Thanks and Frustrations

Our internet service has been nearly non-existent the past few days. If I'm lucky, sometimes emails in my outbox will be magically sent when I receive a momentary signal, but that's about it. Right now I am sitting in the marina office because their wi-fi isn’t strong enough to reach the boat.

Thanks for the encouragement you gave Wayne and all the great questions you asked him via the comments section and emails. He’ll respond, as will I, when we finally get a decent wi-fi signal (and time).

The struggle between staying to enjoy our ports of call and needing to move along is a constant, agonizing thing, and for me, the hardest part of this trip (thankfully!). A short distance by car can be the equivalent of a day or two by boat, and now that the days are shorter and traffic heavier, we can only do 40-50 miles a day. Once at our destination, we seldom have time to do more than just wander around and take a few photos - forget about seeing any museums or doing any serious hiking. We had to pass up our lobster dinner with lobsterman Peter in Hull, MA. (thanks for your kind and generous offer anyway, Peter - we really wanted to take you up on it), and may have to pass up a visit with Bill and Nancy in Newport, RI, but that remains to be seen. Wayne is still working on our route.

If there's one thing I’ve learned about myself on this trip, it's that I’m inclined to want to live in the moment - i.e., yes, I know there are other destinations and people awaiting us ahead that are equally important and I don't want to miss them, but we are here NOW and I like THIS place and I want to stay an extra day and are you sure we can't figure out a way to do it all?

That said, I think the hardest part of this trip for Wayne is dealing with me. (Wayne, please feel free to contradict me).

Sure, I have fantasies about selling the boat and redoing our route by car, but I really should not complain. It has been a fabulous voyage and I need to keep reminding myself that it's also a different kind of trip - not so much about the sightseeing as it as about the experience and the adventure. And we’ve seen so much by sea that would be impossible to see by land.

Today I was frustrated in a major way. Here we are on Cape Cod with two days and a rental car. We weren't able to get online last night to do any research and neither of us knows anything about Cape Cod, so we set off this morning with next to no information. I need to have information and a plan when I visit a place, and this was like groping around in the dark. I stopped at a bookshop to find a guide book, but didn't want to pay $15 for way more information than we could possibly use in one day. Wayne was with me at the second bookstore and I relented to buying the guide (partly because the info the shopkeeper gave us was worth the cost of the book); we will also use it on Friday when we go to Martha's Vineyard.

It’s not fair to base our impression of a place on such a ridiculously short visit. That said, our impression of Cape Cod today was somewhat underwhelming, although we did like Chatham and the drive along 6A, and I can see that the Cape would be a lovely place to rent a cottage on the beach and just chill out for a week or longer. Maybe it was because we have been to so many splendid places the past two months or maybe we just didn't go to the right places today, I don't know. We saw a little of the National Seashore today and will return tomorrow. We've heard positive recommendations about it and I don’t think we’ll be disappointed.

Ok, I think I am all whined out for today. Thanks for your indulgence.