Beth, "This is the motion I don't like!"....Gloucester to Boston.

     Even though it was a grey sullen early morning, we decided to go.  Even though it was given the possibility of thunderstorms and higher winds in the afternoon, we decided to go. Even though it was given only 2 to 3 foot seas, we decided to go. We had to. Danny Collins, our brother-in-law was busing in from Bangor and was due to meet us at the Boston Waterside Marina at noon.  The problem was even though we were going to go somewhat faster, we had a following sea....for you landlubbers this means the sea swell was coming from behind us!  This makes the boat wallow from side to side if we aren't going faster than the sea swells and if you remember the first part of the blog, almost cost me a colonoscopy!
                                                                                 

                                   Old Fortress Structures coming out of Gloucester Harbour                                                                                                                                                                                             

     I didn't realize there was a problem until Beth came out from the main lounge, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "This is the motion I don't like.  It reminds me of when we were in Galveston Bay and the refrigerator was thrown over to the other side of the boat! Can't you do anything about it?
I responded, "I can pick up the speed. It should make the ride a little better but we will use a lot more fuel."
"I sold my car for this trip. Burn the fuel!" she retorted.
                                                                           

                                                1995 Jaguar XJS Convertable 2+2

     Forward on the throttles,  and the boat responded well with an easing of the wallowing motion but not a complete elimination of the pitching and rolling motion.
We sped along until entering the Boston Channel, when I saw  a huge container ship pull up on our port side. Up went the throttles.  All I had to do was get on the other side of the channel and let it pass.  Its speed was difficult to estimate because of its size,  but by the time we approached a half a mile apart it became obvious that he was much faster than I anticipated.  I pulled back on the throttles and turned to go behind the ship.  Oops! Not only did we have to endure the wake from the ship but my own wake caught up and struck Doc's Holiday from the side.  I shrugged as I heard things crashing in the galley and the main lounge. Beth appeared beside me, pale with an expression of fear on her face and obviously nauseated!
"Sorry, I said meekly.
     She just stared at me and turned back to the main lounge to lie on the couch.
     We followed the container ship into port and found our mooring in front of the marina.  This mooring was in between the ferries and the water taxi and thus very rocky-rolly for the entire day but did settle down at night when all the tumult stopped.

                                                                           

                            Entering Boston Harbour minus one very large container ship!


     I immediately launched the dingy telling Beth that I was going to go in to pick up Danny.  I really didn't want to stay on the boat and take the berating that I justly deserved.  Away I went, to wander around downtown Boston and wait, even though it was 2 hours early.  In fact, I was 4 hours early (but who was counting!) as Danny's bus was late and the times were mixed up.
     Finally, I spotted him.  He was kind of hard to miss, standing at least a foot taller than the crowd with a bobble head looking all around.  Danny, is a big boy and I am sure it looked comical to see his huge hulk and baggage weighing down the front of the dingy as we slowly motored back to the boat.
He tossed his bags up onto the boat and we quickly raised and stored the dingy, settling in for a rocky rolly night.
" How was the bus trip, Beth asked.
" Easy to get here", Danny responded. "Got on in Bangor and they dropped me off just a 15 minute walk from here.  One thing though, I'm going to have to drag myself into the 20th century and get a cell phone. I had no way to contact anyone. Pay phones are hard to find now.  Everybody on the bus had a cell phone and every car we passed not only were the passengers texting but a lot of the drivers were busy texting. Now I see why its convenient to have a cell phone when you are traveling. I guess I will get my own when I get back."
     A couple of cold beers and we turned in. We would be leaving early in the morning with the hopes of getting ahead of the coming inclement weather.