Posting Maniac

Rainy afternoon, lots of time on my hands.

Today was a fun day in Woods Hole. After a decadently late wake up, I made Ellen her coffee while Moss and I had our hot cocoa. Then we got the boat squared away, drove Mr. Flowerpot (our dinghy) to shore, and met Josh and Naomi at Pie in the Sky, a wonderful and very busy bakery in town.

After our late breakfast we walked to the Titanic museum. Woods Hole is crawling with scientists, and some of them were instrumental in the creation of the deep sea submarines and unmanned vehicles that (among other things) located and dove down to the wreck of the Titanic in the 1980s. 

We also saw a brief video about an unmanned sub/drone that followed great white sharks to learn about their feeding habits. The sharks sneak up on seals, bite off their flippers so they can’t swim away, and then eat the rest of the seal. There was no video for the public of that gory business, but there was a sobering video of a great white attacking the sub.

Moss got to check out a model of the submersible Alvin. Lots of toggle switches in there. I could have stayed all day.

We then all had lunch aboard Cupcake and got to show off our little floating home, always a treat. And a particular treat when the guests are sailors who get it.

After taking Josh and Naomi to shore and saying farewell, we radioed the drawbridge operator to let him know we would need the bridge lifted so Cupcake could exit Eel Pond. The pass is very narrow, tourists with cameras line the sides, and a video of any piloting error would doubtless be posted on YouTube well before any insurance company or towboat could be notified.

Look carefully and you can see the yellow TowBoat waiting in the harbor, ready to rescue careless sailors.

We passed through without mishap and made our way through the Woods Hole passage under diesel power. The current was adverse, but not so strong that we couldn’t power through. The way it tugged that red nun 2A was pretty impressive. Lots of swirly current tossed Cupcake about. Visions of Scylla and Charybdis. 

After our wee odyssey, we had a quick sail to the lovely and peaceful Hadley Harbor where we will likely stay for a few days to enjoy the clean warm water and relaxing spot. It’s raining right now but we are snug and dry inside. Moss just finished some boat school math and is now creating a board game of some sort.