Around Cape Cod: Day 5

Provincetown: the bar we grounded on is the light diagonal line extending from inside the middle of Long Point.  The dike we walked runs from inside end of Long Point to the edge of downtown.

I slept a little late, convinced we would be staying in Provincetown this day, come what may.  I climbed out, refreshed, at about seven to find we were aground on a bar a little distance from the beach.  Leaving Trevor sleeping, I took a walk barefoot on the bar, admiring shells and rocks, waded the tidal creeks, and returned about an hour later.    Rain sent me into the cabin Trevor had buttoned-up the cabin in my absence.  We ate breakfast and read while the rain pattered occasionally.

Grounded on a bar, Beatrice Ann is little the worse for wear after her adventure.  Even my splinted sprit was okay.

Late in the morning I called Bea for a weather update.  After hearing it, I needed no convincing that I should not risk crossing Cape Cod Bay for the next two or three days.  I wondered aloud whether Bea could come and get us?  She could.  We floated about noon, sailed over to town to scope out the ramp we'd seen while on foot the day before, toured the shoreline a bit, then sailed up to the beach to await her arrival. 

An amazing "houseboat" in Provincetown Harbor features Frank Lloyd Wright styling, good ventilation, solar panels and a shaded wrap-around porch.  Hanging plant on the right hand end for that homey feel.

It was a nice ramp, and not crowded.  The Beatrice Ann took up a lot of real estate on the small beach without appearing to be in anyone's way.  People swam, frolicked with their dogs, took out kayaks and a Sunfish.  I sat on the prow reading Outermost House, stopping now and then to resettle the bow on the beach as the tide rose and fell.  Trevor read in the cabin.

 

Bea and I once stayed at the Land's End B&B visible rising in ornate glory on the hilltop

We were all in the car headed out of Provincetown by 4pm, stopping at Moby Dick's in Wellfleet for a welcome dinner.  At home, I "saw to the horses first" by unloading the boat and beginning the cleaning process before going into the house to get clean myself.  As I worked, I left the vhf radio on, since it had up and decided to work again.  It suddenly erupted into warnings of severe weather--bands of thunderstorms, winds gusting to 38, hail, and so on--picked up on doppler radar all over the coastal waters, at a time we would have far out had we sailed that day.  Before this, such a warning would have been purely intellectual--now a little experience invests it with a visceral punch.  Never again will I take such a forecast lightly.

Beatrice and Stephen got us, then treated us to fish & chips, shrimp and fried clams at Moby Dick's.  A Fudgy Wudgy, cheesecake, and two Freezese capped it off.