Mahthah's Vineyud

We have been having an interesting week, weather-wise. It was rainy on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday was extremely windy (35 mph) as we felt the remains of hurricane Katrina. Luckily our marina is really well protected and we were tied up at the dock during the windstorm.

Last week we had a wonderful, long trip away from the dock. We finally left Rhode Island, even. But I get ahead of myself.

Last Monday, spur of the moment, Kevin said that the weather was going to be good all week and we should take a trip to Martha's Vineyard. The next day we set off and after motoring for 2 hours (no wind) we ended up in Bristol, RI. It's a big-time sailing town, they have a huge Museum dedicated to the old time America's cup winners (from way back in the early part of the 1900's). We stayed there one night and explored a bit of the town (great pubs), then the next day we set off down the Sakonnet River. Nothing very eventful, we anchored among the vineyards and spent a peaceful night.

The following morning, it was on to Massachusetts! It was a good wind and we got some good sailing in. We reached Cuttyhunk in the early afternoon (Cuttyhunk...it's fun to say, try saying it five times really fast). Cuttyhunk is supposed to be this wonderful place, but I thought it was a little overrated. It's basically a small island (you can climb to the top of a hill and see ocean on all sides) with little to appeal to the average tourist. If you like nature and hikes though, it was kind of pretty. But the settlers back in the 1600's chopped down all the trees to build stuff so it's mostly scrub. They have a tiny school (2 students!) and one or two restaurants. Everyone drives around on golf carts or ATV's!

Anyway the next day we motored to Martha's Vineyard (again, no wind...how fickle is Mother Nature!) We had four choices of where to stay with the boat: Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, or Gayhead (okay, they've changed the name to the native american "Aquinnah", but I just like saying "Gayhead" better. Gayhead! Gayhead!). We took a chance on Oak Bluffs and it turned out to be the best decision we could've made. Oak Bluffs has a TINY harbor and you are not allowed to anchor there, but you are required to pick up a mooring. They only have 50 moorings available but they sure know how to pack them in! They require you to "raft", meaning that if you pick up the mooring first, at any time another boat can come alongside you and tie up to your boat (up to 4 boats per mooring). And the people in Oak Bluffs aren't stupid, they charge all the boats the same rate so that even if you have to share a mooring, you still pay full price and so does the other guy. Anyway because our boat is wide we were only "rafted" on one side -- on Friday night it was a yuppie powerboat family and on Saturday night an "old salt" sailboat with an older couple. Both were nice experiences, it kind of forces you to be friendly since it's like you are all sharing a boat for the night.

But anyway, tiny harbor and having to share the mooring aside, Oak Bluffs was the best part of the trip by far! The town got its start back in the 1800's as a Methodist revival camp. They would go there once a year and set up tents and get saved. As time evolved, people started building tiny "tent-houses" on their parcel of land, all crammed in right next to their neighbor. Then, with the invention of the jigsaw, all these tiny houses were decorated with this fancy trimwork and started giving the impression of gingerbread. They painted them whimsical colors and gave them names like "Heartsease" and "Valentine". I was completely overwhelmed when we started walking around and realized that it wasn't just one street, but that there were 300 of these little houses all clustered together on these narrow streets. Kevin and I felt like we were in some kind of Disneyland attraction. Kevin joked that whoever ran the paint store on the island must be rolling in dough. You'll have to look at the pictures to really get an idea, but if you are ever on Martha's Vineyard it is a "must see".

The rest of the island was very quaint. The other good town, Edgartown, was more swanky. This was where all the old whaling captains built their mansions. In contrast to the crayola colors of Oak Bluffs, most of the buildings here were painted white (that paint guy really has a good thing going) and meticulously maintained. The homes are all stately and very posh, and most of the shops were pretty upscale. It was a pretty town, and most tourists stay there but I preferred the kitschy charm of Oak Bluffs.

It took us four days of sailing/motoring to get to "the Vineyard". and we had hoped to go on to Nantucket and Hyannis Port (c'mon, say it like a Kennedy, you know you want to!) but unfortunately weather got in the way. On Saturday night we checked the forecast and it predicted bad weather starting Monday. So we had one day to get as close to our home port as possible. Sunday was a beautiful sailing day and we got an early start. We had hoped to get 1/2way home but the wind was so good we ended up sailing the entire way (57 miles). We left Martha's Vineyard at 8:30 and were safely at our dock in Warwick by 6pm. We have pictures posted on the web if you want to check them out: http://photobucket.com/albums/b186/solsticecatamaran/

Geez, sorry I always write a book, hope my travelogues aren't too boring! In other news, Kevin grew a great fuzzy beard in 3 weeks (but shaved it off yesterday without telling me). Hopefully you can see it in the pictures, though. We are looking forward to having Carrie and Dan out this weekend, the weather is supposed to be fine with a nice cool North wind.