Day 310, Year 9: US Coast Guard Survival Training
Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Weather: Another Beautiful Day, High in the Lower 80’s F; Windy
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Mark stayed on Windbird this morning and I took Sam, Jonah, and Ollie to Bristol Beach to watch the Coast Guard Survival Training. They were doing serious training and it was quite a show. We were there for most of the morning and got to watch the helicopter come and hover right over the water near shore for almost an hour. A rescue basket was lowered from the helicopter over and over bringing people from the water up to the helicopter and back down again. But after an hour is listening to the noisy hovering helicopter, both Jonah and Ollie declared that they were ready to go. Only Sam had gone in the water as it was super windy and the water was fairly rough. All those Coasties out there in kayaks, in life rafts, and in the water were getting quite a workout. Our timing was perfect as just when we got to the van to leave, Granddad called and said his parking ticket hearing was over and that he could use a ride. He rode the trolley into town from Quissett but now needed us to pick him up. The parking ticket hearing didn’t end with a definitive answer about whether or not we can park overnight in the boatyard lot, but the examiner too the ticket and said she would investigate. So we shall have to wait to find out about this. After we picked up Mark we decided to drive home by way of the beach just to if there were more search and rescue operations in progress. And there were. A Coast Guard plane was doing very low and close to shore fly-bys and Sam and Jonah loved watching this. Mark and Ollie partook of the free hot dogs and hamburgers that were being cooked for the masses by the Coast Guard, so we were all glad we had made the stop.
Mid-afternoon, Heather and Jed came home and took the boys to Hyannis for a ‘back-to-school’ shopping trip. Mark and I headed straight away to the grocery store to stock up for the weekend. There has been very little time to prepare for this long weekend trip, but ready or not, here we go. The boys and I will spend the afternoon on Windbird while Mark works at West Marine. I’ll get the boys help me get the boat ready—should be interesting. We will all spend tomorrow night aboard the boat here on the mooring and leave early on Friday for the Sakonnet River in Rhode Island. We plan to anchor behind the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge and are hoping there are some nice walks on land. If not, there is definitely a beach there, so the boys will be happy. On Saturday morning we will head up the river to Battleship Cove where we will anchor next to the World War II ships and visit the museum. Sam and Jonah are very excited about anchoring close to these ships and Ollie will be excited by whatever excites his older brothers.
