On Assignment - The Campaign Trail

Photos from the May 2nd. Dale Borchert photo shoot have started hitting the campaign trail.

Just for fun - Woods Hole - Cape Cod MA

I've been going to Cape Cod every summer for the past 46 years and have never taken a trip to Woods Hole, home of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Most people would not find this strange, but for a person who is totally into this stuff and grew up next door to a artist/researcher who had skeletons of fish, birds, reptiles and mammals all over her house, this is strange (But that's a whole other story in itself). So on this trip to the cape I decided to take a day away from the family and head down to Woods Hole.

My plan was to get their early, take a tour of the facility and then spend the rest of the day walking around Woods Hole. So much for plans, since I am going late in the season, actually the last day of the season, the tours have stopped. But I was not going to let a little thing like that stop me.

The first thing was to get there. Not knowing where it was, I set the destination in my GPS to the address on the WHOI website, 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543. I should have know, this is the address for the main research campus, not the docks where I wanted to be about 3 miles away. From the little I knew about the village of Woods Hole from the WHOI website, I figured if I kept heading down Woods Hole Road I would get to the village. My GPS confirmed this.

What the website failed to tell me is that the village of Woods Hole is filled with street parking and 2 hour meters that only except quarters. So here's a little tip, Park in one of the lots for the Island Ferry and take the shuttle into the village. The parking rates are reasonable and you'll thank me.

Speaking of the shuttles, just add some bars on the windows and you have.... Well, let's not go there, but they could use a little help from a graphic artist.


The first thing I did when I got into the village is go to the WHOI information office and got a great little map of the area. From there I headed along Water Street to get a view of the Tioga. A 60 foot research vessel designed for coastal water day trips with a range of 350 miles.


Next I headed to the WHOI exhibit Center and gift shop where they have a replica of the Alvin deep diving submersible.

The windows on the submersible are over 4 inches thick and have tiny 4 inch opening. It's also very tight inside. Not the place to be if your claustrophobic. I spent an hour or so in the exhibit center before heading back towards the docks.

My next objective was to try and get a good view of the Oceanus, the smallest of the three large research vessels and the only one in port at the time. No matter where I went, I just could not get a good view. I knew it was time to take drastic action. I needed to get out on the water to get a good view. What better way to do that then to purchase a round trip ticket to Martha's Vineyard on the ferry for a whopping $15.00. I studies the schedule and figured if I took the 3:45pm out, I could head back on the 6:15pm and catch a great sunset just as we were getting into port. It was now 2:30pm.

Remember that parking meter, it was about to run out, so I headed back to the car to move it to the Steam Ship Authority Ferry Parking lot (I should have done this in the first place). Oh, and finding the lot, well, that took a lot longer then expected causing me to miss the 3:45 Ferry.

But wait, what's that, a Freight Ferry is leaving at 4:00pm.

It's not pretty, but it got me there. The problem is I wanted to get shots of the Oceanus and this thing did not provide the best sightseeing platform. I worked my way up to the deck and got a nice picture of the Oceanus.

At 177 feet, this is only a mid-size research vessel designed for two to three week cruises. But to me, it was a thing of total coolness.

Once we were out of port I really did not know what I wanted to do for the next 40 minutes so I started walking around talking to folks. I love to meet people and find out their story.


This is Dave, a lawyer from Detroit. He also missed the 3:45 ferry (and his Family) and was meeting up with them on Martha's Vineyard for a short vacation. Great guy, we talked a bit about the economic situation in Detroit.


The rest of the trip I took a few pictures passing sail boats and ships.





Once I arrived at Martha's Vineyard, I had just enough time to grab a few shots around the ferry terminal and a bite to eat at O-Sun Asian Kitchen before heading back to Woods Hole to photograph the sunset.



However, every now and then you see something that just makes you stop and say, hmmm, this is different. Meet Anthony, a Taxi driver by day and a musician by night. I spotted Anthony in his taxi practicing and knew I had to stop and get a few shots. Great guy, check out his music and band "Day Factory" on my space at:

myspace.com/anthonyesposito ... myspace.com/dayfactory




After a few shots of Anthony, I headed back to meet my ferry for the trip back to Woods Hole.

On the ride back I got talking with this very nice couple (whos name escapes me) form Rhode Island. We started talking about cameras and then the conversation moved to blood sugar monitoring equipment. Great couple, and if they are reading this, please drop me a note with your names.



The timing was perfect, we arrived in Woods Holes just as the sun was starting to set. I could not have asked for a more perfect ending to a great day. Oh, and Tom K, if you happen to be reading this, thanks for the wonderful clouds for the sunset photos and will meet up at some later time.

Enjoy the sunset, if you read this you deserve it..