July 2009 Archives

A stunning dawn!We played with the dinghy, exploring all the shallow areas behind Bull Island, Uncatena, Nonamesset, and all the inlets and outlets in between. The tide was at an all-time low. We saw squid, scallops, crabs, schools of tiny fish.Norman paddled and I just took it all in.

After a false start early resulting in another engine episode, we headed back to the marina and removed the thermostat, then gave the canal another try. This seemed to do the trick, and we had no further engine incidents.
We had been curious about Quissett Harbor, not only because it was a place we hadn't been, but it also was reminiscent of the names for Cape Cod places that were used by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, in the Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery series. At least that was a motivator for me. Norman has not read them yet, although I'm working on him.

Looking at the resources in Quissett, I realize we should have done our research beforehand and made a plan to stay. But alas, I had not seen the bird list. Or the trail guide. So we will have to go back, next year, on our way to our fourth New England Solo/Twin.


View Hadley Harbor in a larger map
Our next stop was Hadley Harbor, which as you may guess, would have been extremely crowded on such a beautiful Sunday, second day of a lovely weekend, of which we have had precious few. However, we have a trick up our sleeve, or rather Norman does. There is a spot that appears too shallow, but we had scoped it out last year with our lead line, and determined that we could anchor there.We dinghied through the Northwest Gutter, and found the passthrough on Uncatene'a west side to Buzzard's Bay. What a glorious spot to explore! Here is an Oyster Catcher we spied while paddling around.A stunning sunset as seen from Averisera at the close of the day.

Our cruise got off to a shaky start. Just as we were relaxing and thinking "What a beautiful day, we're finally on vacation, we're off on our adventure!", what should we hear, but the engine alarm, shattering the blissful scene!

The details are gory, and resulted in a 20-hr passage to the canal, where we missed our evening gate in, and wound up tacking outside by the Morse Code A for 4 hours in a line of squalls that kept us busy. Our consolation was that the Beringer Bowl racers were experiencing the same weather, similar to last year's race.

Once we got into the Canal, we pulled into Sandwich Marina, slept a bit, and then settled down to our engine repair duties.