Day 171: Boston, Massachusetts

Monday, 26 June 2017

At Sea — Cape Cod Canal … to the Atlantic Ocean

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:20p (EDT) … UTC 1:20a (27 June)

Temp: 66.6F (19.2C)

Position: 41.44.16N / 70.37.53W

All Journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

~ Martin Buber ~

Our day in Boston was a very quiet one — the highlight being meeting up and having lunch with friends who left Insignia in April.

The sun was up very early, but I slept in until 6:30a and at 7:00a we went up to breakfast.  The temp was only about 61F (16C), but the chill was tempered by the bright sunshine, so we sat outside and had a leisurely breakfast at the Terrace Café.

Mui wanted to call Tiffin in Red Bay to order new windows for the Phaeton — our “condo on wheels.”  Since we had to wait until 9:00a for the Tiffin parts store to open at 7:00a AL time, we dallied onboard.  Long story short, the store has most of the windows in stock.  If they are missing one, it will take but 2-3 days to get it ordered and delivered since the windows are made locally.  That will work with our post-RTW travel plans.

I have so few pictures for this post ... none, in fact, from Boston.
Hence a photo of our "condo on wheels" won't go amiss ;-)

Seeing as how we were having a lazy day anyway, we took care of a few other things online using our speedy Verizon data package.  It was 11:00a when we finally left the cabin to walk into the city to meet up with Alice and Tom and the Gelmans for lunch.  The walk turned out to be quite short.  Mui had exchanged a couple of texts with A&T earlier, so we knew they were just arriving in town.  What we didn’t know was that they had managed to get into the port and were waiting to welcome us when we exited the terminal.  Such a wonderful surprise.  After hugs all around, we piled into their car and drove to the Boston waterfront.

Couldn’t have planned things better.  The parking lot near the Aquarium turned out to be right across the street from Legal Seafood, where Alice had made lunch reservations.  We wandered around the waterfront for a few minutes and then went to the restaurant.  The Gelmans showed up a few minutes later.  It was such a nice day that we wanted to sit at one of the tables on the sidewalk, but the tables were all 4-tops and the hostess wasn’t inclined to put two of them together for us.  In her defense, we would have obstructed the service flow.  So we ended up eating indoors.  The food was good, but the best part was the camaraderie.  We all jabbered away all through lunch.

Around 2:00p Mui and I set off to walk back to the ship, leaving the rest of our party to dally on the waterfront.  The walk back to where Insignia was berthed wasn’t all that interesting, but it gave us a chance to stretch our legs … stopping along the way for some over-priced Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.  Once back in the cabin, I made myself comfortable on the veranda, which was in the shade.  It was nice to get a head start on the journal/blog and do some reading.

Dinner tonight was with Jan, and Karen & John, and the Gelmans.  Jan is disembarking in NYC tomorrow, so this was our last chance to socialize.  Initially, dinner was to have been in the Grand Dining Room, but when Chef Farid told us last night that tonight would be fresh lobster al fresco, everyone agreed to a change of venue to the Terrace Café.  Those who had the lobster said it was very good … the poor things were still wiggling … that’s how fresh they were.

Lobster al fresco with friends.

A beautiful sunset ends our day ... or so I think at the time.

Cape Cod Canal …

Who knew such a thing existed?  I sure didn’t.  That it was wide and deep enough for Insignia to go through it was an even bigger surprise … passing under three bridges along the way with just enough clearance … after the mast was taken down, that is.  The canal is apparently only about 7 miles (11 km) long … but it shortened the distance Insignia had to travel to get around the cape by some 135 miles (217 km).

The first people to consider such a canal were the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in 1623.
It took nearly 300 years before that idea became a reality.

Sonia had mentioned at dinner that CD Ray told them at trivia that we would be going through the canal around 8:30p.  I didn’t think anything of it, however, since she just said we’d be going through a narrow opening.  I was reading on the veranda when I glanced up to see the canal was going to be far more than that.  I called Mui out to watch the transit from the aft veranda with me.

Noticing that no one else was on their verandas, we were commenting that the canal transit should have been announced so passengers could be on the outer decks to see it — even if it quite dark, with just dim lights along either side.  Moments later Ray came on the P/A to make the announcement.

Entering from Cape Cod Bay, we passed Scusset Beach State Reservation.  Then came some houses and buildings, and a road hidden behind the trees with some light traffic.  I think I spied a campground, too … and some restaurants.  We also passed what looked like a power plant, and a baseball diamond, and a stadium.   People were fishing off the embankment … others stopped their vehicles or came out of their homes for a closer look-see at Insignia.  Enthusiastic waves were much appreciated and we returned the salutes as the ship slowly made its way to Buzzards Bay.

Even if there wasn’t much to see because it was so dark, we enjoyed the transit.  Insignia made it under all three bridges without incident … which, according to CD Ray, is more than can be said about the Viking Star.  Apparently that ship scraped its way under the railroad bridge … oops!

This is the infamous Railroad Bridge that Viking Star clipped.  We pass without a hitch.

Tomorrow we arrive in NYC for an overnight stay.  No set plans except for the Chihuly Exhibit … we are going to go with the flow.