Day 358, Year 7: Trick not Treat
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Misty Rain
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
On this Halloween, we got tricked, not treated. Just as we were about to
finish putting Windbird back together after the hurricane, Bob Morris came
down to visit and let us know that he had just found out that the Woods Hole
bridge is closed until further notice. At first we were in disbelief, but
as we listened to Bob’s story it became evidently that we might not be able
to get out of here for a couple of weeks or more. We spent the rest of the
afternoon making contacts to try and give us some leverage for opening the
bridge, just once, to let those of us in here who need to get out do so.
Bob had driven down from Scituate (near Boston) to move his boat Apogee out
of the pond and head north to Scituate while the winds are still from the
south. Bob and Mark did a walkabout in Woods Hole trying to gather
information and were basically told that the Department of Public Works had
made this decision and posted signs all over town stating that the bridge is
closed until further notice. We called our friend Dick Wiklund to try and
get a phone number for a fellow HAM radio operator who is also Response
Department Head for the local Coast Guard Sector. Dick contacted him for us
and he called almost immediately saying he would have his commanding officer
check into the problem for us. The Coast Guard has no authority over the
Department of Public Works (DPW), but he thought he could at least find out
the actual reason for the closure. Later in the evening he called back and
said that the city had been told by an engineer to close the bridge. He and
his superiors are going to continue to work on this, but since they really
don’t have jurisdiction all they can do is help plead our case. The inner
workings of the bridge were flooded during the hurricane and the DPW is
going to accept bids for the work to fix it. This does not sound like a
fast fix, so we are doing everything possible to exert a little pressure on
the DPW to open the bridge at least once so those of us trapped inside can
get out.
Mark and I needed to be spending all of our energy on getting ready for the
passage south, but now we need to spend that energy on trying to get out of
here. Our friend at the Coast Guard Station asked how much prior notice we
would need to get out of the pond, and we said we could move on moment’s
notice. So now we have to be ready to do that. We would just move to
mooring outside in Great Harbor and wait there until we depart for the sail
south. Bob Morris made his contacts and he believes we might get a bridge
opening, but not until next week. Yet one of us is going to have to be on
the boat during the day just in case. We had both hoped to drive Justin,
Jo, Ziggy, and Coco to Boston tomorrow and then go on to Concord for a
Concord Yacht Club Meeting tomorrow night. But now Mark will stay here and
I will drive them and return home. This is one problem we just didn’t
anticipate. Due to the timing of Mark’s medical appointments, we knew we
were already pushing our luck on getting a good weather window for heading
south. Waiting another two weeks or more is really going to push our luck.
We’ve always said that being flexible is an absolute necessity for sailors,
but somehow I’m having trouble accepting this little ‘trick’ in our plans.
Maybe a good night’s sleep will give me more flexibility!
Despite all of this, we still had Halloween fun with the grandkids.
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| 121031 Day 358 Cape Cod, USA–Happy Halloween |
