No sailing on the short passage from Vineyard Haven to this, our third port on The Vineyard. First, Lene requested no heeling while she made breakfast, and then, after turning the corner, the paltry wind, faced us. We were underway only about 90 minutes, 9:15 to 10:45. After talking with Lee, we made a date, subject to weather, for Thursday in Hyannis, making Wednesday our passage day. So we made arrangements to stay three nights in Edgartown on the Harbormaster's mooring "yellow 30".
It's funny how each of the separate towns on this island runs things in their harbors so differently. In Menemsha, they did not want payment until the evening before we left. The other spots like to be paid promptly. In Vineyard Haven it is cash or check only; no credit cards. Here in Edgartown they take only credit cards, no cash or check. They each probably have their reasons and the rugged New England and islander individualism mentality is a potential cause. We can pay either way but it's funny how differently they want it. It's surprising how well the all-island inter-town bus system works. We have been to Edgartown before twice, by bus, but never by boat. The Edgartown YC gives reciprocal privileges to visiting yachts to use their dinghy dock and the club is in the heart of town and only .47 miles from our mooring.
Usually Lene does all the cooking aboard but I made up a mess of sausages, peppers and onions and we needed pasta sauce and, for me, French bread. The reason for a trip to town! After coffee at a nice cafe, "Among The Flowers", and before browsing the bookstore, we bought both items and a postcard at three different local shops including "Rosewater" and "The Black Sheep". Colorful names.
During the dinghy trip to town, I believe I discovered the cause of the outboard failure. It happened again when I slowed to idle speed on approaching the dock. There is an adjustment that determines idle speed and for our outboard my hypotheses is that it is currently set too low, starving the engine of fuel and shutting her down. So until I can figure out how to bump up that setting, we will just avoid idle speed, taking the engine out of gear when approaching a destination.
It rained one night and another day and was cooler here. We did a lot of work on the net, paying bills, buying things to be delivered to ILENE, care of the Provincetown Marina.
The good day we took an afternoon bike ride to Oak Bluffs, less than 15 miles, round trip. We had moored ILENE in its tiny crowded harbor in 2008. When you put three boats in rafts on each tightly spaced mooring ball it can be tricky trying to get out, especially if there is strong wind, as was the case in '08. This time the harbor was less crowded.
Oak Bluffs was a camp meeting ground for one of the Protestant denominations in the 1890's and is a true Mecca for lovers of ornately painted gingerbread homes. It has a merry-go-round and lots of beach-related stores but not the bars and tattoo parlors of places like Daytona Beach; more family friendly, I would say. All of The Vineyard, but especially Oak Bluffs has a lot of seemingly middle class Black people. Thus the Island, overall, is integrated. Whether or not the folks are segregated into separate neighborhoods, like most of America, is something I did not investigate.
The bike ride was fun, mostly along the Shore Road between the ocean on one side and a large saltwater lake, Sengekontacket Pond, just east of it. Lots of cars lined the road as folks were on the beach to both sides, in the water, and on every sort of craft: tubes, kayaks, sunfish, dinghies, kite boards, etc. a sunny and windy day, a good day for sailing, but a lay day for us,
Returning, we did some shopping, gallery hopping and checked out a very luxurious new 140 foot sloop built in Holland along the lines of the racers of the 1930's with elegant overhangs forward and aft: Topaz. It was tied up at the YC, its crew having brought it over for the owner, who talked with us, and his daughters who were aboard. We also checked out the "Never Late" ferry which traverses the 550 foot wide harbor mouth to Chappiquidick Island, which the folks call "Chappy". The ferry is never late because it has no schedule but runs continually, on demand. There was a barrier island at the southern, Atlantic, side of this harbor, joining Chappy to MV, but it got blown out by a hurricane a few years ago, creating quite a tidal current running through the harbor.
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