The next day we were off to Cuttyhunk, a small island at the end of the Elizabeth island chain that runs towards the west from Woods Hole Mass. We had last been there nearly 30 years ago and suffice it to say it has changed little. A few more houses but that’s about it. The harbor was just as crowded as it was thirty years ago, but we did manage to find some real estate to put down an anchor. It is a wonderful place if you want to “get away from it all”.
From here it was off to Martha’s Vineyard where we visited Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluff and Edgartown, each of which has their own different character. Edgartown is the home of money, Oak Bluff is a former protestant retreat center but now a major vineyard tourist destination along with Vineyard Haven.
The Vineyard was our jumping off point for the trip to Nantucket which lies about 25 miles from Cape Cod (or as it is call in that neck of the woods- The Cape) and about the same traveling distance from Edgartown. We had a great sail up until the last 5 miles when we ran smack dab into a wall of fog. Boy it’s nice to be back in NE again! Our major concern was to NOT get run down by the Nantucket high speed ferry that was bearing down on us pre-fog so we just moved over and out of the main traffic lanes. As it turned out, we came through the fog bank about a half to three quarters of a mile from the harbor entrance, which was a relief. We have a RADAR set on this boat but I was not yet really proficient with it and I didn’t want to make an “instrument landing”. We only stayed in Nantucket for two days because it was horribly expensive for us pensioners. A mooring cost us $65 a night and there is no place to anchor, but we did walk around and enjoy the sights. Terri had never been to the island and my last visit here was over thirty years ago when I was working in NYC and taking regular trips up to this area. Also, I needn’t remind some of you that this area is where I first started sailing sooooo many years ago.
So, now we’ve been to the three jewel islands of Southern NE, Block, The Vineyard and Nantucket. Let me take the time to describe the “history” of them as it was when I grew up in this area. Nantucket was considered to be an old money community while The Vineyard was new money. Block on the other hand was decidedly no money and largely the playground of the middle class worker bees. It has somewhat change today especially on Block where it has become more “upscale.” These islands along with the Elizabeths and the fishtail of Long Island are a premier cruising ground of the southern New England coast. There is good wind thanks to the always present afternoon sea breeze and the water clear. I do miss sailing here, but the Chesapeake has its strong points too except wind during July and August is not one of them.
Now where were we when I got off track? Yes, Nantucket. Having kinda breezed through The Vineyard on the way to Nantucket we decided to go back to Vineyard Haven and explore a little more. We took a walk to Oak Bluff to look at the cottages, which are part of the old Methodist retreat community that thrived here I believe pre WW1. These little houses are part of a community that surrounded a large open air tabernacle where the pious use to spend the summer months in prayer. They started out as tents on a platform and slowly evolved into small gaily painted cottages. The Methodist presence has left now thought the Tabernacle is still active, but the surrounding community of cottages is largely in the hands the public, though I’m sure that some have come down from inheritance. The town, once dry, is now a Mecca for tourists with bars and restaurants. One big change that has occurred since I was there three decades ago is in the harbor. In this small harbor the boats did not anchor, but there we mooring ball that could accept up to three boats. When I was last there this harbor was chiefly the domain of sailboats. Now we mainly saw large power boats and the harbor is ringed with bars. In addition, the town now has a ferry dock bringing people in for day trips, so it has a decided difference flavor from the old sleepy Oak Harbor that I remember.
From here, with a stop in Hadley Harbor, it was on to Padanaram, Mass to visit with an old friend from grad school days, Jack Mallet. Hadley is a lovely little harbor just west of Woods Hole and Padanaram a quaint little sailing town just outside of New Bedford. It is the home of the New Bedford Yacht club so the harbor is filled with moored boats of all types. It is also the place where they make Marshall Cat Boats. We had a great visit with Jack and his significant, Kendra, who were wonderful hosts carting our butts around for supplies and putting us up in there spare room. Got to re-acquaint myself with Jack’s younger son, Joel, who I hadn’t seen for years.
After a lovely visit here we were off to Narragansett bay to explore here for a few days. We manage to hit Bristol, Apponaug and once again Wickford where we connected with my sister, her spouse and my nephew. We took them out for a short sail outside Wickford until my sister’s inner ear got the best of her.
After our tour of the bay we were off to Block again this time to anchor in the old harbor as we had done many years back. You see Old Harbor on Block was the original harbor and it is rather small measuring perhaps 100 by 200 yards with only a 100 by 100 yard area available for anchoring, but it is a well protected harbor surrounded by a breakwater. It is further tightened by the presence of some large boats on mooring. The standard way to anchor in there is to Med moor against the breakwater using a stern anchor set in the harbor and a bow anchor lodged in the rocks of the breakwater. This is facilitated by the presence of a steep bank of hard sand that extends about 30 feet off the breakwater where one can press the keel against and at low tide step off the bow into about a foot of water. We had arrived here on the Thursday before the three day weekend (starting Friday) where Rhode Island celebrates VJ day or more politically correctly now called Victory Day. RI is the only state to celebrate the WW2 victory over Japan as a state holiday with public offices, banks etc closed. When we got to Block there we a few power boaters med moored to the breakwater, but by Thursday night the virtually the whole breakwater was lined with med moored boats and the partying began. On Friday our boat buddies (Carol & Bob) from the Bahamas trip joined us in their Macgregor 26 which they had trailered from Albany NY. We managed to squeeze them in to raft on our starboard side. We enjoyed 4 days on Block with them, hitting all the high spots by renting motor scooters for a quick tour. Terri and I do love Block.
After a nice stay on Block we were on the move once again headed for the fishtail of Long Island, the north fork to be precise. We got to Greenport which Terri had fell in love with when we came here last summer while we were boat hunting and did a walking tour around the town. Lots of old beautiful houses. From here we were off to Cockles Harbor on Shelter Island then to the Thimble Island just east of New Haven in LI sound. The Thimbles are perhaps Terri’s most favorite anchorage. It is comprised of a number of rocky islands ranging in size from the size of a house to the size of a soccer field or two . Geologically, I believe they are debris carried down and deposited by one of the glaciers that ran over New England during the Ice Age. Some of the larger ones have houses and vegetation on them while the smaller are bare rock although there are some that are barely large enough to accommodate the house that they bear. It is a very charming place to be anchor in the center of with a vista of these spectacular islands surrounding us.
Our next hop took us to the town of Milford where they we having their annual oyster festival. How could we pass this up. This is a grand affair in which they close off the streets in most of down town Milford. The main attraction of course was the oyster booths where you could get oyster from as far away as Maine, but also from all along the coastal regions around here. We focused on blue points, wellfleets, moonstone and several locals that I had not heard of. It cost us $20 for one dozen by they were splendid. It is amazing to me that the same critter raised in differing places has such different tastes.
After getting our fill of oysters we moved on to Huntington Harbor LINY to visit with some people we met in our southern cruises, Jack & Diane of “string of Pearls.” We had a delightful visit and dinner with them getting updated with their plans for the coming winter cruising. We will hope to see them again as we head south in the fall.
From here it was on to City Island NY where we took a mooring at the City Island Yacht Club being in need of a shower where we don’t have to be stingy with the water. In hind sight it was a luck thing for at about 9:00 pm a vicious thunder storm came through. Not much in the way of lighting, but the wind was violent. When I turned on the wind speed after the wind had abated a bit it was registering 55 kts, so I believe we were hit with winds in access of 60 kts. I was glad we were on a mooring, but even that is not guarantee. At the height of the storm I watched a 40 ft ketch come by us dragging its mooring. It came to within 2 boat lengths of us and finally stopped against a boat behind. Later the news reported that this storm bashed through Central Park in NYC with 90mile an hour winds knocking down some 100 ancient elms in the park. A real tragedy since these elms had survived the Dutch Elm Disease. Again we were lucky that we had chosen to pick up a mooring rather that anchor and also lucky that the storm had passed through NYC before hitting us, which undoubtedly had taken some of the punch out of it.
On a bright sunny day we left City Island and headed for Atlantic Highlands NJ, which is just inside of Sandy Hook, to stage for our trip down the Jersey Shore to Cape May. We are unquestionably in heading home mode but we need to hole up in Atlantic Highland to wait for hurricane Bill to pass. Although Bill is no danger from winds, he is sending massive waves (15-20 footers) into the Jersey shore and we’re not keen on going into them. Their biggest danger is not so much being in they as they will be fairly long period wave, but it lies in running into any inlets where they will get steep and break, so we wait. And wait we did, 4 days, but we got groceries, showered, did a wash and walked around town that is kept busy. Finally our window opened and off we went headed for the Barnegat inlet because we were going to run the coast in two hops. It was to turn out to be a motor trip all the way because of a lack of wind. This after all the sailing that we were able to do while in Southern NE, now the winds failed us. On the second leg of this trip (Barnegat to Cape May) the engine started to miss behave by reving and slowing. I switch fuel filters thinking that it was a fuel problem but it didn’t resolve the issue. At this time we were getting a little wind on the nose so we sailed for a while until we were in sight of the Cape May inlet then we fired up the diesel again without problem. As it turned out this problem would continue to plague us for the rest of the trip and into our trip heading south in the fall, but more on that later.
After an over night in Cape May it was out into the Delaware Bay for the trip to the C&D canal. I have transited this stretch of water a number of times and each was a miserable trip. We were riding an incoming current with an apposing wind, which sets up a nasty chop so we were having a most uncomfortable ride that was slow and pounding. All in all we just wanted it to be over and it seemed to take an age, but finally it came to a close and we were in the canal headed for Chesapeake City. After an overnight here we started the last leg back to our home dock and the end of the trip. All things considered we had a great time seeing places we hadn’t visited in many years, renewing friendships and having some outstanding sailing. Now we will be back home for about two months before setting off south for our winter cruise.
The entry was uploaded and partly written during the first part of our 2009-2010 trip south. More to come regarding this trip.
