Nantucket Confidential IV

Nantucket Confidential IV

Along the Jersey shore, there are probably 1,000 seagulls per mile of beach. These are the loud “laughing gulls” which screech and fight each other for food. They have stolen food right out of a sandwich I’m holding.

In Nantucket, the system is different. There is about one gull per quarter mile, and these gulls are herring gulls, larger, statelier, and not nearly as low class. They are somewhat aristocratic and have a large, protected rookery on part of the island.

And so it came to pass that a gull who patrols our stretch of the beach showed up to share a roast beef sandwich another guest had offered me, since her boat ride didn’t show up due to fog. I was dutifully tossing the gull some bread, which he casually caught or walked over to retrieve. Suddenly, he turned and trotted down to the surf. In one of those rare moments when I was looking the right way at the right time, I watched in wonder as he tugged a four-inch, silver fish from the water. He held it crosswise in his beak, and had to toss it up a few times, as if making a pizza, to get it on the right axis to be swallowed, whole.

With his gullet engorged, he walked back into the surf and drank what looked like a quart of seawater. Sated, he peered at me as if, “You just don’t know how to eat.”

We had a nice, waterside meal in Straight Wharf last night, which was hopping busy. Unbelievably, they have a lettuce salad that I had to have once I saw it delivered to the next table, and it was amazing. A nice bass followed (I was tempted to toss it in the air and swallow it whole), accompanied by a glass of house pinot noir, which the captain pours for you to taste out on the deck, a very nice gesture.

We bought dog treats at our favorite pet store here, an annual tradition (Koufax could care less, Buddy will eat the bag they’re in). We drove back in the kind of heavy fog that high beams make worse, lonely roads with vegetation encroaching, not an iota of natural light, top down, 80 degrees. God, this is living! Since the lovely Maria insists on observing the speed limit (and can see the speedometer from the passenger seat, in an inexplicable design flaw in the car) I drive it in manual to make it interesting.

The day turned out to be outstanding, and now today, Friday, is supposed to be nice, as well. We have lucked out on the weather again, though we have a late ferry tomorrow and there may be thunder storms from Hurricane Bill (naming storms after men is one of the stupidest of all the stupid politically correct insults).

It’s sunny with a mild breeze that should keep the bugs at bay. Back at you later.