Martha’s Vineyard Island

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 3 and 4 -- Vineyard Haven

Just getting out of Maine is a great accomplishment. We’ve made the break with our hometown, wedged our way away from friends, left the car behind, have moved on to a warmer climate - the adventure has begun and so far the challenges and discoveries appear to be mechanically related . . . what will break next. The weekend arrives, and while both heads are now working, we are stuck without propulsion to go anywhere. The yard tows us back out to a mooring in the inner harbor on Friday. They’ll be back Monday morning at 7 am to tow us back in.

The weekend is spent just living out on the boat, working with Havana on his model boat, writing the blog, shopping and working at the library. The morning is spent home schooling, kids swinging in the rigging, capturing jelly fish in a bottle for closer study, and then we all go to the library. The weather is pleasant, It’s warmer here south of Cape Cod than it would be in Maine, and the kids are still eager to go swimming.

We are stuck here in Vineyard Haven. There could be worse places. Besides this is what I wanted . . . to drop anchor in a harbor and spend a few weeks just absorbing the place . . . getting to know the people, the markets, shops, bookstore, library, landscape and people . . and that’s just what we are doing. Vineyard Haven had a great boat yard or two, plus a West Marine Express store directly across the street from an ACE hardware store, super market and drug store . . . all within walking distance of the dinghy dock. And, the village, the entire island, was very photographic. See my photo sections on the Vineyard and on Vineyard Haven. While Julie was eager to move on after a few days, I wasn’t. This was a pleasant place to write and layout web pages, we had everything we needed. Why move. It would be a month before we had to make the off shore leap to Bermuda and the Islands . . . and the kids had a place to explore and meet other kids.

Vineyard Haven Town Landing -- the Island Home ferry arrives throughout the day. Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs is a busy street for tourists who come by the boat loads throughout the season.

WiFi Access and Hot Spots

WiFi has become a major consideration for us, and for many cruisers. For me, it’s a major factor with my business, which is the website. I have been researching WiFi systems all summer, and found one that works, for us. It’s a Jefatech router. It comes with a WiFi antenna which I mounted on the antenna mast on the stern. The cable goes to a small booster that connects to a wireless router. This allows Julie and I to both work on our laptops at the same time, anywhere on the boat we want. No wire tethers us to the system. And, the cost was a reasonable $200+, a far cry from the $400 and $1,000 systems.

I have a similar system for the cell phones. The PowerMax antenna sits atop the mizzen mast. A booster connects to a router in a locker just aft of the nav station, allowing both Julie and I to be on our cell phones at a far greater distance from land than otherwise. The PowerMax system was around $500 when I installed it a few years ago.

While moored in Oak Bluffs, we had access to the internet, on board, through a commercial provider for $10 a day or $30 a month. Reasonable. I wish there were more harbors with such a service. Airports have them. The process of signing up as easy and online. I opted for the monthly service knowing I’d use it for at least three days. In Vineyard Haven our Jefatech picked up a number of hot spots, but they were either locked, or too weak, so it was off to the library every day to log on.

The Apple iPhone

What has been extremely handy is my iPhone. I bought the new G3 model last summer to replace the original iPhone I’ve had for three years. The kids now have the old one as an iPod. The new phone allows me to check email anywhere I have cell phone reception, and reply with a short answer. The iPhone has lots of other neat “apps” such as access to various weather sites, a hurricane tracker, the offshore weather buoy and ship reports, a compass, a GPS, and NavTech, an expensive app (it cost me $45, but I hear the price has come down) that gives me a world of charts, for free, and the same functions as my $2,000 Garmin chart plotter . . . SOG, course steered, lat/long, UCT, and a raft of things I have no use for. I could have used that this summer while lost in a Maine fog in the dinghy. This little devise is a great back-up for the Garmin, can be used ashore, in the dinghy, in the car and has my entire phone book attached.

I hear reports of lack of WiFi in the Caribbean, as well as expensive cell phone rates. The pirates (Cable and Wireless) still control much of the Caribbean Sea. Not only are their rates for cell phone service piracy, they have installed jamming towers on Tortola, so people there cannot access the far cheaper service on nearby St. Thomas. Someone should publish a list of WiFi friendly harbors. The mega yachts alone could support a business of installing systems like the one I found in Oak Bluffs. A WiFi membership service as in many airports is needed throughout the cruising world. Now, there’s a new business I could start.

We wound up spending three weeks on Martha’s Vineyard and left too soon for my liking. There are few harbors that provide the combination of safe anchorage or moorings, with access to services ashore. Camden, Maine (next door to our home port, is one. Rockland, Maine 7 miles away is another . . . there’s even a Hamilton Marine store a short walk from Journeys’ End Marina, but it’s a mile or two to the nearest supermarket . . . here in Vineyard Haven, it was across the street from the dinghy dock. Oak Bluffs Harbor was another ideal place to linger, with many of the amenities we were looking for, plus WiFi in the harbor we could get on the boat, for a price of $10 a day, or $30 a month. The moorings in Oak Bluffs were $30 a day, plus the WiFi, but Oak Bluffs has a number of package stores, and a coin operated laundry, where V. H. did not. New Bedford, MA is another of those boat friendly harbors with ample repair and refit services, cheap fuel and ice, a whaling museum, an oceanarium and lots to do for the kids. It’s a mile to a large Shaw’s supermarket in Fairhaven. Newport, one of the traditional stopping off places for cruisers is, for me, not as ideal. There are few if any marine services on the waterfront, it’s a cab ride to the nearest West Marine store, the moorings are expensive, and the restaurants are over priced.

Monday, October 5 - More Engine Work

Back at the dock. Gene shows up after lunch to begin tearing out the small bulkhead in the engine room that supports the thrust bearing. The family and I get out of the way. He cuts out and installs a new piece of marine grade plywood.

Tuesday - Oct. 6 - A Tour of Martha’s Vineyard Island

Today, Gene strengthens the bulk head with 1/4-inch steel brackets, welded in place

The family and I skedaddle. I rent a car and we all pile in, along with a week’s worth of laundry. The only coin operated laundry we can find is in Oak Bluffs, so we spend the morning washing and folding clothes. Then, off to Edgartown and on to South Beach. The kids are overjoyed to see the waves and the endless stretch of sand to the east and west. The surf is moderate, a little scary for my two kids, but in a few minutes they are in bathing suits, running up and down the surf, chasing the waves. They are soon wet and rolling around in the surf, letting the power of the sea wash them to and fro. Julie and I sit in the sand, make lunch and watch our two enjoying themselves. I’m getting use to using the video function on my iPhone, and record the kids playing. It was 46 years ago that I body surfed on this very same beach.

Back in the car, with two wet kids, we head west along the length of The Vineyard to Gay Head.

Vulnerability

Standing on the cliffs, looking out over the vast expanse of ocean to the south and west, over No Man’s Land, that a small bit of uninhabited piece of sand off the western tip of The Vineyard, I see the ocean we will soon confront as we head southeast to Bermuda. The wind is blowing west at 20+ knots, the sea is flecked with white caps and my heart sinks. We have that expanse of ocean to cross, in a 30+ year old boat that has problems, with a skipper that is nearly 70, with a bad back. A feeling of hopelessness sweeps over me. Am I crazy to think I can pull off this trip. This will be Julie’s first off shore voyage, same for the kids. For me . . . I’ve done this trip more than 14 times, but that was when I was in my 40s and 50s, twenty years younger, single, without the responsibility of a family and their lives. I’m scared, but I tell no one. This is just me . . . I get this way often before a voyage. Being scared is good for it tells me I’m near the edge and that’s where I want to be. It’s the only place you learn anything.

FEAR - What are you afraid of?

How do I overcome this FEAR? I take a page from my own book on Creativity. For twenty years, I’ve been lecturing on fear and how to face and overcome the emotions that stand in our way. This 7 step process involves acquiring skills and experience, which I have already, but another important step is to seek help . . . that will come in the form of crew and and weather router, a professional meteorologist ashore who can look at the weather systems and advise me, coach me. That’s Commander Weather, who are in the business of routing ships and people like us over long passages at sea.

‘Days later, Julie asks me of I ever have the feeling we’ll not get the boat to the Caribbean. “Yes,” I admit. “I do have those thoughts, but that’s normal for any undertaking like this. I just push them aside and keep on plodding along on the path I’ve set. We go as far as we can, if something stops us, we pause, consider what it is, find a way around or through it, and keep going. We’ll get there.” But that expanse of seas as seen from the top of those cliffs presents a daunting task.

Gay Head Light and the cliffs, looking northeast toward the Elizabeth Islands. The cliffs, the entire island, were created by the last ice age, that deposited sand and gravel, and the clay along the continental shelf.

Julie and the kids meet a native American, (or as the Canadians say and First Nation), chap behind the counter in one of the tourists shops . . . the local Indian tribe owns the bluff . . and because of there homeschooling lesson on the Pilgrims, they are interested to know if there is any resentment toward the white European settlers who came with the guns and idea of land ownership to these shores. He replies that the feelings are mixed. There has been so much inter-racial marriages that it’s almost a moot point. The discussion of land ownership, the Indian’s ability to work with nature, as opposed to bending he natural world to fit man’s vision of how it should be. We’ll visit Plymouth Plantation later.

The tiny fishing village of Menemsha is next. Julie and the kids drop me of to spend time making photographs, while they go in search of snacks. Menemsha is one of those places that looks like a Hollywood or Los Vegas set. In fact it was. They filmed parts of the movie “Jaws” here. The harbor is too tight for me to get Searcher into, or to even turn around it, but I’m glad I can photograph it again and show my kids where I spent part of a year living and working. One of the cottages that sits over the water was home for a while as a buddy and I worked building a sumer home for Colin Beaton on top of Menemsha Hill.

Wednesday, October 7, Job Complete

Gene finishes up the thrust bearing installation, and we motor back out the mooring. For the next few days, the wind does not cooperate for us going anywhere, so we make use of the time on boat projects I can do, visiting the library time, homeschooling and finishing Havana’s model so he can tow it on sea trials.

The Moon ‘Cusser Coffee House - The Summer of 1963

Before we leave this island, I wanted to gather the history of the Moon Cusser folk club I built here in 1963. I visited the V.H. library and spent 2 hours scrolling through the microfilm files of the Vineyard Gazette for 1962 and 1963. I didn’t find anything for 1962, which was the year I believed I built the place. No, lousy memory. I found the articles and ads in the 1963 summer editions and printed out copies. Memories flood in as I recall those nights full of great music, stories and personalities. I know there are more articles but I couldn’t fine them. With a call to Clair, the Librarian at the Gazette, I learn the Mood ‘Cusser loomed large in her memory as well. Yes, the newspaper has a clipping file of the Mood ‘Cusser, and she’ll hand it to the Editor as there may be a story therein as I’m on the island. I take the bus from V. H, to Edgartown and to the Gazette.

The Vineyard Gazette’s home office is a charming Colonial Home, in the residential part of Edgartown. Julia Wells, the Editor instructs the Receptionists in copying the Moon ‘Cusser file for me.

There I meet Julia Wells, the energetic editor, who has been briefed by Claire on my visit and has the clipping file. A staff member makes copies and for $2.50 I have as complete a file as exists. Now I can begin assembling a story on how this 1963 mecca of urban folk music came to be and the impact it had on so many lives . . . mine included.

October 11 - Off the Mooring.

The morning begin with a discussion of what to do. Julie was all for getting out of town. I wanted to stay. We had a free mooring, the Library had WiFi, and it was a pleasant place to wait for crew, parts and a weather window for the trip to Bermuda. But the day was warm, here was a nice south westerly breeze and Julie wanted to to take the kids to the aquarium at Woods Hole. The only mooring available in Woods Hole were guest mooring at the Yacht Club . . for $40 a night. I thought spending the evening in Haley Harbor, across the channel would be a more “cost effective” option, so we dropped the mooring and headed off around 3 PM. As we cleared West Chop, the wind went west and blow 20+ knots. We were under jib and jigger, Yankee and mizzen, and making 7 knots, but the course to Woods Hole was more westerly than we could make on a single tack. I pinched the wind and the speed drops to 5 knots, and it was rough in Vineyard Sound, with spray over the foredeck and things crashing below. We thought we’d stowed everything that could be stowed, but this was the first day of actually sailing since leaving Maine a month ago (we’ve motored everywhere since) and the nav station and the galley needed to be repacked.

We arrived in Hadley’s outer harbor just before sunset. There was one other ketch at anchor there, so we dropped our Bruce in 14 feet of water and ran out 90 feet of chain. I was glad for the extra scope later than night or around 10 PM the wind piped up out of the north and blew 20 to 25 knots with occasional higher gusts. I was up a good part of the night checking our position and the wind meter. The moon was just pasty full and it was cold on deck . . . gone was the Indian Summer we’d been enjoying so far.

Monday, October 12 - Another turn of events

Next morning, with the current shift in the Wood Hole channel, we elected to skip the aquarium and head over to New Bedford. Before setting off, I took the kids on a dinghy ride around the coves and anchorage of Hadley Harbor. Stately mansions, or summer cottages, perched atop the hills, commanding manor-like vistas of rolling lawns down to wharf where Henley picnic boats and Herrshoff one design sailing dinghies resided. The kids photographed white herons, we spoke with a family on small blue sloop, Bandwagon out of Quisset, about life on board with kids.

We were underway for New Bedford by 10 AM. The wind was east by now and down to 12 knots. We motored out of the Woods Hole channel on a fair tided, raise sails as we passed the green bell, and aimed for New Bedford. A pleasant morning, sunny, a gentle wind to push us along, but that wasn’t top last. Just when you are having fun, fate steps in to test your resolve and metal. The wind drops, so on goes the engine and finally down come all the sails as we motor to New Bedford. I notice the engine control panel, the one with the amp, oil and temp. meters is dead. What’s caused that ? Better turn off the engine before I do any more damage. I do, then discover, I can turn the engine on again. The ignition system is dead. We are dead in the water, but in a safe place, so we drift, while I go below and begin to check out fuses, wires and the batteries. I can find nothing wrong, so consider the option of a tow. This is not an easy decision to make, humbling to say the least . . . to be towed in to harbor . . . by a power boat.

But, that’s what we do. I call BoatUS to check if my membership and towing policy are valid. Nope, 20 days expired . . . one of those last minute things I did not get to before we left Maine. “But you are within the 30-day grace period . . “ the nice lady says on the other end. ”I can reactivate your membership, right now, and get one of our town boat operators on line with you . .” The annual membership is $19. There are two towing options. For another $17 you get $150 worth of towing . For $116, plus the $19 membership, you get unlimited towing for the year. My original membership had unlimited towing, and that’s what’s needed now. We process the paper work on the phone and within minutes I’m talking to Clint, a firemen in New Bedford who moon-lights as a BoatUS Tow Boat operator out of New Bedford. I give him my Lat/Long, boat description and the nature of our “distress.” He says he’ll be out in half an hour. The family and I have lunch while we wait, as others motor past on this delightful day. The seas are calm now, little wind, no panic. Clint arrives in his twin hull twin engine tow boat and throws us a bridle, which Havana and I secure. Julie steers us we we follow dutifully behind. I’d made arrangements for a mooring the previous day, so by 3 PM we are moored and the paper-work completed.

We get towed into New Bedford, through the Hurricane Barrier, by Cliff and his BoatUS Tow Boat. The entrance to New Bedford Harbor can be sealed off from Buzzards Bay. The Barrier can be closed during times of storm surges to protect the cities of New Bedford and Fairhaven from flooding.

Here we are . . . on a mooring . . . again . . . no engine . . .but, we weren’t going anywhere anyway.

Tuesday, October 13 -- Back on Track . . . again.

I make some calls, exploring options for getting the ignition system checked out. Jeff, who owns the mooring we’re on, recommends Niemiec Marine, on Pope Island. I call. Martin the owner, says he’ll send out a mechanic right after lunch. Chis arrives on time and with 3 minutes he has engine running. There is a reset button on the engine. Press that, and the engine can be started. Was that all? No . . .nothing is that simple. As soon as the oil pressure is up, the ignition system shuts down. The engine continues to run, for a diesel needs no electricity to work, only to get started. “There must be something shorting out the circuit to trip the breaker,” says Chris, and he goes to work isolating things, disconnecting wires, using his continuity meter to check . . . twenty minutes later he’s isolated the problem. A bad oil pressure sender, a switches the activates the field in the alternator. He extracts the culprit, and I jump into the Dinghy for a fast trip ashore over to the New Bedford side to Beckman’s, one of the oldest marine hardware stores in the country . . . a massive, four story. granite block warehouse a short walk from the Dinghy dock. While I’m gone, Chris turns his attention to our generator, that has been giving us problems, to make use of his time while I go shopping.

“Do you have one of these,” I ask the clerk, handing him the broken sender. “Do you know the pressure requirements,” he asks. “4 to 5 pounds,” I replay, the specs Chris told me to ask for. “That’d be a . . . .” and the clerk spins off a series of number to the stock boy, who scampers into the wooden shelving and parts boxes that fill this part of the store. He comes back with two, which I buy for $47 each, I buy both.

The generator needed the belt replaced. I had one on board. With an hour, Chris has the engine running and the generator back in operation. Total cost $280.

Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 14 and 15.

The kids and I take a morning bus to Boston, then another to Rockport. I want to get my car and pick up some files at the office. The kids want to see some of their friends. Julie wants a few days alone to get some of her paper-work done.

I enter Maine with mix emotions. Am I going backward? Do I really want to continue on this voyage, dealing with the constant boat problems, the weather, the fear, the uncomfortable, cramped quarters? Maine is in full fall color as we arrive in Rockport that afternoon. The temperature is considerably cooler than in souther New England.

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