The wind howled all night and blew away the rain clouds. We awoke to blue sky and bright sun, but the wind was still blowing strong. The place looked a lot better today.
After breakfast, we went ashore in the launch and walked back to the tower. There was excellent visibility today, so it was worthwhile going up. Yesterday it would have been a waste. The tower was surprisingly easy to climb. We had expected hundreds of steps, but there were very few steps. Instead, there were gradually sloping ramps, so we went up almost effortlessly. The tower was built in the early 1900's, and is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. It's really an architectural marvel.
The view from the top was spectacular. We could see for miles in every direction. To the west, we could see the mainland, in the Boston area, and farther south, the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal, where we're going tomorrow. Looking south, we could see the entire inner coast of Cape Cod. We couldn't see Gloucester to the north, but we could see way out over the ocean. The wind was still blowing like crazy, and there were lots of whitecaps.
Back on the ground, we visited the adjoining museum, which was small but had many interesting exhibits, especially the one on the pirate ship Whydah, which had sunk in 1717 and just been salvaged in the past few years. Technicians are still working to retrieve artifacts. In fact, they're working right there in the museum, so we could watch them. The museum also has tanks of electrolytic fluid, where artifacts are soaking to loosen the deposits of centuries.
It was noon when we left the museum, so we walked over to the A & P to buy lunch at their salad bar. Not only was it less expensive than the ripoff restaurants, it was also more nutritious. We carried our salads to the beach and enjoyed the view while we ate. Then we walked across a mile-long breakwater that had remarkably smooth, level stones. We wanted to explore the old Civil War forts on Long Point. At the time they were built, the locals dubbed them "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous". They were abandoned after the war and soon covered with sand and wild grass and bushes. Now they're nothing but big lumps. Ridiculous and useless. Roy wisely lay down on the sand to take a nap, but I walked the mile or two to the point to see them. Anyway, I saw the old lighthouse.
When I got back, Roy was nowhere to be seen. It turned out a bunch of voracious flies had driven him away, but I didn't find that out until I caught up with him. I thought surely he'd be waiting for me at the breakwater, but he wasn't, so I walked back across the breakwater with a talkative woman from Connecticut who happened to come along just then. As I approached the other end of the breakwater, I saw Roy standing by the fence. We strolled back to town past many lovely homes. When we got to the "downtown" area, we saw a rather weird store that had an agglomeration of junk, everything from old-time diving suits to used blankets. We spent some time wandering around in there, but didn't buy anything.
By the time we got back to the boat, the wind had died completely. The water was perfectly flat. Hard to believe it was the same place. We'd already paid for tonight, and it was too late to go anywhere anyway, so we ate supper and plotted our course for tomorrow.
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