1) I woke up a whisper before seven and, like Jane Fonda saying "I am gonna do a goddamn back flip!", I decided that finalmente, I would head off to Herring Cove. By 7:30 I had packed for the ferry, gotten my beach bag, and headed out the door.
2) Doing something makes you feel great! Of course my progress was arrested in only nine minutes; I had to wait for ye Gyle Fyrce to open up so I could provision.
OH MY GOD, there was a dune here!
3) Now I had been warned that the landscape at Herring Cove had been radically altered by the storms last winter: that part of the beach was now an island at high tide, that concrete pilings from an old pier had been exposed by the storm, etc. None of the talk prepared me for the shock of seeing all the damage myself, of being in the marsh, in what was left of the dunes. Arriving at 8:30 AM on a gray morning - it was like the End Times. #pleaseputupyourrobertbdimmickdramafilter
I've heard they taste just like chicken.
4) I was impressed by the large number of birds. Dozens and dozens of seagulls, dozens of piping plovers using their camoflage to blend into the pebbles. I'm so grateful I wasn't wearing Nile green!
5) I hiked down to where the traditionally large gap had been between "boy beach" and the end of the beach nearest Wood End Light. One end of that gap was the only familiar dune landmark I could find - and that gap had more than doubled in size.
The only landmark familiar to me left.
6) By 10 AM the bright, unforgiving spotlight of the sun completely changed the atmosphere, making it less dire, but less inescapable. I lingered until 11:30, reading, writing, actually getting into the water, and watching the day's arrivals parade by.
See how much happier this looks?
7) Hiking out I collected some nasty-looking foil balloons, clearly brought for a birthday party and NOT packed out by the partiers. #naughtynaughty
8) In not too much time I was able to clean my carcass, finish packing, strip and remake the bed, and then bid my wonderful hosts farewell with many thanks for a fantastic stay.
9) Hochmina had invited me for a light lunch, and he and I got to catch up one on one, which was really nice.
10) It will not surprise you to learn that I was very early for the ferry, but the time passed more quickly than usual with conversation with the two young men in line in front of me, Dane and what sounded like Giselle but which is certainly not correct - but I really couldn't hear what his real name is. They had never been to P'town before this weekend, and I really enjoyed getting to compare notes with them. And, it turns out Dane when to camp at Interlochen!
11) Unusually, I opted not to sit in a banquette, and my gamble paid off when Ira and Bob appeared with their beautiful dog and asked to sit by me. And while it was lovely to see them, I'm afraid I slept two-thirds of the trip home.
12) Rounding the cape, I left my seat to go out on deck to see the dune damage again. The sun was as much a spotlight as ever before, illuminating the beach as I have never before seen it. At the center of this composition rose the Pilgrim Monument, lit the same color as the beach, palely anchoring this composition of the palest colors: sand, gray, blue, and white. No photograph I could ever take (see top photo) would recapture it, but perhaps a future Maxfield Parrish could do it.
