We were underway from 8:05 to 12:35, four and a half hours, and most of the time we intentionally sailed slowly, by furling the small jib, going off course and trimming the main for non optimum speed. Why would I ever intentionally go slow, folks who know me may ask? Because (1) having motored out through the channel too fast, at six knots without straining the engine, and, (2) at the Mate's request, not hoisting the main until breakfast was cooked and eaten, we found that we were sailing across Buzzards Bay at more than six knots toward Woods Hole and would arrive there while it was too near full flood unless we slowed down. So it was a gentle sail at about three knots on a port reach and we mostly sailed through the Hole about half an hour before slack, with only a knot or two of current pushing us, a slow pace that let us see the buoys rather than rush past them, possibly onto the rocks. Slower is safer, especially because there is s lot of traffic going both ways in the Hole including big power boats with their huge wakes and ferrys. Also, the current does not flow straight through the channel, but partly to the side, pushing you out of the channel if you are not attentive. In 2008 we came through with friends, Peter and Debbie, much faster, and our keel bounced off a rock on the way! This time it was easy, though we did have to motor during the central past of the compound curve when the wind was on our nose.
Once through the Hole and back into Vineyard Sound, it was only about three miles further to the entrance to Lake Tashmoo, which is the only port in the Vineyard we had never been in. The only trick during this leg was crossing Middle Ground shoal at its 15 foot spot rather than at its eight foot spots. This was easy with the GPS chart plotter. In fact we saw no less than 20 feet of water while crossing the shoal. Coming into Tashmoo at near high tide through the privately maintained reds and greens our seven foot depth alarm beeped only at two spots, briefly. We took a mooring for two nights. The lake is very shallow over much of its surface (like one foot deep). It looks like they dredged the channel through an inside sandbar and we saw folks standing in the water, up to their ankles, on both sides. But our mooring area was in ten feet of water.
After lunch and R and R we dinked to the extremely overcrowded public dinghy dock and walked less than a mile to Vineyard Haven for groceries and posted the last post. We saw "Florence Foster Jenkins" the latest Meryl Streep movie, and had dinner at Copper Wok. It's been a long time since we've had Chinese food and they serve big portions but not great food. At the next table were two couples who live in the Berkshires, where we are going for the Labor Day weekend, but keep their boat, when not cruising, in Rockport Maine. We noticed that Rockport is "full"of wooden boats and the blog (summer 2013) has photos of some of them. And what a boats hey have: a Concordia Yawl of 1956, that they had paid what must be an enormous sum last winter to have everything below the water line replaced. I had seen a half sized model of a Concordia yawl in the Whaling Musuem and the gentleman said "Yes, that's my boat! But why pay for a half sized model." Seeing the model made the defining feature of a yawl, as compared to a ketch, easy for Ilene to see.
Walking back in the dark after dinner we saw and heard part of the big annual fireworks show that was staged in Oak Park. Both of our nights here were very quiet night; we could have saved the $40 mooring fee and anchored. In the morning I did a lot of the remaining navigating, "fixed" the outboard's stalling problem by adjusting a set screw about 3/16" back, so that idle cannot get low enough to stall. But I seem to have created another problem: the gear shifter -- forward, neutral and reverse -- does not move except at the new idle speed. This fall wiser heads will examine the problem. I went to town our second day here because Lene likes some alone time and cell and wifi service is very terrible in Tashmoo. I also checked out the bookstore which has a good nautical collection and bought vegetables. This was a great place that I had overlooked during prior cruises to The Vineyard, as long as you enter and exit at near high tide. Next stop: Cuttyhunk.
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