It is difficult to be forced to take extra time off in the summer. But I am suffering through the days off this week by spending time with the family. Yes, life is good. In reality, while it may suck to lose the money, at least they didn’t furlough us in the winter.
Today we had originally planned a Six Flags day. However, the forecast heat helped us decide that a day on the water was better than a day waiting in line to get in the water. So, this morning, we headed down to the boat picking up lunch at Subway on the way.
We again motored upstream. The wind is all downstream in the sound, but the boys prefer to swim in the river. And the trip downstream is much longer. We went up farther than we had on the past two occasions. Past Allyn Point in Gales Ferry on our right. On the way past Allyn Point we passed an outcrop of rock (across the river from the factory) that looked promising to stop for a swim and lunch. The chart showed a shipwreck not too far north of the outcrop, and we decided to check out he wreck first. The boys thought it was cool to find an airplane wreck in the woods behind our house last summer, and find a shipwreck this summer.
We did find the wreck. There isn’t much left of it, though we came a little closer to some of the underwater portions of the boat than I had hoped (but we didn’t hit it – so all is well). After the sightseeing we headed south to our anchorage. The river is warm and the current was pretty weak. The heat made it a perfect day for swimming. It is hot enough to be comfortable in and out of the water.
Susanna swam (or rather walked, the water was shallow) the cooler from the boat to the shore,and the boys explored the rock outcrop. We enjoyed lunch in the shade of some of the trees, and spent more time playing in the water after lunch.
We pulled up anchor and headed back mid-afternoon, and were home by 3pm. It was the best day out on the water to date.
Upon returning to the marina, we found that a family of swans was occupying our slip. The approach to the slip is slow, and they had plenty of time to swim out of the way, but they were not happy. It was a whole family of birds (parents and young swans), and the bigger birds didn’t like us disturbing their swim. Swans are mean birds.
I was able to improve the swim ladder by lowering it a bit, but it is still difficult for the boys to climb back in the boat (but at least now they both can climb in without assistance). I think this weekend I will head over to Defender and look for a better boarding ladder. If we are going to spend this much time swimming, it will be well worth getting a good ladder.
