Our last day on the boat. We took the boat to the fuel dock, gassed her up, refilled the water tanks, filled the dinghy, and pump the waste. Then we loaded the rest of our stuff into the dinghy and headed out.
We decided to stop at the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI on the way home. We know a boat design called Herreshoff (there’s a racing fleet of them in Edgartown) and that’s what we expected to find at the museum. The museum was focused on the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co which was founded by 2 brothers in 1878. Nathaniel Herreshoff, one of the brothers, was a genius boat designer. He designed five sloops to defend the America’s Cup and all five of them won. Rick spent a lot of time with the tour guide who was very knowledgable and went into great detail about the boats and their history.
He recommended we go to Quitos for lunch where we had a nice lunch in a beautiful setting.
After lunch we went home. All in all, it was good to be back out living on the water but it did seem like we spent too much time in Newport. Hopefully, next year, we can find a boat to rent in Long Island so we can explore someplace new.
We woke up to white caps in the harbor. The white caps are a reflection of the wind speed in the harbor and the fact that the wind was coming from the North and traveling down the length of the Narraganset bay. The radio reported that the waves outside the harbor were 4-6 feet. All of this turmoil was the result of a category 3 hurricane called Franklin, located off the coast. While it didn’t hit land in the US it created a lot of agitation in the ocean.
Our friends, Randy and Karen, were supposed to go out for a sail with us however based on the early conditions we told them not to come. It was so rough that Kathryn didn’t feel safe dinghying to shore. The jib let go on the boat moored behind us and it got ripped up by the wind. Here’s a video from that morning.
By mid morning things in the harbor had started to calm down. We decided to drive to Point Judith see if there really were 4-6 ft waves. We dinghied into the car without incident. The seas didn’t look that bad so maybe NOAA was exaggerating. Here are pictures from Point Judith.
The Block Island ferry leaves from Point Judith so we drove over there just to check it out. It was running. There were also a lot of fishing boats including one named Anne Kathryn, named after me and my sister, Anne. HaHa. We saw some guys coming off one of the fishing boats so of course Rick started talking to them.
We were hungry by this time so we ended up at Iggy’s Doughboys, which I think is a RI landmark and had a good lunch.
After lunch we went to Jamestown and had a look around. Here’s a picture of the Newport bridge from Jamestown.
We went back to the boat and relaxed until dinner. We had made reservations for the us and Randy and Karen at Mamma Luisas, a great Italian restaurant in Newport. We had a wonderful dinner, except we missed Randy and Karen.
A quiet day on Summer Star! We generally had a lazy day.
We woke to a very foggy day. We could barely see the boat next to us. Then to add insult to injury it rained. We did a little boat cleaning and pumped out the dinghy. The rain stopped and the fog lifted around 11:30 so we went into town for lunch. We wondered around a bit and ended up at The Lobster Bar where we had a nice lunch and watch some of the US Open tennis.
Then, we went Onne van der Wal’s gallery. We always go there when we are in Newport. He takes beautiful sailing and marine pictures. We often think about adding one to our collection but never have. Here are some of his photographs.
Sardinia 2007 Veteran Boat Rally, Sardinia, Italy. Sails on a classic yacht Shenandoah
There was a lovely young woman working there who was in college studying documentary photography. We had a long conversation about her studies, hers and our travel, and a mutual picture show and tell. It was nice to briefly get to know her.
We were going to go to Rough Point, Doris Duke’s house but we were both feeling kind of lazy so we returned to the boat. It was raining as we dinghied back but by 5:00 the clouds had moved on and there was plenty of blue sky. Hopeful this bodes well for tomorrow, our last full day on the boat.
We woke up to heavy fog. We couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. It was also raining lightly. Again we felt relieved that we had made it all the way back to Newport.
We packed up some of our stuff this morning since we want to get as much as we can off the boat before it starts raining. Moving heavy duffle bags into a wet dinghy in the rain is miserable. Kathryn also spent some time looking for things to do in Newport.
We went ashore with the packed up stuff and loaded it into the car. Then we went to West Marine. When we were figuring out the GPS problems we bought some marine maps that we didn’t use and wanted to return. After our West Marine stop we went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant and it was delicious.
In the afternoon we went to the Sweet Berry Farm where we made several purchases. As we were driving around, we saw a lot of grape vines, so we wanted to go to a winery. We ended up going to Greenvale Vineyards. They make mostly white wines, and we had a flight of four different wines. While enjoying the wine, we learned that in Middletown there is a grape friendly microclimate, and the soil is gravely which grapes like. Grape roots can be as much as 20 feet deep and many of the grape varietals have been grafted to these deep roots. Of the four wines we tasted we really liked the Vidal Blanc which we found to be crisp and light. We don’t drink any white wine so we didn’t buy any. Here are some pictures from the winery.
After the winery stop we went to a glass blowing shop in Newport and Kathryn wanted to buy everything but we didn’t need anything so we just enjoyed looking.
We returned to the boat and relaxed. In the evening Rick had a Lake Lashaway meeting and then we had a dinner of leftovers.
Rick woke up at 4:30, thinking about our trip back to Newport. Our plan was to go to Cuttyhunk and spend one or two nights there and then go back to Newport on Wednesday. Rick listened to the NOAA weather on the radio and it didn’t sound good. There is a hurricane, Franklin, off coast of Florida which will be generating waves and wind for us as early as Wednesday.
Our fearless captain, looking his best!
We talked about our plan. It would be a long passage back to Newport, maybe as long as 10 hours if the current wasn’t with us, so at 8:30 we needed to make a decision quickly (the charter contract prohibits sailing after sunset). The downside was the forecast said fog, thunderstorms and scattered showers were possible today. But the weather could be worse tomorrow, depending on what happens with Franklin. If we were going to Cuttyhunk we couldn’t leave until 11:30 because we need to time to trip with slack tide at Quick’s Hole. Kathryn didn’t think Rick could sit there until 11:30 worrying about it so we decided to go. The duration of the trip ended up being far shorter than 10 hours because the current was in our favor and contributed about 2+ knots to our overall speed, yet again. We didn’t put up the sails because the winds were less than 5 knots, very light, coming from behind us, which would have contributed nothing to our progress. We made it to the mooring in Newport by 4. We relaxed that evening. When we listened to the forecast upon our arrival we were glad we had made the return journey.
We are working on finishing our leftovers so we had dinner on the boat.
Having decided to spend another night in Edgartown we were looking for something interesting to do. We decided we wanted to have lunch in Menemsha and were considering various options to get there. In the end we determined that renting a car would give us the greatest flexibility. To avoid dealing with the dinghy dock we took the launch into the town docks and from there we took a taxi to the airport where we got the car. We “hit the road” by 9:30.
We headed towards Aquinnah and stopped at various shops and craft fairs along the way, including Alley’s General Store, Chilmark General Store, and Allen Sheep & Wool Farm. At the craft fair, Rick had extensive discussions with several potters, a weaver and of course, a photographer. We also stopped at Lobsterville beach. Here are pictures from the farm and the beach.
We arrived at Aquinnah and checked out the cliffs and the light house. According to a sign at the lookout, the Aquinnah Wampanoag believed that Moshup, a benevolent giant, created Martha’s Vineyard and the surrounding islands. He lived in a den on the cliffs of Aquinnah and would wade into the water to catch whales which he would cook for the Wampanoag. Blood from the whales stained the cliffs red and coals from Moshup’s fire account for the black. The Aquinnah Wampanoag consider the frequent fog in the area to be smoke from Moshup’s pipe, a sign of his happiness with the Wampanoag.
Menemsha was the next stop. It was quite crowded and we had trouble getting a parking spot but eventually we did. Rick decided to get his lunch from Larsen’s Seafood. Rick was very happy with his seafood chowder and salmon cake, the stuffed scallop not so much. Kathryn had expected to find something other than seafood but there was NOTHiNG so she had to be happy with an ice cream. Such sacrifice she’s willing to make for Rick!!!
Beach at MenemshaMenemsha harbor
After lunch we went to Vineyard Haven because there was a store that Kathryn wanted to visit. It turns out there was a big music festival in Vineyard Haven so there was lots of traffic. We finally got there and found a place to park. Kathryn went to the store and they didn’t have what she was looking for. We could hear the music, a Canadian band called Alvvay was playing and they were quite good. We decided to walk over to the festival where we learned that tickets were $150/person which was more than we were willing to pay. So, we walked back to the car and decided to go to our favorite Vineyard gallery — the Granary Gallery. They sell work from a photographer named Allison Shaw who we really like. We have a print of hers in our dining room. She has done a series of wooden dinghies framed in shadow boxes that would look really nice in the downstairs hallway.
A page in a book with pictures of all the dinghies
We are thinking about it as we are still thinking about the painting we saw in the Seychelles which would look fantastic in our kitchen. We went over to the Granary’s sister gallery, the Field Gallery, but we didn’t see anything we liked.
By this time we’d seen everything we wanted to see so we went back to Bad Martha’s for a beer and a bowl of nuts.
After Bad Martha’s we returned the car to the airport, took a taxi back into Edgardtown and returned to the boat. Neither of us was very hungry, too many nuts, but we really needed to cook the tuna. So Rick did and he had a good sliced tuna sandwich. Kathryn is still working on the chicken from several days ago. All in all a very nice day.
We woke to overcast and rainy weather but the sun started to poke through by 9. We listened to the weather and decided we would stay in Edgartown at least through Sunday night.
After showers and Rick finally shaving we went into town. We start by finding a coffee shop and enjoying some tea and coffee. Then we headed over to The Carnegie museum where we learned a little of the history of Martha’s Vineyard.
It was formed when the last great North American glacier retreated some 10,000 years ago.
It was inhabited by the Wampanoag for thousands of years. In 1642 the Wampanoag numbered somewhere around 3,000 on the island.
In 1602 an English vessel named the Concord, with Captain Bartholomew Gosnold anchored on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. A shore party, dispatched to explore the island, reported finding a profusion of grape vines that prompted the Captain to name the island Martha’s Vineyard. Martha was either his daughter or his mother-in-law, who helped financed the voyage.
After our history lesson, we walked to Edgartown Pizza for a meatlovers pizza. There, Rick iniated a conversation with the owner and we learned about the pizza restaurant business, Martha’s Vineyard real estate and his other property in Israel. It was a lengthy conversation.
The Meat and Fish market was next to the pizza place so we stopped in. (The area where the car drove through the window had been repaired.) We bought a half rack of lamb. On our way back into town we stopped at Bad Martha’s brewery where Rick had a beer and of course a conversation with the bartender. We also bought some beer for the boat. Since Rick had a beer, Kathryn had to get some ice cream, so we made another pit stop at Scoops, the ice cream shop downtown.
We arrived at the dinghy dock and extricated our dinghy with the help of another couple. I don’t know why they don’t have a larger dinghy docking area????
We returned to the boat and decided to get fuel and water. Our fuel gauge said we were down only ¼ of a tank, but fuel gauges are often faulty on boats, especially charter boats. Also, we had emptied one of the two water tanks, so we wanted to fill that up too. We went to the fuel dock, tied up easily, and filled the boat with diesel and the dinghy with gas. Water was at a separate dock, so we headed there. It was unmanned so Kathryn had to jump off onto the dock to tie up the boat. We filled our water tanks and head back to our mooring.
While relaxing and watching the sunset we saw a seal cruising the mooring field, looking for fish. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a picture of the seal, but we did get a picture of the sunset.
It started raining in the middle of the night and was raining when we woke up. We were watching the weather trying to find a dry window to go into town. The forecast kept shifting and around mid-morning we just gave up and decided to go in. Here’s a lovely picture of me pumping the rainwater out of the bottom of the dinghy.
We donned our foulies (Rick’s term for our foul weather gear) and set off. Not many boats were in the mooring field or at the dinghy dock. I guess Edgartown in the rain isn’t a big draw. Our plan was to go to meat and fish market and the grocery store, then bring the food back to the boat and potentially go back into town to see a couple of museums if we weren’t monsooned by that point.
We started our walk to the meat and fish market and got waylaid by a coffee shop with a covered outdoor courtyard. We got our coffee and tea and all the tables were taken so we squeezed on the end of one that was occupied by a family. Of course Rick started talking to them. They were a couple with three kids and the kid’s friends, all from Hampton, NH. The mother had been a ballerina and taught ballet for Boston Ballet. We had a very interesting conversation about her professional experiences.
Once warm and fed (really good almond croissants!) we continued our walk. It was a little over a mile to the meat and fish store, drizzling the whole way. We were dry and comfortable in our foulies. We got to the store and it was closed because someone had accidently driven through the front of the store — apparently the fourth occurrence. We headed on to the Stop N’ Shop and did our grocery shopping. We stopped at another fish market on the way back to town and got scallops and tuna.
It was about 12:30 by this time so we went to a downtown restaurant — The Wharf — for lunch where Rick has some excellent clam chowder and Kathryn had a Caesar salad. Bellies full we dinghied back to boat (dinghying in the rain is pretty miserable). Back at the boat we put the groceries away and didn’t really feel like putting our wet foulies back on so we spent the afternoon in the boat listening to the rain. We checked the weather because we were hoping to go to Nantucket tomorrow. Unfortunately more rain is scheduled for tomorrow morning with very high wind gusts so we are scrapping the Nantucket idea and just sticking around in Martha’s Vineyard.
That evening Rick had his scallops — fresh from Menemsha — and Kathryn had a turkey sandwich. It’s hard to make two separate dinners on a two-burner stove. After dinner we read and made it an early night.
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!
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.
We were up very early this morning because we our goal was to get to Cuttyhunk, 36 nautical miles away, about 7 hours sailing, and we wanted to arrive early enough to get a mooring. The alarm was set for 5AM but it was too dark to even think about setting off. We ended up leaving around 6. The water was pretty choppy when we left the harbor. It was choppy enough for water to spray on the dodger (also known as a spray hood protecting the cockpit). Shortly after rounding the first bouy we were able to get a sail up to gain some speed and reduce the effect of the chop. It helped some. The rigging on this boat is somewhat convoluted with the main and the jib using the same winch and we found it confusing initially. It didn’t matter much because we were too close on the wind for the jib to be of any help, so we quickly brought it in. With time the seas flattened out and we had a nice sail.
We arrived at Cuttyhunk around 1 and there were plenty of mooring balls.
After getting the boat safely moored we dinghied into “town” and Rick got a cup of clam chowder for lunch.
We walked around a little and ran into our Newport boat neighbor. We talked to them for a while. They only had the boat for a week so they spent Sunday night in Cuttyhunk and Monday and Tuesday nights in Vinyard Haven. They will spend tonight on Cuttyhunk again and then return to Newport tomorrow.
We returned to our boat to plan our trip to Edgartown and book a mooring there. For dinner, Rick cooked the steak that we had brought for Kathryn and he had a stuffie that we bought on shore. A stuffie is a stuffed quahog which he really enjoyed. Tomorrow we get to sleep in because we need to time our departure to accommodate the current through a relatively narrow channel called Quick’s Hole that runs through two of the Elizabethan Islands.
We took the boat to the fuel dock, gassed her up, refilled the water tanks, filled the dinghy, and pump the waste. Then we loaded the rest of our stuff into the dinghy and headed out. 
