Hi Rocky1,
You are absolutely correct. Who in their right mind would go out for a cruise in those conditions.
The boat was a 26' Chris Craft cabin cruiser. I do have an interior shot of the boat. It was a rather small space. The head room was probably not much more than 6'. Paradiso would have a hard time standing up straight inside the cabin. I have uploaded a picture of the boat on the day it was raised, September 27, 1981. There was no evidence that connected Joan to the boat or Paradiso.
Paradiso previously moored his boat at Pier 7 in Boston. This was more of a commercial area. I am uploading a shot of the pier. I believe this was taken during the spring of 1981. I have added a red arrow to point out Paradiso's boat.
The boat was tied to the Erie Barge when it was moored here. From the pier, you would have to walk down a ramp to the barge and then jump down onto the boat.
The weather conditions were also windy that night. It hampered efforts to contain the 12 alarm fire in Lynn, MA that began at about 2:30 a.m. the morning of November 28, 1981.
I didn't have the level of information at the time to understand how absurd this scenario was. The explanation promoted was that Paradiso dumped Joan's body in Boston Harbor. Joan's skeleton was discovered in April 1990 buried in Hamilton, MA, more than 30 miles from the alleged crime scene. That made absolutely no sense with the explanation circulated.
As I dug further into Joan's case, and you will see posted in this thread, the alleged crime was impossible. Certified court records from the Federal District Court in RI affirmed the boat did not exist when Joan disappeared on November 28, 1981. Judge Bruce Selya presided over a bankruptcy fraud case that involved the boat. Case records CR 85-010-S were missing from the current custodian's files.