Days 5-7 -- July 27-29 -- Menemsha, Martha's Vineyard -- 41.8 nm

By the rules, you have to vacate the private mooring at Block Island to which the Harbor Master assigned you and find a recently vacated chartreuse public one before 10 a.m. This nuisance was one motivator of our decision to go to Menemsha, rather than spend a lay day in Block Island. We normally stay a few days there, but we were eager to get to Massachusetts, our destination, and dropped the mooring line at 10 a.m. Also, the Menemsha Harbor Master gave us a reservation (rafted up) on one of the two inside moorings, by phone.
Last time at Menemsha, in 2008, I had to thread one of our dock lines through the eye on top of the last available mooring in Menemsha Bight, outside the harbor, in Vineyard Sound, in heavy fog. I leaned very, very far over the side while lying on the deck on my stomach and using my long arms while  Lene steered the boat perfectly onto the mooring. Then we had to dink into the harbor and get to get to the Harbormaster's office at 7 a.m. to obtain an inside space for the second night. This time we had our reservation but phone before even leaving Block Island.

The channel cut between Block Island's Great Salt Pond and the Atlantic on Block's west side is approximately equidistant from that island's north and south ends. We decided to head north around the island because the winds were forecast to be from the westsouthwest, so the course from Block's north end would put the wind a bit closer to our beam. We saw a small passenger liner of the Atlantic Coast Line heading for the cut and thought it was too big to get through, but heard her radio for everyone to keep out of its way in the cut. We have seen such small cruise ships up and down the Altantic Coast, visiting charming ports that the behemoths could never get into.

We cut buoy 1BI, off the north end  of Block Island, by about half a mile. It protects big ships from the shoals that extend north from the island's northern tip. but we watched our depth meter and  chart plotter and never got into water shallower than 35 feet.

But the wind was very light and so though we put up sails, we motored most of the way, decreasing the engine's rpms as the wind got stronger until we could shut it off a few hours before our arrival in Menemsha. During the passage I was below for about 90 minutes giving ILENE's interior a thorough cleaning and vacuuming. The wind and current picked up so we could sail without engine and even more so as we passed Gay Head. We were visited by a pod of smallish dolphins. They played on our starboard side for a few minutes but it takes that long to turn on the cell phone camera so the photos I will add to this posting later will not include one of the dolphins.

At the destination we put out fenders on our starboard side and tied up to FunGirl, from Wickford RI one one of the two moorings in the inner harbor. FunGirl had a cat aboard and our cats did a lot of looking at Linus, but did not jump over. FunGirl had a charter boat out of Newport with seven adults from NYC aboard rafted to her starboard side. They helped grab our lines when we joined the raft.  They do not own boats but sail in Brooklyn and Jersey City. I told them of the Harlem's class of membership which gives them access to one of our several club boats for a very small annual fee once they are checked out to make sure they know the ropes. Part of our Club's effort to grow new sailors.

 We planned to have one lay day here but rain the next day caused us to extend. Each day one or two other boats left our three boat raft, and the mooring pennant was passed from FunGirl to ILENE. One of our two lay days we took the bus (actually two buses with a transfer mid-island; all-day senior fare $5 per person) to Vinyard Haven for lunch and some shopping and art galeries.  Lene was hunting for a plastic bowl to replace the blue one we used as a fruit bowl which I broke by heeling too much. In pthe restaurant where we lunched she spotted a lovely basket made by hand by African women and the search ended. We will keep it in the aft berth when underway so it does not go the way of the blue bowl.  I searched for a large blunt bowed heavy oak cargo hauling sailboat that we had seen being built in a shed during our last visit here in early September, 2013. It had been moved outdoors, to a beach location about half a mile further from town. The builder wad been ill but was back at work, though not the day I visited, now working on finishing the interior.
I did some planning for tides and distances to Hyannis, where we want to go to meet up with Lee and Patty, in a few days. Lee belongs to my book group.
The second lay day was rainy, a good day for an indoor project, and Eugene, a member of the Harlem had given me a great 12 volt LED lamp which I installed as an additional reading light in our berth. The selection of the spot to screw it on was easy. I consulted experts for the electrical connection, which was to a pair of wires that ran to a light in the salon. The selected "splicing" method was "butt connectors" with the wires from the battery and to ground  crimped in at one end and two wires, one
Pto each lamp, crimped in at the other, then shrink wrapped to try to seal out moisture, all concealed under a removable decorative piece of cherry wood.

We patronized Larson's twice. One night for a piece of very fresh swordfish that Lene cooked aboard,  and the next for lobsters that we ate at their restaurant. Except their restaurant is an outdoor area adjacent to the store where on sits at crude boxes. We met a nice couple with whom we shared a box and sea stories, but ambiance was better aboard our boat.