Well, we were supposed to sleep in but it was hard with the sun streaming through the hatch over our heads. It was a beautiful morning in a beautiful place so we didn’t mind being up early. As usual, Rick was on deck drinking coffee and watching the comings and goings of boats, wildlife and engaging with our boat neighbors. We had a relaxing morning; its highlight being a trip to town to dump our garbage and say goodbye to the folks from Philly we had met in Newport. We left Cuttyhunk around 10:30 with a parade of boats all heading toward Quick’s Hole.
We all had to time it just right so it was slack tide at Quick’s Hole when we reached it. Maximum current through the hole is approx. 3.6 knots coming from Vineyard Sound when the current is flowing, which means if your boat can motor at 5 knots you’ll only be able to make 1.4 knots. That would leave very little forward thrust for steerage — especially when you consider the route through the hole is surrounded by shallows and rocks.
All good. We had about a half a knot of current coming towards us at our entry point. (There are tide charts and other tools that allow you to predict current through the hole at any given date and time.) Perfect conditions!
Quick’s Hole (locally /ˈkwɪksɪz/)[2] is the strait in Massachusetts‘ Elizabeth Islands separating Nashawena Island from Pasque Island. It is one of four straits allowing maritime passage between Buzzards Bay and the Vineyard Sound.
Once through the hole the current in Vineyard Sound was pushing us toward the northeast, giving us an extra 2 knots in the direction of our destination, Edgartown. We made great time. There wasn’t a lot of wind, so we motored the whole way. Here are some lighthouses we passed on our route.
We rounded west and east chop on Martha’s Vineyard and the current remained strong and with us. At one point we were making almost 8 Knots, more than the theoretical hull speed of the boat.
Our passage to Edgartown remained swift and easy. We reached the small channel entrance to Edgartown harbor, radioed the harbormaster of our arrival and proceeded to the mooring field. The harbormaster radioed our mooring assignment and the search was on. We had to hunt for our mooring ball because we were destined for the innermost reaches of the mooring field. We are located about a 10-minute dinghy ride from the dinghy dock. Nothing we’re looking forward to if the predictions of rain and thunderstorms manifest themselves tomorrow!
Once situated we went into town to walk around. The dinghy dock was so crowded that the dinghies were 3 deep. Luckily someone was leaving so we helped them get out by pushing dinghies out of the way and then took their spot.
Edgartown is quite small, so it didn’t take us long to walk the entire downtown area. We looked at the menus of a bunch of restaurants but nothing really interested us. (At $50 an entree we were even less interested.) So, we bought a nice bottle of wine, went back to the boat and Rick made spaghetti sauce with steak leftover from the other night. We sat, talked, drank a good bottle of Brunello and had a good meal. It was a very nice evening!
Now it’s time to hit the sack and get ready for our rainy day tomorrow.