Martha’s Vineyard, MA USA …
You’d think that in the two weeks since our last update we would have been leading a fun filled, event packed life on our shakedown cruise. Had that been the case there would have no doubt been an update or two along the way, but the reality is the weather has been atrocious and has, for the most part, kept us hunkered down. The weather in Monument Beach saw a lot of rain and northerly near gale force winds associated with the passage of Ophelia for most of the time we were anchored there. We braved the ½ mile dinghy ride to shore a couple of times and got to enjoy the company of our good friends, Pam and Jeff, for a few excellent meals and some killer chocolate chip cookies. Jeff was kind enough to drive Harl down to Newport to pick up our newly serviced life raft, but other than a couple of trips to the grocery there wasn’t much doing ashore. In spite of the weather Jen managed to squeeze in a couple of kayak sojourns although the last one had her peddling back against the 20kt wind for two miles, a bit more exercise than planned. We did, however, take delivery of a new wind generator which Jeff helped us install on one of the few calm days, and it has been earning its keep in the 20+ knots of breeze that have prevailed for most of the last two weeks.
Four days ago early on a beautiful calm morning we motored south with the idea of getting to Nantucket, the furthest east point of our planned cruise. We hit the Woods Hole passage, a wicked 1.5 mile twisting, turning rock strewn route that leads from Buzzard’s Bay to the main channel between the Cape and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. We entered the narrow channel at peak ebb so we got a 4 knot lift from the current, but as soon as we cleared the passage and turned east the wind began to pipe up on the nose. After an hour and a half of pounding into a 5 ft chop made worse by the wind against tidal current we had to make a choice: continue the misery for at least another two hours or turn southwest and run for shelter. When one of the ceiling panels in the salon came adrift after a particularly nasty drop off a wave the decision was made, and we cracked off for Edgartown.
Not knowing the harbor and hearing a rumor that it was moorings only at a nightly cost of a decent hotel room (minus the room service) we anchored outside the harbor in a four-foot chop and 25 kts of wind with our back to a lee shore. We called the harbormaster and were told that they did in fact have a mooring that would accommodate our length for a mere $45 per night. Sold. (After a night on the mooring we moved a little deeper in the bay, found an open area and anchored. $0 per night.)
As we motored through most of the full length of Katama Bay to our mooring at the very back of the field we spied the distinctive profile of a Dashew designed FPB 64, an ocean crossing motor vessel that is our dream powerboat were we to give up adventuring under sail. When we passed by her stern we caught her name, “Tiger”, a boat we had crossed wakes with several times back in the day, the last time being in the anchorage in Fulanga in the southern Lau group in Fiji in 2014. Small world. We ran into the new owners ashore and have since been over and back to each other’s boats for a couple of dinners and great conversations. Mike and Beth have owned Tiger since 2018 and have cruised her from the South Pacific all the way up through the Maritimes, Newfoundland and the Great Lakes. Good folks.
Anyway, tomorrow the wind and seas are supposed to calm a bit and we will once again attempt to get to Nantucket. Our time there will be shorter than we planned since we have to start heading back to the Chesapeake threading the needle with several nor’easters and cold fronts in the forecast.
41 22 N 070 30 W
at anchor
Katama Bay, Edgartown
Martha’s Vineyard, MA USA
