Make up cruise to Martha’s Vineyard & Nantucket

After going back to Devon for a week to fill in for my mother’s vacationing care giver, I rejoined Andrew on the boat in Jamestown, RI and on 8/10, we motor-sailed to Padanaram to spend a few more days with Jeff & Kathy on Mishaum Point, where Jeff pretended to work (from the waist up)!

Next, we sailed back to Cuttyhunk to prove that Andrew could eat lobster without an unfavorable reaction! We ordered clam chowder and local lobsters to go and enjoyed them at anchor on the boat. On Friday (the 13th) leaving Cuttyhunk for Martha’s Vineyard, we were going thru Quicks Hole, when the bilge alarm went off. Andrew went below to investigate and after pulling up all the floorboards, seeing water coming from the stern, checking the head intake, tasting salty water and pulling off the access panels to the engine, he discovered spray coming from the engine shaft seal. It wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t keep up with it using the manual bilge pump but we certainly had a problem to fix once we got to Vineyard Haven. After securing a mooring, Andrew called our new hero Jim, at Jamestown Boatyard, who talked us through a fix. While I held the bellows aft, Andrew hammered the metal collar back into place putting pressure on the part that had caused the leak. 

The next day we were able to enjoy some of what the Vineyard has to offer in the form of a bike ride for me along Oak Bluffs from Tisbury to Edgartown and back. I rode by beautifully manicured cedar homes on the water to the buzzing beaches, shops and restaurants in Oak Bluffs and on through the quaint and preppy streets of Edgartown. That evening Andrew & I enjoyed a fabulous sushi dinner at Mikado on Main Street.

The next day, we had one of the nicest sails of the season going from Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket. The winds were blowing 10-12 knots out of the NNE. We had a full main and full jib out (and no leaks in the shaft when motoring). We picked up a mooring in Nantucket Harbor and showered up to meet with Sandy & Scott A. for a tour of Nantucket Yacht Club’s well appointed clubhouse followed by dinner at the Adzick’s lovely place on Vestal Street. The following morning, Andrew and I had a burrito breakfast with my high school buddies Gordon and Ed, walked around town and visited The Whaling museum. In the late afternoon, Sandy took us to Cisco Brewers to have an authentic Nantucket apres-beach experience!!

Hadley Harbor was our next stop, where we experienced no leaks during the motor sail over even when going thru the ripping currents at Wood’s Hole. That night we enjoyed a quiet & pleasant evening on the hook and returned to Jamestown the next day to have a mechanic check our work on the shaft. Meanwhile the weather pundits started to make noise about a storm that was headed our way. Time to find a hurricane hole!

The Block Island experience

In July, we had a fun trip to Block Island to meet up with some of our besties from Annapolis. We arrived from Jamestown uneventfully and were looking in the large and packed harbor for a CCA mooring. There are two moorings but the first one we found was occupied by a fishing boat named Slim Shady from Montauk. The boat didn’t have a burgee flying and wasn’t in the latest blue book so we were wondering if, true to it’s name, they were sitting on a mooring they didn’t have rights to. Fortunately, we found the other one and didn’t have to disturb them!

The first day in Block Island, I walked around and got a feel for the beaches, the clapboard houses and the sport fishing feel of the place. 

The second day, we met up with our friends Neil & Jan on their Sabre ‘42 powerboat and some friends of theirs on an even bigger, fancy European powerboat, both of which were packed into slips cheek and jowl at Payne’s Dock. We had excellent fish for dinner at Dick’s one night and ate on board the next night, where I learned about my new favorite after dinner drink: Cayman Reef Dark Roasted Kona Coffee Liqueur. If you ever see it in a store, buy it immediately and I’ll have you over for dinner!

Before sundown on the last evening, we witnessed the daily ritual of ‘the General’ and his flag lowering ceremony. The General would invite random kids aboard, outfit them with ear protection and sets them out of the way. A horn announces the proceedings and a crowd gathers as they roll into place a rather large (maybe 8 gauge) cannon off the stern. At sunset, the cannon booms, the crowd howls and taps begins to play as the flag is lowered. It’s quite a scene with all the boats and people packed into one place!

Inaugural CYC/CCA New England Summer Cruise

After bringing Billy Ruff’n from Puerto Rico to Jamestown, RI, we had some boat issues to deal with before the highly anticipated Corinthian Yacht Club/Cruising Club of America (CYC/CCA) summer cruise. Roel H. helped Andrew move the boat to New England Boatworks (NEB), while I brought my car over from Jamestown. We spent the next few weeks patiently and pleasantly hounding service providers to get work done. The engine issues on the trip up from PR turned out to be related to a crack on the fuel exhaust mixing elbow and dirty filters. NEB re-welded, cleaned, installed & re-wrapped the elbow and replaced filters. We re-provisioned our filter spares, delivered the MOM, life raft and fire extinguishers for inspection and returned the non-working auto pilot remote to Cay Electronics for testing.

On 7/16 we went to a Bacon Brothers concert at the Greenwich Odeum in East Greenwich, RI. It is an old theatre in a small historic town and a perfect venue for the enthusiastic crowd escaping quarantine through the upbeat vibe of original tunes. The band always delivers and this evening was no exception! The next night we kicked off the summer cruise with a fabulous party at Dick & Cathy’s new home in Newport. The following day, a dozen boats from the CYC and CCA headed off to Cuttyhunk, a bucolic island in Massachusetts, located between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Billy Ruff’n picked up a mooring in the outer harbor as the rest of the crews arrived. For dinner that evening, we had a lavish lobster feast complete with clam chowder, oysters, shrimp, corn, potatoes and sausage. 

Back on the boat after dinner, Andrew commented that he had a dry cough and a tickle in his throat and was going to bed. A few hours later when I went to bed, he reported that he couldn’t swallow and might need to go to the hospital. We called 911 which connected us to the New Bedford police dept. Upon providing our location (in a boat off Cuttyhunk island), they transferred us to the Cuttyhunk Fire Dept. The fireman on duty said that there was a doctor on the island that could look at Andrew but he didn’t have any tools or medications to treat him. We decided that we needed a consult to determine whether we should go to the hospital so we hopped in the dinghy and blindly putt-putted back to the docks in the middle of the night. The doctor and fireman met us on the dock and after a short examination, said we needed to go to the hospital. The fireman, who was also the oysterman who served us lobster that evening, was also the licensed captain that sped us across the bay (sitting on a cooler with the doctor holding on for dear life) to Padanaram and then in his car to St. Luke’s hospital in New Bedford. The doctor had checked us in before we arrived and Andrew was in the ER within an hour of leaving the dock.

The hospital doctors suspected a shell fish allergy or bacterial infection until Andrew mentioned one of his meds; Lisinopril. Independently, three different doctors, having heard that he was using this drug, shook their heads knowingly. Apparently, a ‘side effect’ of this drug is that it can randomly cause swelling of the throat that can close your airway!! If you know anyone using this blood pressure medicine, please make them aware of the risks and informed of the symptoms (dry cough, tickle and/or swelling in throat) of a reaction. The great news is that after a few days of intravenous steroids and antihistamines, Andrew is as good as new. Thank God!

Although we missed a few days of the cruise, we took the 9am ferry back to Cuttyhunk to get the boat and catch up with the gang in Hadley Harbor, an enchanting anchorage near Woods Hole. I finally got my stand-up paddle board out for a spin after a few months in the bag and a half dozen boats or so enjoyed a raft up in the outer harbor.

The next day we sailed to the charming coastal village of Padanaram, near South Dartmouth, Mass., picked up a mooring from the New Bedford Yacht Club and basked in the bright orange moon at dusk.

Jeff & Kathy M. invited the cruise to a spectacularly catered party at their place with an incredible view of the bay. I had the pleasure of staying at the house while Andrew was recuperating in the hospital, so I have a special place in my heart for their home on Mishaum Point.

The cruise ended with a sail back to Conanicut Marina in Jamestown and another incredible party at an amazing house! Jack & Laura G. graciously hosted the final soirée at their house overlooking Jamestown harbor. The next days’ clouds couldn’t obscure the wonderful time we had sailing and re-connecting with our dear friends from the CYC and CCA!