This is a view down the beach from where we usually sit each day at the Cape. The stuff in the foreground is a private beach, there is this doctor from California that owns the house that would be off to the left. He loses it every time someone walks along that beach, he never uses it himself but is always up for a tangle with anyone who crosses his fence.

Yesterday Allison and I got a few things accomplished. We did some shopping at the Christmas Tree Shop for the wedding. We also got in some very important beach time and reading done. I have one more story to read from Tales from Margaritaville. It is a good book and that is where the character of Tully Mars came from. That initial short story is the best one out of the whole book. Tully Mars is the main character of A Salty Piece of Land. I started reading Tales from Margaritaville back about a year of so ago when I was still working with a hospital in Baltimore. I remember reading the story of Tully Mars as the Southwest cattle car was taking off from Providence and touching down at BWI (my second least favorite airport, Logan you know you hold the honor of being my most despised airport ever. Good for you!) I’ll finish Tales from Margaritaville today and start Where is Joe Merchant? A Novel Tale, also by Jimmy Buffett.

Anyway while we were improving our tans we got a call from Neil, (my best man) and he and his wife Andrea were up on the Cape and wanted to go for a sail on his 26 foot sailboat, The American Dream. Great we decided to meet at 3:30 after we finished up our sun worshipping and made a couple stops to pick up provisions. We got going earlier than expected but ate up that extra time at Wal-Mart because everyone and their second cousin was in Wal-Mart during a beautiful day. We were there to pick up some more sunscreen, dessert, hot dog buns, ketchup and soda. We got to Neil’s parent’s house on Monument Beach and packed up the rest of the provisions. I brought Allison and Andrea out to the dock. Neil was already rowing out to the sailboat. I then picked up a couple more bags of ice and made my way over to the dock on foot, you need a sticker to park at the beach. I got there right as Neil was pulling up. We motored out of the harbor and made our way to a big pile of rocks with a flashing green light on it, there we put up the sails and tried to coax some wind into them but we ended up losing ground. We wound our way around Wing’s Neck and then over to Bassett’s Island to anchor for a while and have dinner. There was a big party going on with a band playing on a floating platform. They were playing all the party songs. One of the 50 boats that was tied up around the island had a great pirate flag on it, we heard some Buffett and life was good. We anchored away from those boats so we could hear the band but not be overpowered by the sound.

Neil then set up the charcoal marine grill. We ate at a leisurely pace, and that is all I am going to say about that, except for one thing. Match Light…..doesn’t. We had a good laugh and a fun time with Neil and Andrea, they are great hosts and good sailors. We stayed out there and saw a fantastic sunset, shared a good meal, had the best corn of the entire season and had a visit form Neil’s friend Darren. Darren motored out on his Boston Whaler while we flashed out flashlight out at him so he could find us. We got under way to head back to Monument Beach around 10:50pm or so. We landed back at the dock around 12:15am. I sat up at the bow for most of the ride back, which was under motor because there was no more wind. But it was a nice and calm ride back to the dock. The gentle sway of the ocean almost put me to sleep, but my fear of falling asleep and off the boat was too strong to let me sleep. I got alot of great photos while we were sailing and will post them once I get on a high speed connection. So look for a sailing album on my Buzznet blog.

Sailing Gallery is now up. – posted 09/05/05