The first time my friend Charlie came out to Block Island with us, we drove together out to the house. As we came down the final hill approaching Sachem Pond, Charlie leaned forward, squinted maybe a little, and stared intently at the view. “Look at that!” he said.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” we replied. We were feeling warm inside, the way a person does who is coming home after a long absence, and we were enjoying the view ourselves.
But Charlie said, “Yes, it is pretty, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I was wondering why the water in the pond is so much higher than the water in the ocean. You’d think, with the two of them so close, it would equalize.”
Have I mentioned yet that Charlie has a background in engineering, and he’s very good at it?
In all the years we’ve been coming to the island, we never noticed a difference in the water level. But Charlie was right. You can see it in this picture. Kind of. If you squint and stare intently at it.
Dear Ginger:
Hey, thanks for providing photographic proof of that oh-so-long ago observation. Yes, from the picture it’s obvious that the pond is higher then the ocean. If ever BI starts to run short of electric power the authorities ought to consider placing a hydroelectric plant at this site. Then your sunset photos would include both the plant and the lighthouse. We could call them dam-lighthouse pictures.
Just a thought.
You take care.
Charlie
Ouch!
Somehow I don’t think that would do very much to lower the electricity charges from Block Island Power.
Clearly, Block Island has its own power company. Is it oil-fired? Natural gas? And how reliable and costly is the service?
Yes, Block Island Power. Which I hear variously is the most, or the second most, or the third most, but never lower than that, expensive power in the nation. It’s oil-fired, and the oil delivery trucks come over (and return, of course) on the ferry. Not the same ferry as passengers and their cars but rather a completely separate privately chartered ferry. So you can understand right there something of why the power is so expensive.