Friday, August 31, 2007

Essex - Matthew Leaves for School


John McKinney left this morning at 6:00 am bound for Port Jefferson. He plans on returning to PYC on Labor Day, 9/3. Much later that morning we all got up to continue our more leisurely trip home. We took Lance over to the west end of the breakwater for his morning outing. We had found a tennis ball on the previous trip and we had left it in the dinghy. Lance jumped out (first out as usual) and after we was done, he headed for the dinghy with us shouting, "Don't go in, we're not leaving yet". But Lance still got back in the dinghy and immediately found the ball, jumped back out and laid the ball at Ann's feet. He was ready to play. It gives you some pause. He remembered where the ball was (out of sight when he was on land) and went to get it. I had thought that animals only thought in a "big present" with no thought of past or future but it's not true. Lance's fetch of the ball took memory and a plan for execution, neat.

We headed west around 9:00 am (three hours after John!) with a roaring current (full moon), averaging 8 to 9 kts over ground (GPS speed) all the way. We had reserved a mooring at the Essex Yacht Club ($40/night) and had a late lunch at the Black Seal. A tour of the Essex River Museum was next on the agenda, an excellent, hands on type of museum.

The sad part is that about an hour ago, Matthew left. He starts school on Tuesday and had to get back. We'll be by ourselves the rest of the way. Next stop - Branford where we hope to get the refrigeration fixed. We'll be meeting the same technician that repaired the first problem we had three years ago. We have high hopes that all will be working by the end of the day Saturday!
Follow our progress at Return Trip

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