{"id":4631,"date":"2016-11-11T22:14:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T22:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=4631"},"modified":"2016-11-11T22:14:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T22:14:08","slug":"marblehead-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=4631","title":{"rendered":"Marblehead II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_20160722_054035046_hdr\"<\/a>
\nSunrise in Marblehead Harbor.\u00a0The dawn of yet another beautiful day. I’m thinking about our lawn back home in Wareham, and how crispy it must be. The hanging plants and window boxes too.\u00a0The lack of rain must be hard on them. Meanwhile, back on the boat, I’m lovin’ the sunshine.<\/p>\n

With a boat-hook,\u00a0I chase a gull off the\u00a0fly-bridge roof, but he soon\u00a0returns with a friend and they both settle onto the warm, black, Sunbrella fabric. I can’t have that. I don’t dislike the gulls, it’s their poop I hate. So it’s time to\u00a0put up\u00a0the Gull-Sweeps, so-called because they spin in the breeze and literally sweep the gulls away. We have three of them to protect the 10 square-foot area.<\/p>\n

\"Ginger<\/a>

Ginger Lee with Gull-Sweeps installed.<\/p><\/div>\n

Apparently, I’m not the only one awake at this early hour.\u00a0Two working fishermen dinghy up to their boat and start messing about with their gear.\u00a0I can see they’re busy, so I suppress the urge to ask them where they’re headed, and\u00a0simply toss them a friendly wave and leave it at that.\u00a0In return, they wish me good morning and go about their business.<\/p>\n

\"Working<\/a>

Working fishermen.<\/p><\/div>\n

After breakfast,\u00a0The XO and I\u00a0plan to go ashore for a walk and some much-needed provisions. I prepare a shopping list. We’re out of everything.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The shopping list.<\/p><\/div>\n

The waterfront area is beautiful and quaint. With its brick sidewalks and narrow winding streets, it reminds me of the Beacon Hill section of Boston.\"dscn8869\"<\/a>\"dscn8872\"<\/a>\"dscn8870\"<\/a>\"img_20160722_113128134_hdr\"<\/a>We find the supermarket at the bottom of a hill, and as luck would have it, it’s\u00a0pretty close to\u00a0the dinghy dock, so\u00a0I’ll be able to stock up on beer as well.<\/p>\n

\"Crosby's<\/a>

Crosby’s Market dead ahead.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

After washing our clothes and taking showers in the cleanest facility I’ve ever seen, we\u00a0return to the boat and kick back on\u00a0the aft-deck to\u00a0enjoy the warm afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Relaxing<\/a>

Relaxing on the aft-deck.<\/p><\/div>\n

A huge ship enters the harbor.
\n“Where the heck is that thing going?” I ask aloud. “It’s way too big for this harbor.”
\nI turn on the AIS and read the stats. “Renaissance<\/em>” is a 116 foot fiberglass pleasure craft with a 23 foot beam, 6.1 foot draft, and flagged for The United States. Currently underway at 1.2 MPH at a distance of\u00a0half a\u00a0mile.
\nAccording to Active Captain (the on-line cruising guide) the largest boat\u00a0previously accommodated in this harbor is only 80 feet.\u00a0This is gonna be interesting.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0behemoth\u00a0is slowly\u00a0advancing toward us. Boaters stop and stare,\u00a0jaws drop, everyone is oohing and\u00a0ahhing.\u00a0A\u00a0crew of four Harbormasters\u00a0are scrambling about the utility dock in front of their office.
\n“Jeez! I think they’re gonna put it on the Harbormasters dock,” I say. Sure enough, Renaissance<\/em> pulls up, and is tied to the little dock.<\/p>\n

\"M\/V<\/a>

M\/V Renaissance <\/em>docked near us. The Riva dinghy tied\u00a0on the side costs more than our house.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is pretty exciting. Binoculars are glued to our eyeballs. On the top deck, there is what looks like a family sitting\u00a0around a table.\u00a0Two young ladies, identically dressed in navy blue shirts and khaki shorts, are fussing about with silver trays of food.
\n“Dinner is served,” I say in my English butler’s accent.
\n“It’s a gold-digging husband and his over-the-hill Hollywood actress wife,” I continue.
\n“And their sullen teenager,” the XO says,\u00a0describing the girl in the\u00a0dark hoodie who is staring at her phone.
\n“His\u00a0daughter from another failed marriage. Look. There’s a baby. Obviously the teens illegitimate child.” I offer.
\n“From a wealthy rapper.”
\n“From Justin Bieber,” I surmise.
\n“And\u00a0the elderly man?”
\n“The patriarch of the family. He killed his wife for her money. Made it look like an accident.”
\n“Anti-freeze?”
\n“Pushed her down the stairs. It’s quicker.”
\nIn no time at all we have the whole family story worked out. We made it all up of course. But it could be true!<\/p>\n

The XO googles the boat’s name,\u00a0and discovers that anybody can rent\u00a0Renaissance<\/em> for a mere 85 thousand dollars a week. Quite the bargain right? Nope.\u00a0Here’s the kicker. It doesn’t include food or fuel! Well the heck with that. I’m cancelling my reservation! All kidding aside, I’m happy right where I am, hanging out\u00a0with my cool wife, and\u00a0enjoying life\u00a0in our own\u00a0little boat. \"img_20160722_075724045\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Sunrise in Marblehead Harbor.\u00a0The dawn of yet another beautiful day. I’m thinking about our lawn back home in Wareham, and how crispy it must be. The hanging plants and window boxes too.\u00a0The lack of rain must be hard on them. … 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4631","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-1cH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631","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=4631"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4694,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions\/4694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}