Rich and I just returned from a marvelous 2-week trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. To say we had perfect weather would be an understatement. 83 degrees and sunny or mostly sunny for 14 days straight, with light winds, little humidity, and acres of blue sky and azure sea. It was heaven. It seems, however, that was not what our friends and colleagues were experiencing here on Cape Cod in our absence. We’ve learned, from just about everybody we talked to since our return, that the Cape experienced a nor’easter of sorts that hung around for nearly four days. High winds, rain, and even some early snow squalls accompanied this early winter storm.

Our first indication that Cape Cod had experienced some foul weather while we were away was the pile of wood stacked on the farmer‘s porch of our Cape Cod bed and breakfast. The wood came from the arbor that spans our walkway and supports a tulip vine, which has intertwined itself in latticework of the trellis. The winds were fierce enough to tear some of the lattice away from the arbor and the twisted branches of the tulip vine. Our gardener thoughtfully collected the scattered pieces from the front yard and neatly stacked them on the deck.

Once inside, we noticed a screen that our housekeeper left in the kitchen. It seems that it tore free from one of the second floor gable windows during the storm and she rescued it from the front garden. These two discoveries prodded us to do a more through examination to assess further damage from the storm, as the hilltop location and north facing windows of our Inn insures that the backside  takes a severe beating in a nor’easter. Alas, we thankfully found nothing more awry.

We did however, discover that other parts of the Cape had taken a pretty good dusting from the storm, as evidenced in an article in the Cape Cod Times on Thursday, November 18th revealing that the storm had uncovered yet another shipwreck on Nauset Beach. Approximately 50 feet of timbers were exposed, projecting less than a foot above the sand. Spotted by a local about a half-mile south of the patrolled beach, the wreck is located in an area that routinely gets washed over during big storms.

More than 3,500 ships foundered and went down off the coast of Cape Cod between 1850 and 1980. Most of those wrecks occurred in the late 19th century. According to the paper “the wreck appears to be resting on its side” and it is “unclear whether more of the ship is buried in the sand or if what’s visible is all that remains.”

“The wreck,” explains the Cape Cod Times reporter, “is similar in construction to a shipwreck that was found on Newcomb Hollow Beach almost two years ago, which was thought to be a late 1800s- to early 1900s-era schooner of the type that often plied the coastal waters delivering coal, lumber or other coal goods, this recent wreck.”

At any rate, its clear to us that the storm we missed while we were in Hawaii was a doosey. We can’t wait to get down to Nauset to see it for ourselves and we suggest any of you other shipwreck hunters interested in taking a peek get down here soon. Who knows when the next storm will come and erase all evidence of it again?

To see a video of the wreck, click here.

We are experiencing the “dog days” on Cape Cod. These are the hottest, most sultry days of the year that usually occur sometime between early July and early September. The moniker comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather. Be that as it may, on Cape Cod hot and sultry is what we live for…the long and lazy days of summer that are best spent at the beach. Something that the Cape has no shortage of, to be sure.

Having an unplanned afternoon with no check-ins to wait around for at the Inn, Rich and I declared a “dog holiday” and packed up the Subaru with a cooler full of sandwiches and cold drinks, some folding chairs, and Casey, our almost 11 year old yellow lab and resident inn dog. We headed east, destination uncertain, but definitely within the bounds of the National Seashore as dogs are permitted on the beach as long as they are on a leash, something unheard of at most other public beaches on Cape Cod, with few exceptions. It is one of the rare complaints that we have, actually, about living on Cape Cod, as living here for the most part is idyllic. But if you are a dog, or a dog lover, the nearly universal restriction of dogs on the beaches from April or May through September or October is the bane of our existence.

We ended up at Marconi Beach in Wellfleet after an unsuccessful try to secure a parking spot at Coast Guard and Nauset Light beaches in Eastham. Marconi took its name from the famous Italian inventor, Marconi, who successfully completed the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U.S. and England in 1903 at a site nearby.

Known for the steep sand cliffs that back the beach, Marconi is one of the most beautiful beaches on all of Cape Cod. There is a sense of solitude that beach goers can experience at Marconi, for the wide expanse of nearly pristine sand stretches endlessly east and west. Once beyond the fray of the sun worshippers, ball players, and boogie boarders that seem to congregate between the lifeguards keeping a watchful eye on the action, you can claim an area an acre wide for yourself on the remaining swath of beach and be undisturbed for the remainder of the day if you like.

Casey, of course, was in doggie heaven. A jaunt on the beach on one of the most sultry of summer days is a rare event indeed for her, and she took full advantage of the freedom to roam from tide pool to tide pool testing the water temperature and doing her version of the dog paddle. In her youth she was an avid swimmer, but as the advancing years have settled in on her joints, she now simply likes to lie down in the water, attempt to roll over and scoot her snout beneath the surface of the water, something akin to doggie snorkeling, I presume. Whatever floats your boat.

It was a wonderful afternoon for all three of us. Walking the beach we shed our “hospitality fatigue” and returned home renewed and refreshed and ready to tackle the responsibilities of being innkeepers on Cape Cod once again.