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!