SCITUATE

He Said:   Hello from Scituate: Arrived here this past Wednesday with pretty good success in our traveling.   

We pretty much wrapped up the mechanical portion of the boat prior to departing.  Also Jay, the do-everything guy, finished up all of his stuff.  Bob, the owner at Sunset Marina, was so kind on our last day to spend time with us on our docking skills.  These guys that have been doing this all of their lives sure make it look simple.

 

Our trip on Wednesday was a little windy and some descent size chop in the ocean - maybe 3 to 5 ft.  Traveling up in the NE area there is no Intracoastal so all of our traveling is in the good old Atlantic Ocean.  Pat has learned lots about the charts.  Between them, GPS, the depth finder, radar, I-Phone and our eyeballs we certainly feel safe.  I do not know tons about the ocean part, but I am certain as we travel South the land mass best be to our right.  If not, look out.  We did have some challenges with large rock type formations underwater, but spotted them on the GPS and had no issues.  As we arrived here at the marina we were a little challenged by the wind and the massive amount of boats here in the harbor also on a mooring ball.  I will not bore you with everything, but we did have a little mistake with a ball that wasn’t ours.  Thank heaven nothing bad came of it - we are certainly learning new stuff everyday.

 

Our plan was to spend 1 day here but it is such a cool little town that Monday night will be our 6^th day here on the ball.  The weather has still been a little crazy.  Today was really nice - no rain and a beautiful night. We still need no A/C or heat in the eves which is nice, because that would require our generator.  Obviously we are not hooked into the dock power since we are in a mooring field. 

We are still meeting some really friendly people here and most of them are boat type people.  We found a great little sports bar here in town with live tunes on week-ends, ocean views, and maybe the best part is freezing cold PBR on tap at $2.50.  That’s the best bargain we have discovered in 7 weeks.  Also we just take the dingy into town, maybe 5 minutes at most, then just jump in the dingy and bring it back to Meant To Be.

 

Saturday we spent the day in Plymouth (the rock) with Capt. Doug’s girlfriend (Joanne).  We had a great day, but the Blues Festival turned out to be not so great, how about RAIN!!  Oh well, it was still a fun day walking around Plymouth with its great history and great little shops.

 

We have a few small issues that we hope get done on Monday so we can head over to P-Town on Tuesday.  We’re expecting 90 degree weather the first part of the week with limited winds which is great.  The trip will be our longest in the open water and should take us about 3 hours if conditions are good.  If they change the weather then we will plan accordingly.  

Looking forward to new places, bars, boats, scenery, and fun people as we head South.  We’re still hoping for Annapolis in late August for a stay of about 4 weeks before heading further South.

 

That’s about it for now.  I hope all is going well with you people that read our blog.  I’m looking forward to hearing from any of you. Take Care, Jack

 

A view of Scituate

The lighthouse that marks the entrance to Scituate

A view from the back of M2B while moored

The mooring field with the lighthouse in the distance

 

She Said:  Finally, all of our work is done on the boat and we were able to leave the Boston Harbor.  Before departing I was able to spend quite a bit of time with Bob, the owner of Sunset Bay Marina, practicing docking the boat.  There really is a lot for me to do in guiding Jack into the space and handling the lines.  Bob gave me lots of tips, and I’m so thankful for the time he spent with me. 

 

We were finally underway.  The trip was uneventful, but there was plenty of navigating to do.  I had a few “waypoints” noted on the GPS and we followed them just fine.  There were, however, quite a few underwater rocks that appeared on the GPS that weren’t noted on the charts so we had to pay close attention as we traveled.  The weather was nice and we did just fine.  As we neared Scituate, our destination, the winds picked up.  Nothing awful, but enough to create a chop.  As we entered the channel in Scituate we called ahead for a mooring ball.  We had to wait in the channel a good 10 minutes for the launch to direct us to our spot.  We were being blown around quite a bit – we were actually turned in a circle a few times.  On our first approach to the mooring ball Jack was dead on.  Unfortunately, our hook was too short and I couldn’t reach the ball.  All of the balls that we practiced with had lines on top of the ball, but these balls had the lines in the water.  No problem, we went around again, and this time I got low on the deck.  Again, Jack was right on target; I was able to grab the line.  I was so excited.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the line to the cleat because I was under the railing.  The wind was blowing us around and Jack tried to hold us in place.  As I admitted defeat and threw the lines back in the water on the starboard side, the boat hit a vacant mooring ball on our port side.  We tangled some rope in our port prop.  Apparently this isn’t uncommon and the harbormaster got us taken care of.  We, however, felt terrible.  People on a  sailboat nearby watched the whole thing and offered us not only a martini, but words of encouragement saying it took them four tries at the ball before they getting tied up.  One of the launch drivers came over the next day with her diving gear and cut the tangled lines.  Another thing to check off the list of things that will eventually happen.

 

Needless to say, we needed to get off the boat and have a cocktail.  We took the launch (a few minute boatride) into Scituate.  What a cute town.  We both immediately fell in love with it.  There are a bunch of cute shops, restaurants and bars.  We found T.K. O’Malley’s, a sports bar and restaurant right on the water.  There’s an outdoor bar that overlooks the harbor – what a great setting, and the staff couldn’t have been nicer.  It’s Jack’s new favorite bar, and we have been there every night except tonight since we’ve been in town. 

 

The next day we got the dinghy set up so we can take ourselves back and forth into town.  For some reason, the motor wouldn’t start so we decided to row in.  About halfway into town it started to rain, but we decided to keep going.  We ran our errands in a light drizzle and then came the downpour.  We caught a ride with someone to the dinghy and we waited out the storm.  When we got back in the dinghy to row home, the motor started.  I don’t know why – I’m just glad it did.  We’re really getting tired of the rain.  The only good thing is that the weather meant we couldn’t leave Scituate and that was fine with us.   

I can see that one of the challenges in being in a new port is our desire to check out the local restaurants.  It’s hard to eat on the boat when there are so many new places to try.  We had a great shrimp and scallops dinner at Barker’s Tavern.  It dates back to the 1630s and had a ton of atmosphere.  It seemed like everyone in there knew everyone.  After a nightcap at O’Malley’s we hopped in the dinghy back to Meant To Be.  It was our first ride at night in the mooring field and we found our way without a problem.

 

On Saturday we went with Joanne to Plymouth for a Blues concert in the park.  Joanne was a great tour guide, and we really appreciated her hospitality.  We walked around town, saw the sights, did some shopping and decided to sit and enjoy the music when the skies once again opened up with rain.  We waited quite a while for it to pass, but it never did.  Joanne jokingly (we hope) said she was ready for us to leave and take the lousy weather with us.  

While “on the ball” we’ve had to use the generator for power.  This has been a new experience for us.  It’s really quite simple, but we’re concerned that our batteries aren’t holding a charge long enough.  We have Captain Doug coming out to test the batteries and make a determination on next steps.  I really enjoy the ball - it’s quiet and peaceful.  Taking the dinghy into town has really been easy and in just a couple days we have really gotten a nice routine worked out for departures and landings.  I think we’ll spend a lot time on mooring balls.

 

The weather is supposed to be good Monday through Thursday, so we’re off to Provincetown as soon as our battery issues are resolved – hopefully no later than Tuesday.  We’ve been told that we may see whales en-route which would really be exciting!  Looking forward to our next port.