PROVINCETOWN

He Said:   Hello P-town.  Happy to be alive!!  Like I said earlier, we checked out everything before our Friday AM departure and  it looked great. 

The first 2 ½ hours went perfect - a slight breeze, 80 degrees, auto pilot on, and crusing about 12 MPH.  Just like we owned the Atlantic, nothing to it.  Like the captain and Amy B would say: OH MY GOD, look the flip out.  Here comes the wind.  They said 15 MPH maybe - they missed by nearly 15 as the winds were as much as 28 MPH along with currents.  This we were not prepared for and honestly had no idea how to handle it.  It felt like we were on a 40 ft. 28,000 lb. boogie board, scared shitless.  We both had our life vests on trying our best for about 1 ½ hours of riding the waves and seeing how well my triple by-pass is holding out.  I figured if I survived the battle on Friday then my ticker is just fine.  At about 5PM we hooked up to our mooring ball, and you can only guess our next move - flipping happy hour ASAP!  

 

Friday nite was fun.  We took the water taxi over to PTown, about 500 yds. by water, keeping Mr. Dingy attached to the big boat.  PTown is sorta the gay capitol of the world.  Cute as hell town and about 95% gay.  We meet lots of people who live differently than we do but they could not have been any nicer.  It was Bear Week, have any of you ever heard of that? So here you go, all the dudes, how,s that for a nick-name would walk the streets in their little bottoms of whatever flavor. The whole bear thing was being very hairy in the front and back of your body, some site for sore eyes.  Bill Butler with his fur would have been right at home - only in the fury part of the deal. Later we had a little dinner and stopped by a little cool bakery for desert, it was great. The nite was restful other than the boat has been rocking around on the ball since we hooked up to it.  I wish I could take credit for the rocking all nite but no need to go there!  

 

These are bouys that float above lobster traps.  They're everywhere!

Saturday we spent the day hanging around PTown.  It really is a cool-as-hell little town with galleries, bars, restaurants, and other cool spots on the water.  We also spent Sunday in PTown and just sorta walked around a little more.  Pat did a little shopping and I, of course, had my cooler with a few BudLite Limes so I headed to the beach to consume them.  I’m sort of pissed off I didn’t even get checked out in my new bathing suit!  We threw brats on the grill Sunday and prepared for our exit from PTown.

 

This is the main dock area in Provinceotwn

On the little boat taxi we meet some really nice people that were talking about heading to the Cape Cod Canal, exactly where we are heading.  We headed out Monday at about 8AM behind about 6 sail-boats from a club in Marblehead.  We only traveled about 7MPH so.  Our 25 mile trip landed us here in Sandwich at about noon. This cute little area is at the start of the Cape Cod Canal, the sail boat people went onward thru the canal.  We will do the Canal on Tuesday, weather permitting but there is a chance of fog.  After last Friday we want no part of any type of weather conditions.

 

One last comment on our trip from hell last Friday:  For all of you that are old like me, the inside of our cabin looked like a great place for a game of pick-up sticks - flipping crap had flown everywhere.  Anyhow that’s it for now.  I hope everyone is doing well.  If you want to call me Captain Jack and Pat First Mate that’s ok by us.  I think we earner it!

 

Happy birthday to my nephew, Todd Belt and to Chicago Blues legend, Dave Fishman.

 

Happy to be here safely with my ticker ticking just fine.. L8R, Capt. Jack

 

 

She Said:  We’re finally leaving the Boston area and heading to Provincetown on the extreme northern tip of Cape Cod.  This was our longest travel day and our first one in the open water.  I studied the charts and programmed the GPS.  I checked and double-checked the weather.  Everything was a go!  The beginning of the trip required a fair amount of navigating getting us positioned for the straight 25 mile SE trip across the North Atlantic.  No problems – I’m by no means a pro at navigating, but I’m getting comfortable with the tools.  We were cruising for about 3 hours having a very pleasant trip when the shit hit the fan!  All of sudden the winds (predicted at 10-13 knots) kicked up to gusts of 27 knots (we found out later).  The waves are over twice the size we’ve come accustomed to.  By my estimation they were in the 5 foot range, coming directly at our starboard side - and they were relentless.  We were getting bounced around like I’ve never been (and I’ve been on a boat that sunk).  The helm was completely opened up, so we put on life jackets just in case we got bounced over the side.  We turned the autopilot off and altered our course.  We adjusted to hit the waves at an angle which took away some of the rolling, but was taking us away from P-town, which was in sight.  We sort of ran like a sailboat.  Every now and then we thought it was getting better, and then it would kick up again.  Some cabinets opened flinging plates and canned goods – we only lost one cup.  At last we made it.  Now we had to hook up to the mooring ball.  It was still so windy that there were white caps coming over the top of the ball.  Jack’s got the knack for getting me to the ball; I just haven’t mastered hooking it.  This certainly qualified as a day from hell and one that we hopefully will never experience again. 

 

Neither of us wanted to spend any more time on the boat, so we took the launch into town because the weather was too nasty for our dinghy.  (Even on the ball we were bouncing around so much a bowl broke.)  What a cute town.  There are lots of restaurants, shops, and art galleries.  Not a chain store or fast food restaurant to be found.  With all the restaurants to choose from, we picked Pepe’s Wharf.  It was right on the water and had great balcony patio.  The only problem was that the extreme heat was playing havoc on the energy grids and the restaurant’s credit card authorization system wasn’t working.  That meant cash only and we didn’t have enough with for dinner.  We then tried the Lobster Pot, but there was an hour wait and that meant we might miss the last launch back to the boat.  We opted for a sandwich at George’s and dessert at a Portuguese bakery which was fabulous.  While at the bakery we met a couple who recommended the trolley car tour.  That will be on the agenda.

 

Typical Cape Cod shoreline

P-town’s population is less than 3000, but in the summer it soars to as many as 50,000.  In addition to US6 (the longest highway in the US ending in California) there are ferry boats bringing in tourists by the droves.  Most people we talked with were either spending the summer or at least a couple weeks in town.  P-town has a huge gay/lesbian population and we arrived during “Bear Week.”  This is when bear-like looking men strut their big, burly, hairy bodies.  It is quite a people watching city.  P-town was the first stop of Mayflower.  Approximately 100 pilgrims attempted to settle in P-town, but the conditions were too harsh.  The surviving 50+ pilgrims moved 15 miles due west to Plymouth and the rest, they say, is history.  P-town eventually became a fishing town settled by the Portuguese.  The tip of the P-town which was first settled wasn’t suitable, so the settlers floated their houses across the harbor.  There are approximately 100 homes that have a plaque identifying them as houses that were moved.

 

Close-up of some of the Cape Cod houses
 

We were a bit apprehensive to get back to sea.  We were looking for close cruising options that would eliminate the need to get back into the open seas.  We met a group of people from the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead (neighbors to the Eastern Yacht Club) who were setting sail to the Cap Cod Canal on Monday and invited us to join them.  They’re on sailboats and would be traveling at about 7 miles per hour, but that was OK with us.  The idea of traveling in a group was very comforting.  We enjoyed a pleasant Sunday in town – I checked out a few shops and Jack found the beach.  It was a very relaxing day. 

 

At 8:00am we joined 6 sails boats and set sail for the Cape Cod Canal.  It’s like traveling with the motorcycles.  In this case, we were the only Honda among a group of Harleys.  The sailboats were continuing on to Cuttyhunk (a future planned stop for us) and we were stopping in Sandwich.  There’s not much in Sandwich, but it’s a good stop for provisioning.  The next week we will be harbor hopping and maybe even anchoring.  That means no grocery stores, so we have to make sure we have enough food (and beer for Jack).

 

Our cruising partners for the morning.

The conditions are favorable for fog and we want no part of that.  We’ll monitor the condition before heading off tomorrow down the Cape Cod Canal for either Onset or Red Brook.