2025 Life Logs, Day 243: Misadventure at the Great Harbor Landing
Date: Sunday, August 31, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 71, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
On this last day of August, I had a little ‘misadventure’ at the Great Harbor Landing in Woods Hole late this afternoon. Heather and Jed’s sailboat, Ardenna, is moored in Great Harbor in Woods Hole. She and Jed went to the boat earlier today, and I took Jonah and Ollie to join them just after 5 pm this afternoon. They are all spending the night on the boat in the anchorage and going out tomorrow. So, now back to the landing. The Great Habor Landing is a boat ramp and alongside is a long public dock where big trucks come in to pick up the catch of local commercial fishermen. The landing is beside the aquarium parking lot, and I have driven in there many times when Mark and I lived aboard in Woods Hole and when dropping the boys at the aquarium. So, it is familiar territory, but is often busy with boats going in and out of the water and trucks driving onto the dock. It was especially busy this afternoon on this Labor Day Weekend.
So, very carefully, I drove up to the beginning of the public dock and parked a little off to the side to let Jonah and Ollie out to meet Jed who was coming in by dinghy to pick them up. When we saw Jed, we walked out on the dock as there was no room for him to come to the lower landing dock. The boys climbed down and got in the dinghy and off they went. Mission accomplished. Or so I thought.
I went back to the car and started backing out of the parking area. There was a truck pulling in, so I decided to turn sharply to the right toward the boat ramp, trying to do a U turn so I could drive out rather than backing. I thought I had made the U turn just fine, when all of sudden, I am over the raised curb. I had badly misjudged and, THUNK, my driver’s side front wheel went over the curb and the car stopped dead as the body of the car was sitting on top of the curb and the front wheel hanging in mid-air because of the drop off down to the ramp. Thankfully, Falmouth Harbor Master Chuck Martinson was sitting in his vehicle making sure there were no idiot drivers like me causing a traffic hazard on the landing. As I got out of the car to check my situation, he walked over to help. He tried to make me feel better by saying I am certainly not the first person to misjudge and go over the edge between the parking lot and the landing. Still, I felt pretty stupid.
I was getting ready to call Triple AAA when he said that since this was a traffic hazard, he would call the tow truck. He said Triple AAA could take multiple hours to come on a holiday weekend. So, in less than an hour, the tow truck came. The tow truck driver was great and after a few tries, he found a safe way to lift the front of the car up just enough that he could get in my car and back it away from the edge. He drove the car around the parking area and said he thought it was fine, but a second harbor patrolman asked me to drive down the street and make a right and left turn to make sure the car was reacting normally. I did and it seemed fine, so I was free to go. I had let Heather know what had happened in case I couldn’t drive my car. I was going to borrow their van. She was on the boat by herself as Jed had taken the boys out for a ride in the dinghy. Just as I started to drive off, I got a text message saying Jed had returned and she and Ollie were on the dock, coming to make sure things were alright. I told them the tow truck driver and the patrolman both thought the car was safe to drive, but Heather was a bit hesitant. But I promised to drive safely and left. Actually, I was also a bit nervous that something could go wrong, so I think I held my breath all the way home. I surely didn’t want to break down on the Woods Hole Road, blocking the already heavy traffic getting off the ferry and heading into Falmouth. It is a narrow two-lane road with no way to pull off. I made it home just fine, took a deep breath, and promised myself that I will take the car in to have it checkout out on Tuesday, or at least before I drive it to Boston on Friday to pick up Justin from the airport. Whew! Things could have been a lot worse. As the saying goes, all is well that ends well, but I could have done without this drama today!
