Day 313, Year 9: Battleship Cove
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the 70’s
Latitude: 41 42.405 N
Longitude: 071 09.695 W
Miles Traveled: 14
Location: Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts
It is only 9:30 in the evening and everyone is fast asleep except Jed and me. We had a big day—a good one—but we are all exhausted. We started our morning with a bit of an emergency drill that ended up not being an emergency at all. As we prepared to raise anchor to leave Third Beach this morning, we all wondered what had happened to the speed limit buoy that had been fairly close to the boat when we anchored yesterday. It was nowhere to be found, so a bit of panic set in. All we could figure is that we had swung and caught it and that it was wrapped around our prop. Mark made the decision to raise the sail so that we could sail off the anchorage rather than turn on the engine, put the boat in gear, and risk breaking all sorts of things if we were really caught. He figured that with the sail up, if we didn’t move once the anchor was up, we would figure that we were caught on the buoy. We raised the anchor and we seemed to be going nowhere, so we figured the worst. Mark put on his dive skin and got out all of the paraphernalia to dive under the boat. There’s a longer story here, but basically in the end, he dove and discovered that we were not caught on anything. We are all still wondering what happened to that buoy.
We motor sailed the 14 miles up the river to Battleship Cove and picked up mooring next to the USS Massachusetts. We spent the rest of the day touring the battleships and submarine from the World War II era. The tour of the USS Massachusetts was a real eye opener. None of us had any idea of what it took to keep a ship that going, especially in a time of war when it was often under fire. My photos from today tell the story but it will be a few days before I have the time to get those photos posted. I have to admit that even for me, a person totally uninterested in touring any sort of battleship, today’s tour was utterly fascinating.
We ended our day at The Cove, a waterfront restaurant a short dinghy ride from our mooring. The boys were all great during dinner, so it was a delightful evening for all. Tomorrow we head back down the river and back toward home. We are hoping to go to Cuttyhunk if the winds allow it, but if not, we’ll find some other place close to home to tuck into for the night. Then on Monday morning we head home. School starts of Tuesday. Can’t believe the summer is almost over.
