale on the ICW.  We will definitely check it out.  As we were waiting for the bus to take us back to the boat, the couple that recommended the scrod offered us a ride back to the boat.  Like so many people we’ve met, they’re proud of the area and took us on a short sightseeing trip.

 

I told you about a great dinner we had in Boston’s North End at Galleria 33.  Since dining there I found out that the restaurant was featured on Kitchen Nightmare with Gordon Ramsay.  When we were looking up places to try in Hull, I found Barefoot Bob’s – another restaurant that had a Kitchen Nightmare intervention.  When we walked in Jack said, “This is the kind of bar that Lance and I like” – not exactly a rousing endorsement.  We tried the Stuffed Quahogs appetizer.  Quahogs (pronounced Koe Hog) are local clams.  They were excellent.  I’ve never watched Kitchen Nightmares, but I’m going to give it a try.  I don’t know what these restaurants were like before Gordon Ramsay was there, but they’re definitely great after his intervention. 

 

The only thing we can complain about is the weather.  When it’s not raining it’s hot and humid.  But it’s usually raining.  The weather-people are predicting this will be the 2^nd wettest June on record.  I think we’ve used the heater more than the air conditioner.  I’m not doing well with the humidity.  Having grown up in the humid Midwest, you’d think I’d be used to it – but I’m not.  All of our clothes are wrinkled because everything is so damp.  I hope we’ll learn some tricks to deal with the humidity. 

 

We’re heading to the Midwest today for a week.  Jack will be in Columbus for a few days then joining me in Chicago for my niece’s wedding.  I’m really excited about the wedding.  This will be the first time my entire family will be in the same place in probably 12 years.  You won’t hear from us for awhile, but stay tuned – there will be more.