Dear Dad-
Dave is still living in the apartment you’ve visited in North Quincy, and this is great in many ways, one of which is that it’s near the sea. I put the kayaks on the roof of the car and braved the Expressway to get down there this Sunday morning. Picked up Dave and headed down Quincy Shore Drive to Hough’s Neck, both of us wearing masks (long story).
This Sunday was another beautiful mid-summer day with lots of swirling clouds, some of which threatened rain, and some sunshine. We put in an hour or two past low, but on the ramp recently reconstructed by the city out on the Neck this was not a muddy proposition. A few recreational Quincy boaters trying to figure out how to handle their trailers tried to tie up the ramp, but we were in and out before they knew it.
This time we headed due East, forgoing Hull Gut and staying in Hingham Bay, where the chop was incredible! It was stirred up by all the boats coming and going into Quincy and on the superhighways to the Weymouth Fore River and Back River, as well as by the strong incoming tide and the Southwesterly breeze.
We were bound for the Weir River on the other side of the Bay, around Grape Island, Slate Island (you could see why it was so called by the rocks on its beaches), and Bumpkin Island. When we got there there was a parade of boats going into the small harbor and another parade of boats coming out, and the coast was lined with an array of housing stock. How was this different from sitting on the side of the highway, watching the cars?
So we floated South around the coast of World’s End (a state park) while we ate our lunch, and then headed back through the chop. As you may recall, Dave’s kayak, Lizzy, has a high bow and it mounted each wave. My Ruby has a bullet bow and it shreds the waves, though I was afraid of being buried in some of them. We both had our skirts on of course and would have been sunk if we hadn’t! As it was we got pretty wet.
But my point is that it was a beautiful day. How was it different than the busy world? Maybe not so much, but I think that difference is worth pursuing. And I want to say thanks Dad, for giving us opportunities to realize the beauty of the sea, and for being an example of how it can and should be incorporated into one’s life.
-Jonathan
