|
|
|
click
on the camera for photos
WESTPORT TO FALMOUTH We’re so sad to leave
Westport. Most ports, though we love them, and have a good time while we’re
there, we’re usually ready to get on to the next adventure. Westport, however,
is such a beautiful and unique place that we really hated to leave. We dropped
our mooring and headed out the channel. I take in for the last time, all the
glances that I can, hoping that the memory of them will stay as a permanent
fixture in my brain.
We can see people walking dogs in the early morning on Horseneck Beach and wonder if Cindy and Decker are out there enjoying the early morning. We look in the binoculars but didn’t seem them. We had such a wonderful visit with them and enjoyed experiencing their world for a few days. It’s a good world they live in.
HENS & CHICKENS I laugh as I study the charts to see where we are headed for the day and remember the Hens and Chickens off Gooseberry Point. It’s a cluster of rocks at the end of the sandy point. Where do they get these names? And just beyond is Old Cock and the Wildcat, most notably taken because it is marked by a forewarning token of a partially submerged shipwreck. Some poor soul mistakenly ran aground and it’s an old rusty reminder for mariners like us passing by each day.
click
on the camera for photos
QUICKS HOLE Today we’re going through
QUICKS HOLE to enter VINEYARD SOUND. The weather report today said
to expect some 20-25 knot winds but we’re not experiencing much of it as we head
up Buzzard’s Bay. We see Lone Rock
marker, marking a 3 foot deep rock near the entrance. We’re pointing our
heading just a little south of that. We hear the
Coast Guard on the radio
hailing a shrimp boat from Louisiana. At first the boat doesn’t answer
back to their repeated hails which draws our attention. Finally we hear
the southern drawl of the captain answer back. They are asking him what
his hailing port is and then his identification numbers. The guy is slow
to answer back. The Coast Guard keeps persisting with more questions.
It sounded like they were suspicious of the boat. He said he had just been
boarded by the Coast Guard a few days ago. They said they wanted to board
him again and to prepare for a starboard boarding. He answered back that
he wanted to get other side. The Coast Guard
acknowledged that. Now we were really curious as that’s where we were headed
and we were almost there. We could see through the binoculars a large dark
hulled boat but as we got closer, we realized that wasn’t the boat as it was a
day fishing boat filled with people. Now we turned our attention to the
opposite entry and spotted the shrimp boat and the very large Coast Guard
Cutter following closely right behind her. The shrimp boat was just
entering Quicks Hole. We decided to delay our entry and make a
circle outside the entrance to give them both time and space to come through as
it can get a little tight in there especially boats of this size. It’s a narrow
cut through the Elizabeth Islands, marked by rocks and rapid currents.
There are two markers inside marking a narrow area and the usual symbol on the
paper chart of a sunken ship as a reminder. We finished our circle and then
headed in as the shrimp boat was just coming out. It was a pitiful looking
boat, old and wooden. The sides were painted an ominous black and were stained
with rusty looking drips. We watched as the captain drove it by and felt sorry
for him. He had no hailing port on the back which was unusual. I guess that’s
what caught the attention of the Coast Guard. We headed in the channel as the
cutter was this side of the two markers and we had a wide open space between
us. They were standing on the decks getting ready to board the fishing boat.
We quickly drew our attention back to QUICKS HOLE. It’s always unnerving going in through narrow places like that. Sometimes you read the cruise books and they tell you every possible horrible scenario and I can’t help but getting tense. But then you will find it an easy passage, wide room and no strong current. Today, however, a sailboat came through from Vineyard Haven in full sail cutting across our path diagonally just as we were going through the narrowest part. It was a little tense and then irritating as she, the person at the helm, gave us a look, like “get out of my way, I’ve got precedence here!” She was a bit of a distraction for a moment or two and then we noticed the rougher seas on the other side of the cut. We didn’t expect that they would be quite so turbulent at the mouth of the cut. Guess we had been protected by the leeward side of the Elizabeth Islands and now we were going to experience the predicted winds and rougher seas. It was like when we came through the Panama Canal, leaving peaceful quiet seas only to be spit out on the other end into a hell on earth of waves and winds although this was not so bad. Well the Quicks Hole spit us out into the rough seas of Vineyard Haven like a bad taste in its mouth. The seas always look worse than they are and the boat always handles them with ease. That’s what I love about this boat, I feel so safe. What is it they say at Nordhavn? “The boat can take most anything, it just really depends on how much the people can take.” Well, don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a bad day at all, just a little bit uncomfortable. We didn’t see anyone else out here today on Vineyard Sound, guess we’re the only crazy ones. We both commented that if we had been thinking we could’ve gone further up BUZZARDS BAY and come through at WOODS HOLE. Then we would’ve taken advantage of the calm seas of the leeward side of the Elizabeth Islands for more distance. Oh well, it’s just nice to be in Vineyard Sound again. I’m so excited to actually be back in our old cruising grounds where we had our first boat and where we had so much fun. It was like a home coming. We hugged the windward side of the Elizabeth Islands as we headed up Vineyard Sound. Martha’s Vineyard was visible off our portside but the weather was such that we could see no real detail of Gay’s Head now called it’s Indian name, Aguinnah. I watched the unchanged shores of Pasque and Naushowa Island. They were pretty barren, no trees, just grass and boulders.
click
on the camera for photos
FALMOUTH It was such a thrill coming into Falmouth. It’s hard to explain. We’d been gone 10 years and the anticipation and sentiment of seeing the place where we really started boating was more than we had imagined. It’s like we had come a full circle. There were so many memories and all good.
After what seemed like hours of this, Larry came up and looked out into the fog and said we should be near shore. I could faintly hear the waves on shore and was suddenly afraid that we could be just heading straight into the shallow waters just off the beach and would run into the shore. We strained with all our might to see something. We didn’t really know if we came out close to the harbor opening or had been pulled by the current to some place treacherous. We just kept heading in the direction that we thought it would be totally by faith in that course that Larry gave me and I steered. Suddenly out of the midst we could see a very foggy outline of the shore. I was scared to be heading straight into shore, not sure if we had come out to the right location. We couldn’t really make anything out that looked familiar and the fog was so thick we just had to keep coming closer to see. Normally we’d see the tall radio tower and the red roof of a house on shore. Those were our visual markers on a clear day to show us the way into the small opening in the breakwater of the long stretch of shore. Now we had nothing to go by. We just kept coming forward. I suddenly saw something that looked like a Japanese pagoda in the fog and we both said "what the heck is that?" I was telling Larry we were in the wrong spot and was getting really scared. He just kept going in and as I thought we were dangerously close to shore I realized that what I thought looked like a pagoda structure was actually the marker to the harbor entrance! We had come in exactly perfect to the harbor entrance! I couldn’t believe it! I still can’t to this day but one thing that whole experience did for me was give me confidence in our abilities and of navigation and radar. It gave me confidence that running a pre-calculated course will actually work and by watching the radar we were able to see any dangers around us. It’s hard to explain but after that experience it gave me a whole new light on boating, a kind of supreme confidence in the idea that what we were taught in sailing school that last summer really did make sense.
BACK TO THE PRESENT Today we are coming in in clear skies but it’s windy. We also remember how windy this inlet can be. The wind blows straight down that channel from Vineyard Sound and all those slips in there are perpendicular to the wind, so when docking the wind is coming right on the beam. I also remember all the boats moored in the center of the channel and as the wind would change direction, the moored boats would all shift and turn. We would always come down the channel past our slip turn around past the moored boats, come back up into the wind, try to maneuver past the moored boats that were shifting with the wind, and then head into the slip and hope and pray you’d make it. We’d get a line or two on as fast as we could before the wind would blow us in to the other boat in the slip. We had a fixed dock on the windward side and a pole at the port hind quarter. It was always a challenge no matter what the conditions were.
As we back in, Larry is maneuvering Knotty Dog from the forward station on the Portuguese Bridge. I throw the line to the girl and tell her very clearly that this is the forward spring and to tie it forward to keep us off the bulkhead. As we are backing down Larry yells at me to check the back to see how much room we have. He’s having a little trouble holding her to the dock in the wind and I hear him say the current is pulling him. I go to the back and tell him he’s got about 3 feet and to stop and then I hand the stern line to the girl to tie and secure the back of the boat to keep her from swinging out in the wind. I look back to see what’s wrong as the boat is still going back towards the bulkhead. I tell Larry to watch the back and he pulls her forward a bit. I look at the spring line that the dock girl was supposed to tie. It’s tied but is limp and most of it is in the water. I can’t believe it. She didn’t tie it forward, it’s doing absolutely nothing. I tell her she’s got to tie it forward, not back. She starts to untie it and then Larry is again wanting to know how close we are to the back. I go to the back of the boat to tell him how much room we have and look back to see that she hasn’t tied the stern line right again!. It’s a nightmare. We both realize this girl doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on. I realize I MUST get off the boat to tie the lines but can not get off. Larry is getting frustrated and the wind has picked up and I guess with a combination of the current is having a hard time just holding her there while this girl makes crazy with the lines. He realizes she’s not going to get the job done and begins telling (or should I say) yelling instructions to her and trying his best to keep the boat steady in this wind. Finally, Larry is frustrated too and he gives me the controls and somehow gets off the boat to the dock and ties her up quickly. The wind is blowing very strong by now and we’re a little concerned about the bow not having a good secure tie to keep her straight in the slip but we get her all secure. The girl is still standing there and doesn’t have a clue as to how inapt she was for this job. She also was dressed in short shorts and high healed wedges which really should’ve given me a clue that things weren’t going to go right. We both discussed the whole situation in great length at lunch immediately after. It’s always a challenge coming into unknown docks because you never know the capabilities of the dock handlers. Some resent any instructions. Most are good but this was by far the worst. I can’t imagine hiring a young girl like that and obviously not giving her any instructions on how to do her job. As we spent the next few days at the dock, we watched two other boats come in and she did the same thing. One day she had 3” plus wedge shoes on! I mean, it was ridiculous! We got into the habit of being handy to help out if someone was coming in or leaving. She wasn’t the only person working for the dock office that didn’t have experience helping. Another young man was helping her one day and really just stood around not knowing what to do. They were just a liability for the boaters coming in. It’s a lesson to never really trust the abilities of the dock handlers. I think it’s my fault because I’m handing them the lines and telling them what to do and I should follow up to make sure they are doing it right but then when I also have to tell Larry where the boat is, it’s a lot of stuff in quick flashes of time. Most of the boats here have the slips for the summer it seems and their lines are all pre- planned and sized according to the layout of the dock so it’s a no brainer for them but when someone comes in new and unfamiliar with the situation it can be precarious. These were nice kids but I blame the management for not giving them training.
click
on the camera for photos
FALMOUTH AND OUR FIRST BOAT
I don’t remember how we even got the boat out of the slip but off we went. It was so much fun and exciting! We went out of the harbor and out into Vineyard Sound. It was great! This is why I love Larry so much. He just does it! We were cruising down Vineyard Sound enjoying the sunny day and heading towards Martha’s Vineyard, when a huge fast power boat, a cigarette boat, roared by. He made a big circle around us and we couldn’t understand what he was doing until we realized it was the boat that stays in the slip next to us. They made another fast circle around us and waved and then went back in the direction they came. We later found out that the people back at our dock couldn’t believe that we left and so Paul, the owner of the fast power boat came out looking for us. I guess when he saw we were find he went back to report. That was when we should’ve realized what a family this group of people were, these New Englanders that have a reputation for being uppity and hard to know. We managed to get into a slip at Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard. I really have not much recollection of that and wonder now how we ever got the boat in there. I’m sure the dock master must have been very instrumental with the lines and tied us in as I had not much clue except for what I learned from sailing lessons that last summer. We walked around, had lunch and came back to the boat. By the time we returned to the boat, the swells were so outrageous that the dock master had retied the boat. The boat was heaving 3 feet in the slip. It was terrible. I guess the winds had changed direction and now the swells were blowing right into the harbor. I don’t know how we got in the boat, but we did and got the heck out of there as fast as we could. We later found out from talking with the locals that the dock can be bad in the afternoon swells. Well, that’s for sure! We returned late that afternoon to Falmouth and I think everyone who had slips by us, had been worried though we didn’t find this out until months later when we got to know them. I guess they were all watching for us. Dudley had come by and couldn’t believe we had left. When we made our approach to the dock, people came out of the woodwork. They came out of their boats and condos and all came to the dock to help us get in before we even were there. When Larry entered the slip they grabbed the boat from all sides and immediately went about fixing our lines and shortening them and tying them to the docks. They were like Santa’s Elves. It was amazing when I think back about it. They were busy as beavers and never really even asked us if it was OK. We didn’t know any better and just handed them lines when they asked for them. By the time they were done, our lines were set permanently so we could easily come in to the dock, pick them up, hook them on the cleats on the boat and voila we would be set! When they were satisfied with their work, they all went back to their condos or to working on their boats like as if nothing happened. I guess they just knew we didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on and they just decided to help out. They were great people. And that’s how we got started boating. It was a great place to have a slip. Every afternoon in the summer they would gather at the picnic tables on the dock or lawn and we would have wine and snacks and talk. We were the only odd balls sleeping on our boat. We’d shower and use the heads and try to get dressed with them all running around the docks. They all had their condos to do that. The New Englanders really know how to enjoy their summers and they enjoy them to the fullest not wasting a moment. I guess when you have such a short season of warm weather and know that winter is coming, you make the most of it while you can. We loved it there and loved the people and those summers.
FALMOUTH TODAY
Falmouth is heavily populated and the traffic is a steady stream of cars. They have learned to adapt though and will yield to the lonely soul trying to cross the road or get in or out of a parking lot. The ferry runs daily by the hour which also keeps a steady flow of people coming and going. The Dairy Queen is still as crowded as ever. I’ve never seen such a place. There is such a crowd that lines up at that place that you would think there was a wedding reception or something going on. Falmouth is a great place to stop and provision, shop, and eat out. They have everything within walking distance including the West Marine. We got the bikes down and just enjoyed a week of seeing old friends and relaxing. We also enjoyed meeting new friends that had been following our route on the website. They found us on the docks and came by to say “hello”. It always amazes me when we meet people like that. They are so friendly and we all have much in common, a true appreciation for boating and the sea. It was a great week. We even sinned at the old Crab Shack at the entry to the harbor. We ordered up a basket of fried clams and watched boats come in and out the jetty as we munched on our lunch. It was great.
click
on the camera for photos
WEATHER The weather has been terrible though. We had one or two good days, but have been socked in with fog or rain and it’s unseasonably cool. Today, the day we are planning to head out, it’s like a storm has blown in, dark and rainy and the winds are howling and the flags are slapping the side of the boat. Sport fisherman in their little skiffs keep circling inside the harbor like they are waiting for a break so they can enjoy a day out.
|
As we serpentine our way out past the Nubble as
they call it, or the stony point of the entrance, we see another large flat
rocky mound of Halfmile Rock off to our portside, looking much like a
barely surfaced Moby Dick. It wasn’t visible when we came in and I can
see clearly how this can be a precarious journey in bad seas and weather. We
both think that it was pure luck and God’s good fortune, when we battled our way
through this entrance in a squall 10 years ago, that we made it safely in. 
Buzzard’s
Bay
I was amazed as we headed up
We gave them a wave as we went by. We could hear them hail the shrimp boat
again giving instructions for a boarding. We left them behind us not knowing
why they were boarding him again after just a few days and why he delayed the
boarding. Was he hiding something? Wonder what his fishing restrictions are
for this area. He looked so out of place here. In fact we haven’t really seen
any big fishing boats like that in this area. Guess we’ll never know the
outcome but it gave for some interesting speculation.
We have lunch and just enjoy
the scenery. Soon we are near WOODS HOLE CUT and see some boating
activity again. A few ferries are busy going in and out, transporting people to
the islands. We see the beautiful NOBSKA LIGHT out on the point marking
the entrance and the buildings of the Oceanographic Institute inside
Woods Hole. Although we didn’t come through WOODS HOLE today, we
were reminded of our first time going through there. It’s a challenge for any
boater and those without knowledge of the possible situations beware. Sometimes
the current runs 6 knots and can pull the channel markers in different
directions and at times submerge them making for poor navigation. You have to
take special precautions to watch out for ferries and freighters who have total
right away in these narrow turning channels. Today, though we’re heading right
past back to our old stomping grounds 
As we approached the channel
marker we both reminisced about the day when we were coming back from a weekend
at Martha’s Vineyard. We were still green lacking much experience. It was a
typical ending of a weekend except that half way across Vineyard Sound we hit
heavy fog. Our first fog and it was thick. We couldn’t see a thing. It was
terrifying in a way because we had no prior experience and everyone’s first time
in fog it can be intimidating. We had no chart plotter then and I’m not really
sure if we had GPS. We had what I would call a primitive radar system. We
always ran that boat from the fly bridge. The bad thing about that was that the
radar screen was in the salon. Larry set me on a course to steer and then he
would have to go down the stairs of the fly bridge to the cockpit and down the
stairs to the salon and across the salon to check the radar. This would leave
me solo on the fly bridge steering a course in the blinding fog. Every time he
would go below it was a few scary moments alone for me. Larry set us on a course
and I had the helm. My job was just to steer it precisely on the course he
set. I don’t think I took my eyes off that compass for one second. My knuckles
were white as I gripped that steering wheel. Larry was mostly concerned with
the ferries that frequently run back and forth between the island and Woods Hole
and into Falmouth. I guess other commercial traffic and small boaters were a
concern too but that’s the one he was most concerned about. Periodically he’d
run up to the bridge to check on me and I’m sure to make sure I was on course.
At one point we could hear the horn of the ferry and Larry said he could see a
blob on the screen and was sure it was the ferry. It was frightening because
they could be taking the same course as us, heading to Falmouth. I’m not sure
if we had a fog bell but I don’t remember ringing it if we did. I just kept on
course and Larry stayed below watching the screen and I guess that big blob that
he thought was the ferry.
Today, we’re docking today at
the Falmouth public docks and to our amazement, they are directly across the
channel from where we used to dock. This time we’re backing the stern in so the
bow is facing out. We will have a fixed dock on our starboard side. The wind
is pretty strong. There is a young teenage girl waving us to the dock and is
there to help with the lines. I hate these fixed docks because I can’t get off
the boat when docking. The lines have to be wrapped around the large poles and
it’s not easy to tie them or readjust them quickly and then I have to constantly
reposition the fenders so they keep us off the poles. I really just hate them.
Larry tells me that we’ll need to throw the forward spring line to the girl and
to tell her to tie it forward to hold us off the bulkhead. That’s the most
important one. Then I need to get the rest of the lines to her to tie.
It was so great to be back to
Falmouth. We could see across the channel where we used to dock our boat and
remember the great times we had there. We knew several of the people that
rented condos nearby and also boat slips next to our slip for our first boat.
We were the only ones that didn’t have a condo. We just had the boat, so we
slept and ate on the boat. We found out at the end of the summer they had the
nick named us “boat people”. We actually think as we are sitting in this
present slip that this is the same slip that our first boat was sitting in
during a Falmouth Boat Show when we first saw her and bought our first boat. It
was a 36 foot Heritage trawler. She wasn’t much to look at but I fell in love
with the inside. We had been looking and looking and finally we found her. It
didn’t cost much and wasn’t new. She was light weight and tall so would always
catch the wind and blow us around like a kite on water. It probably didn’t help
that the whole back cockpit was enclosed in plastic giving her even more wind
break than structurally should have. The broker selling the boat was a nice
Irish guy named Dudley and we immediately liked him. He was the one that got us
the slip across the way too which by the way are hard to find in this popular
place. Well, we bought the boat impulsively and I think the following weekend
Dudley had moved it across the harbor to its permanent slip. We came down that
weekend, our first weekend on the boat, which I think was Memorial Day Weekend.
Dudley said he’d come by during the weekend to give us a lesson on how to run
the boat. We sat on the boat for a day and a half and Dudley hadn’t shown up
yet. Larry got impatient and said “the heck with it, let’s go”. 
Falmouth is still pretty much
the same as when we were here boating 10 years ago except that our friends now
all seem to be more land wealthy as the real estate market has skyrocketed.
Some have bought their own places and moved on but not far. It’s no longer the
same group of friends and the fun afternoon get-togethers on the docks. Life
has moved on to the next stage.