We've actually left New Bedford! I can't believe it! We'd been there so long, I was starting to grow barnacles.
Roy stayed in California an extra week so he could attend his brother's wedding on the 13th. He also flew to Salt Lake City one weekend to visit his daughter Laura. Of course, he also visited family and friends in California, but mostly he worked sixty plus hours a week.
While Roy was knocking himself out working, I was goofing off, having a ball. My childhood friend Marilyn turned her summer cottage near Newport over to me for almost a week. She even let me use the car! I had a lot of fun driving around the Newport area. Visited two of the Vanderbilt "cottages" (60-room mansions), walked the entire length of the Cliff Walk, viewed the famous Old Stone Mill (no, it was not built by Vikings), walked around a wildlife sanctuary and Brenton Point Park, etc. One day, I happened to be at a pier near the Newport Bridge when suddenly sirens started screaming and Police, Fire, and Rescue units arrived. At first I had no idea what was going on, but after five or ten minutes, a motorboat with a bedraggled woman in it pulled up to the pier. She had jumped off the bridge but was unhurt. She swam to a piling and clung to it until the guy in the motorboat rescued her. She was able to walk to the waiting ambulance without using the stretcher. (Last week, a convicted murderer and his wife supposedly jumped off the same bridge, but their bodies haven't been found, and the Police think it's a hoax to enable them to make a getaway.)
The Saturday after returning from Newport, I met my friend Irene in Boston. Irene was born in Japan of Chinese parents and attended an American school, so she speaks three languages fluently. I first met her at TBS when I was a programmer there. Irene started as computer operator but soon worked her way up to programmer/analyst and eventually became Head of the Software Department. She's not only intelligent, she's a very nice person. She treated me to lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant. Instead of menus, the waiters and waitresses wheel around carts with various dishes on them. You pick out what you want, and the waiter marks it on a card. After lunch, we walked the Freedom Trail. Saw Boston Commons, Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, Faneuill Hall (where the Tea Party originated), and many other interesting places. It was a beautiful sunny day.
A few nights later, I nearly fell over when Alison and Shirley suddenly turned up at the boat. Roy was supposed to have told me they were coming, but he forgot. They were on a whirlwind tour of New England. They had already visited Newport and walked the Freedom Trail in Boston. They spent the night on the boat and left next morning for Martha's Vineyard. Then they were going to Vermont and New Hampshire to see the autumn leaves.
I had been thinking of taking the ferry to Martha's Vineyard but hadn't gotten around to it. The day after Alison and Shirley left, I found my way to the ferry dock and learned that the last boat of the season would be running on Columbus Day, which was the following Monday, so I knew I had to get on the ball if I wanted to go. Phoned the AYH hostel on the island to find out if they had any openings. They said they had plenty, so I packed my backpack and got my bike ready. The next morning, I rode my bike to the ferry dock and bought round-trip tickets for my bike and me. It was a gorgeous day for the trip. When I got to Martha's Vineyard, I rode my bike to the hostel and was happy to see outdoor lockers where I could stash my stuff until the hostel opened at five. There are good bike trails on the island, especially around the State Forest, so I spent three days riding my bike around. The weather was warm and sunny all the time I was there. Had a really great time.
As soon as I got back to New Bedford, the weather turned rainy and cool, so I began seriously looking for work. Wrote two different versions of my resume, one for programming and one for (ugh) clerical work. My programming skills are obsolete, so I knew I wasn't likely to find anything in that field, and I didn't. Ended up doing dumb-dumb clerical work at a wage so low, I'd blush to mention it, so I won't. Even at that, I only found seven days' work.
We had a few more warm, sunny days, but then the weather turned cold. Fortunately, it was beautiful the day Marilyn came down for a visit. We ate lunch at the Huttleston House and then drove to Fort Phoenix, Sconticut Neck, and West Island. When we were at Fort Phoenix, we walked out on the hurricane barrier, which was built in 1965 and stretches for miles. Someone had told me people can tour the interior of the barrier where the machinery is that opens and closes the gates, so I phoned to see if we could tour it but was told there has to be a group of at least ten people for a tour, so that let us out.
In early November, there was a stretch of warm, sunny days, so I was able to do some sanding and varnishing. The boat really needed it. The tropical sun had eaten much of the varnish. What was left was peeling off, and bare wood was exposed. I didn't have enough good days to get six coats on everywhere, but just getting the old varnish sanded off and one or two coats of varnish on helped tremendously. The Jofian looks like the Jofian again.
Roy kept shipping cartons of tools and stuff to me, which I pulled home from the Post Office in the blue wagon. This meant he didn't have all that weight to carry on the return trip. His plane landed at JFK around seven a.m. on November 20th, but then it had to sit on the runway until five security guards arrived to remove an unruly passenger. It stayed there while big buses transported the passengers to the terminal. The luggage carousel kept breaking down, so there was another delay to retrieve baggage. By the time Roy was ready to leave the terminal, it was 10:30. I hadn't driven down to get him, because I would either have had to leave at two a.m. (expecting a seven o'clock arrival) or I'd have had to drive down the previous afternoon and spend the night at a motel, so it was easier and less expensive for Roy to take the bus. He arrived at the marina at quarter to five, just as I was going to the phone to find out what time the next bus from New York would get in. What a relief to see him!
On Sunday, Marilyn came down to meet Roy and have a chat with me before we left. Her husband was ill and couldn't come. We ate lunch on the boat. Marilyn gave us two delicious cakes that she had baked. We enjoyed a pleasant visit. The day was sunny and clear but quite cold.
Roy spent most of Monday putting stuff away and checking the engine, etc. He wasn't as ready as he wanted to be, but we left today anyway, because there was a favorable break in the weather. We got up at five and went through the bridge at seven. Motorsailed without incident to Point Judith, where we followed the narrow channel to Snug Harbor. Tied to the fuel dock, which was supposedly closed. We were told we could stay there overnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment