Summer Is Over . . . Sort Of!

SHIP'S LOG:

With the passing of Labor Day, Summer has unofficially come to an end, at least for some people. The continuing effects of Tropical Storm IRENE means that there wasn't a lot of swimming going on as all the coastal beaches were closed do to "pollution." Even if people went boating, they had to be very careful and observant and spend a great deal of their time dodging flotsam and jetsam. And I am not just talking about soda bottles and the like, I am talking whole trees with branches and root-balls still attached. Depending on where you were, it also was not the most fragrant sailing either. Sadly, storm drains, sewage drains, septic systems and septic plants got over loaded and " discharged" into rivers and streams which finally found their way to the shore. In most cases, if that thought didn't keep you out of the water, the stink did.

Yesterday also marked the final day of daily launch service at TYC. Until the Chowder Series concludes in October, the launch will only run Friday evening and 9 - 9 on Saturdays and Sundays. Other than that, you are on your own. And that means I am on my own again. It was rather an eerie feeling to tell the truth, that when I got back to my boat last night, that there would be no pick up in the morning. I would have to row if I wanted to go ashore and row if I wanted to get back. In anticipation of this, I dragged my dinghy from Henry's yard, where it had been sleeping peacefully since before Irene, down to the beach where I scraped a summer's worth of marine growth of its bottom and inflated it, and put it back into the water. Later I towed it out with the launch doing the honors.

Over the next few weeks, I will be "on my own" at TYC. Oh to be sure, there will be some people who will come down during the week to use the beach and maybe even to sail, and true the weekends will be a bit busy if the weather is nice, but for the most part, it is all mine! In part, it feels much like being back on "the Journey." There is a certain aloneness with no one to answer a radio hail from the club or a nearby boat, but still it is "home" and no one is all that far away.

They almost got that way though as yesterday my phone crapped out. A couple of weeks ago, my cell phone stopped charging correctly. i took it to a Verizon Store and they promptly sent me a NEW (RECONDITIONED) cell phone. Yesterday, it partially stopped working, in that I could make a call and people could hear me, but I couldn't hear them. People could call me and the phone would ring but I still couldn't hear them. The problem was alleviated by a trip to Verizon, 50 bucks and a new phone. I know it may sound cynical, but I have yet to have a cell phone that survives unscathed to the end of the contract.

I was awoken this morning when some sort of storm decided to wend its way through town. We have wind out of the north 30-40 mph, lots of rain and it was cold, all right cooler than it had been.I waited from 6-9:30am before the wind died and the rain stopped so that I could row ashore to perform my morning "ablutions." It is always easier to get ashore in crappy weather in the launch than it is to lad the dinghy and dinghy ashore. O well, it is part of the fun of boat ownership!