Day 269, Year 6 Reflections After One Month
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Weather: Very Warm (upper 80’s) and Sunny
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Windbird motored into Eel Pond in Woods Hole one month ago and we are finding that it is just about as hard to answer the question, “How does it feel to be back home?” as it is to respond to “What was your favorite place as you traveled around the world?” There is no one answer. We’ve had a slow introduction back into the American life-style. Our two weeks in Puerto Rico were the introduction. Then we had the month in the Carolinas. And now Windbird has been on a mooring in Woods Hole for a month and this is what we are calling “home” although we have never lived here before on Windbird. We stayed here with our daughter when we came home to visit over the past five and a half years, but Boston was our home port when we left. Our real roots, however, were in Concord, NH, and now we are starting over and putting down new roots, or at least trying. Woods Hole is our summer home and we don’t even know yet where we will spend the winter, but it will probably be here on the Cape in a different marina. The thought of living with the cold does not sound inviting, but neither does sailing south so soon. We must admit that we feel a bit displaced or out of place here, but slowly we will make the transitions.
The biggest transition is getting used to not living in a “neighborhood” with friends. We never knew our neighbors when we lived in New Hampshire, but once we moved to Shipyard Quarters and lived aboard Windbird in Boston, we immediately were surrounded with friends. Then when we sailed around the world, no matter where we were, we always had at least one other boat nearby. And regardless of who the people were, we immediately had a common bond and became friends. Here we are surrounded by boats, albeit most of them are small weekenders, but there is no common bond. People smile and wave but they don’t stop to talk. So this transition is on the negative side. On the positive side, we see our daughter and her two boys almost every day. We are getting to know Sam and Jonah and loving every minute of that. We’ll continue to work on meeting new people, but we’ll not find that common bond that we had while cruising. It is special and we really miss that.
Tomorrow morning Mark and I are taking Sam and three of his classmates on a field trip. We will drive Heather and Jed’s van so we can take four children, and other chaperones will bring the other children. We are driving about a half hour north to Bourne to go to the National Marine Life Center. This is part of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and serves as a rehabilitation center for marine mammals and turtles. It is a new facility and it will be exciting to learn more about it with the four year-olds. What is the difference between a sea lion and a seal? If you don’t know, stay tuned until tomorrow night’s log.
