{"id":4473,"date":"2016-10-15T10:49:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T10:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=4473"},"modified":"2016-10-15T15:26:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T15:26:06","slug":"hullaballoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=4473","title":{"rendered":"Hullaballoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCN8810\"<\/a>
\nIt’s early morning at Sunset Bay Marina in Hull, Massachusetts.\u00a0Sunrise is imminent and it’s very quiet. It’s\u00a0like I have the whole place to myself.\u00a0Thin, streaky clouds paint the sky\u00a0with splashes of gun-metal gray. On land, countless birds, obviously also excited to be awake and alive on a such a nice morning, loudly\u00a0make their presence known in the large\u00a0oaks lining the shore.\u00a0And it’s warm too. There will be no escaping the heat today.<\/p>\n

With a bowl of Raisin Bran in hand, I stare at the now empty “party boat” across the fairway. Last night, in that boat,\u00a0the locals were tying-one-on.\u00a0No loud music, thankfully, but there was plenty of talking and laughing that increased in volume until about 10:30 when\u00a0I think they ran out of booze. I briefly consider turning Ginger Lee<\/em> around in her slip so that the aft deck–where we usually sit–would face away from the noise. Ah well.\u00a0Maybe tonight will be different. Right now, I’m getting\u00a0my walking shoes on. I plan to\u00a0walk the four blocks to the other side of\u00a0Hull Peninsula and check out Nantasket Beach, a\u00a0name that conjures up all kinds of wonderful memories from my youth.<\/p>\n

\"Nantasket<\/a>

Nantasket Beach looking north.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nantasket Beach <\/a>is wicked wide. It must be a\u00a0couple of hundred yards to the ocean. And it’s long too. One continuous sweep of sand\u00a0that covers at least\u00a0three and a half\u00a0miles. I walk south toward what used to be one of New\u00a0England’s, and arguably, the\u00a0nation’s premier destinations, mostly because of a cool amusement park that closed in the mid eighties. Years ago,\u00a0I used to spend the day at the beach, then hit Paragon Park<\/a> for the usual stuff that amusement parks offer: rides, greasy food, and girl watching. Now,\u00a0only the carousel remains. I’m getting a sad feeling because it’s not at all what I remember.<\/p>\n

“Jeez Rick. Get over it. Things change, life goes on. It’s a gorgeous day and\u00a0you’re on vacation.”<\/p>\n

Having talked myself out of\u00a0the sadness,\u00a0I happily\u00a0head toward the water’s edge\u00a0where walking is easier on the wet, hard-packed sand. It feels good to stretch my legs. So good in fact, that\u00a0I increase my pace, lengthen my\u00a0stride, and push off hard with every step\u00a0until my body starts to complain. The sun is just beginning to bring the heat, and I have no water and no defense against its onslaught. So I think it’s\u00a0wise to head back.<\/p>\n

\"Nantasket.\"<\/a>

Nantasket.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The only thing left from Paragon Park is the carousel.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the way back to the boat, I find a wallet on the street.\u00a0It contains\u00a0no cash and\u00a0no drivers license, but there are credit cards, debit cards,\u00a0and most importantly, some kind of veterans ID with a picture and a name. I google the name, and up pops a video of a parade through the streets of Hull featuring\u00a0a\u00a0young dude\u00a0wearing\u00a0a fancy, full dress Marine uniform. I’m talkin’\u00a0sword, tassels, scrambled eggs and\u00a0everything. It was obviously the same dude on the ID I found.\u00a0Apparently the guy is a war hero and the son of a prominent politician in Hull. I call the town hall, inform them\u00a0of my find, and leave my phone number. The morning slips by and nobody is calling me back, but the XO and I want to bike to\u00a0a museum. I figure I’ll leave the wallet at the marina office, that way, if he calls, I can just tell him where to pick it up.<\/p>\n

We stop at the office and explain the situation to the nice lady behind the desk. I hand her the wallet and\u00a0she looks at the ID. “Oh. It’s Johnny,” she says and dials his number from memory! So the story has a happy ending. The young veteran\u00a0will soon be\u00a0reunited with his wallet, and\u00a0the nice lady gives us free ice.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The museum at Point Allerton.<\/p><\/div>\n

We ride to Point Allerton\u00a0to visit\u00a0the oldest remaining Coast Guard life saving station. This place is absolutely fascinating. I’m impressed by the historic artifacts and the story of\u00a0Captain Joshua James<\/a>. He and his crew were credited with saving over 600 lives! These brave men lived and worked right here in Hull.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>

Captain Joshua James and members of the United States Life Saving Service.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Life<\/a>

Life saving boats on wheels.<\/p><\/div>\n

They had all their equipment on wheels, so if there was a ship wreck, they could quickly haul it to the beach.\u00a0I love the breaches buoy rig<\/a>.\u00a0Basically, with a small cannon, they would fire off a cannonball with a line attached to it over to the ship in peril. The sailors on board would tie off to a high point and they could zip-line to shore.<\/p>\n

\"Breaches<\/a>

Breaches buoy cart.<\/p><\/div>\n

I must admit, at first I was a not too impressed with this place. “What’s all the hullaballoo?” I said to myself.\u00a0\u00a0But the more\u00a0I got to know\u00a0it,\u00a0with its\u00a0friendly people, rich maritime history,\u00a0and beautiful waterfront, the more I came to love Hull, Massachusetts, and the Sunset Bay Marina.\u00a0I would come back in a heartbeat.\"DSCN8803\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s early morning at Sunset Bay Marina in Hull, Massachusetts.\u00a0Sunrise is imminent and it’s very quiet. It’s\u00a0like I have the whole place to myself.\u00a0Thin, streaky clouds paint the sky\u00a0with splashes of gun-metal gray. On land, countless birds, obviously also excited … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2TWzP-1a9","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4473"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4537,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}