Every day is a gift, a blessing. The people we meet, words spoken, our surroundings, even the simplest of things, all make our lives different, precious, our own. Did you hear about the dog that swallowed a firefly - he barked with delight!!!!!!!!!! Did you give thanks for those minutes? All along the way Dave and I reminded each other to give thanks. So now I am reminding you, don't forget to give thanks. This weekend is the 69th anniversary of the Provincetown Blessing of the Fleet. Captain Dave and I attended about 40 of them. Not too shabby.
Richard & Arnold Log: Star date Wednesday 10-21-16. We left P-town harbor at 4:30 AM. It was pitch black, no moon. The wind was North East light, 5-10 mph. Five minutes into the journey I heard "OH Fuck. Shit. What the hell!" I was already so keyed up my eyes hurt from being fully dilated. I knew right away that something was not right. I tried to keep calm and asked the stupid question "what's wrong." The reply seemed strangely loud- "No depth sounder, no reading on the depth gauge." I'm thinking "oh is that all. What difference does that make?" Captain Dave says, "We're going to need a depth sounder in the future. I should have bought the more expensive one, the one that would still be working!!!"
Well yes, ok, but let's get things in perspective: we're safe, the wind is light, everything else seems to be working, and we know our way blindfolded to Menemsha Harbor. We will sort it out or buy a new sounder. But no - It seems the boat has to be hauled out to put the thing-a-ma-jig on the bottom of the boat, the transducer, so getting a new one is out of the question at this stage. We will have to make due with what we have. We will not turn around.
Dawn is breaking. Inside the wheelhouse it is dark, shadows and outlines of grey against black. The glow of the computers are beaming their magical rays to us, giving us charts of the area. We have every chart from Maine to Florida supplied by NOAA and downloaded by our son Robert on a program called OPEN CPN. Try it. Every chart - free. Dave and I laugh at how far we've come. We started out with the Wildflower in 1970 with just a compass. "We've come a long way, baby," I say. He gives me a big smile, pushes a few buttons on the sounder, while I read from the manual. The machine finds itself and shows us the depth of the water in the middle of Cape Cod Bay. We are tracking our depths and happy about the outcome. Its 6:30 and the radio crackles. It's Rex McKensey, the Provincetown Harbormaster calling to wish us bon-voyeuge. We are on our journey and now it is official. The air temp is 60 degrees. I make breakfast of oatmeal and hot tea. God's in his heaven all's right with the world.
Next stop Menemsha:
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