The Six Town Ride

I’m so glad that James took care of the Beverly Port story. I was still wrapped up in getting our money back from them (first she said no refund, then that she would charge us for transient dockage and refund the rest, and finally backed down to keeping a prorated daily amount). Even with all that, I had to contest the (super-random) portion of the credit card charge she kept. Blegh. Okay, I’m glad he wrote that because I’m still putting my anger into the past. It’s righteous anger, the kind that is a life lesson about how to not get stomped on, and yet it is over. We’re settling into our place in Lynn, and setting up for winter. For us, the number one thing that keeps us safe is being able to move at a moment’s notice. We were able to do that in Charlestown last winter and we were able to do that in Beverly. Our options may get narrower when these jolts appear, but sometimes a necessary flexibility results in to a real good turn. I liked the location of Bev Port because it cut about a third off my bike ride to work. It seemed sensible to plan for bad weather (and don’t get me started about the double La Nina and the Farmer’s Almanac). With this move, we went the exact opposite direction. In the morning, I leave Seaport Landing Marina and head east until a huge roundabout swings me northeasterly along the beach. When there’s a strong easterly wind, the waves crash up and over the reinforced cliff, up and over the walking trail. Already, I’ve seen the waves cross the street. No, they didn’t wait for the light. Partway along the beach, I go from Lynn to Swampscott. From what a coworker[…]

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Wintering here

Over a month ago we tossed off the mooring in Salem and headed for Beverly. Not much of an adventure to be sure but we absolutely made the best of it and settled right in. Beverly Port Marina is a run down family “owned” dump that has recently had a run in with the local waterfront revitalization community. The marina has fenced off a rather large section of the public waterfront for it’s private usage and the revitalization people want to take it back by imminent domain to continue the public hike and bike trail ultimately scheduled to go from Cape Cod to Cape Anne. The imminent Domain has already been won by the local and state voters so it’s inevitable that the marina will have to clean up their act and let the public stroll right through the middle of their shit. Anyway, We paid up front and they invited us to come in early. I did laundry on our first day there and it caused raw sewage to boil up from the floor drains to swamp a 2 inch funky bog throughout both the men’s and women’s restrooms. There is so much oil and toxic goo on the concrete between the docks and the restrooms that it’s guaranteed you’ll track it aboard on even a single trip to the head. We were there for almost a week when the old guy that runs the machinery caught us on the dock and told us we could no longer ride our bikes on the property of the marina. From then on we had to walk our bikes from the entrance of the marina to where ever we were going to lock them. Of course they had no bike racks so we had to improvise a safe spot behind a wall[…]

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