Yes, here in Massachusetts, except for the scheduled passages to and from Provincetown, our hops twixt ports will be shorter.
We transferred the mooring pennant to a 45' Dutch boat built in 1968. In those early days of fiberglass they did not know how strong glass and resin was and laid in heavy thick sides. The owner had three lovely well behaved young kids aboard who requested permission to board, which was granted, and played with our feline team. Before separating ourselves from the Dutch built boat, we said goodbye to Jim, and his 31 foot Pearson, which was tied to our port side and was headed for Cuddyhunk.
Casting off at 9:15, we hugged the north shore of The Vinyard, which looks a lot like the north shore of eastern Long Island, with high sand cliffs reaching down to the sea, girdled by huge rocks. But there was no wind so we motored all the way. I saw turbulent water and unrolled the small jib to give it a try but the turbulence was caused by rough tidal flows, not wind.
The Harbormaster assigned us a mooring inside the sea wall which we took at 10:45. This location would have been more valuable if there had been a rough night, but it is the same price and a shorter dinghy ride, compared to those outside the sea wall. We found ourselves moored among five schooners for which VH is their hailing port. Beautiful old fashioned craft with the taller of their two masts aft of the shorter one. So different from ILENE's sleek modernity, yet both have their place on the water and in the hearts of their fans.
We contemplated leaving the dink hauled up and taking the launch in to town, but our two round trips for the two of us would have cost $32, so I lowered our dink, first for a grocery run and later, in the evening, to take in Woody Allen's latest movie, Cafe Society.
And the first of those trips is when our only problem here occurred. I slowed down to idle speed to talk with the folks on a nearby Solent rigged Tartan 44 and our Yamaha four stroke outboard died and would not restart. So I rowed a few hundred yards to the dinghy dock by the ferry landing and tried again. No luck. I noticed that the gas tank was low -- not empty but low. So while Lene was in Stop and Shop I took it to the gas station and put in three gallons. Still no luck. Lene got to talking with another boat owner who recommended a mechanic who lived on a houseboat about 150 yards from our mooring. He agreed to come over to the dock but the dairy products we had purchased could spoil so I rowed us back and he came to the boat. He asked what I had done to try to get the outboard to start. Hearing my story he said: "You probably flooded it. You don't need to choke an engine after it is warm. Try again." And she started right up. Our helper would accept neither coffee, beer nor cash as a reward for his service. He is an artist and a tour boat operator. I told him about the houseboat used by Noble at the Noble Maritime Collection we visited last winter.
A quiet night, cooler than the last few.
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