2022-07-23 Newport, RI, Martha's Vineyard and Cuttyhunk. Finished sling seat.

We had a couple of good days in Newport before we left, got groceries, had a nice lunch out, and woo-hoo finished the sling seat sewing project.  

Finishing up the sling seat on the boat.  It is 9.5' long, so takes up a lot of room

Finished sling seat.  Now have to make beanbag smaller for each side.

Back room of cruisers lounge in Newport, RI where we shoved tables aside to sew the long seam on the sling seat.

Tried a new restaurant to celebrate the sling seat completion - and also just to have a nice lunch out.

The last day in Newport, I went in to check out the cruisers exchange/bookshelf and found a very small bin/trash can.  Have been looking for one for the bathroom for about 6 months, but all we have found are too big.   Found this little guy for free at the cruisers exchange/bookshelf.  We had taken in a rug, and some strataglass (clear vinyl used in our dodger) for someone else to use, so must have gotten some good karma, and were rewarded with something we needed.

New small garbage can by toilet working great.   Free is always good.

We left Newport, and headed off to Martha's Vineyard, with plans to visit Nantucket as well.

Many of you probably have heard of both these places, and they have been names in Kris's head for many, many years.  Have read books that mentioned them, seen movies where they are the settings, and heard the names in the news.   With much anticipation on Kris's part we headed to Martha's Vineyard,  had a nice sail, with our first stop the anchorage in Vineyard Haven.

Vineyard Haven harbor, fancy homes on hill

The "Alabama" sailing in Vineyard Haven harbor

Ferry traffic was a constant in the harbor

We went ashore for a walk in Vineyard Haven.   

Typical shake sided home in Vineyard Haven.

Turkeys were eating bird feeder spillage, and not afraid of us.

Interesting sculpture

We stopped and wandered outside the Martha's Vineyard museum at Vineyard Haven (too cheap to pay and go inside)

Martha's Vineyard museum

Nice garden outside the museum

Sculpture outside museum

Vineyard Haven was a nice town, small, with a small touristy downtown.  The next day we decided instead of moving the boat, we would ride the bus to the other towns on Martha's Vineyard, as an all day pass is $8 per person.  We went to the town of Oak Bluffs, which has a lot of interesting homes with gingerbread trim.

Copied direct from Wikipedia " Oak Bluffs is one of the earliest planned residential communities and suburban development in the United States.  Some of the earliest visitors to the area that became Cottage City and later Oak Bluffs were Methodists, who gathered in the oak grove known as Wesleyan Grove each summer for multi-day religious "camp meetings" held under large tents and in the open air.

As families returned to the grove year after year, tents pitched on the ground gave way to tents pitched on wooden platforms and  eventually to small wooden cottages. Small in scale and closely  packed, the cottages grew more elaborate over time. Porches,  balconies, elaborate door and window frames became common, as  did complex wooden scrollwork affixed to the roof edges as decorative trim. 

The unique "gingerbread" or  "Carpenter's Gothic" architectural style of the cottages was often accented by the owner's use of bright, multi-hue paint schemes, and gave the summer cottages a quaint, almost storybook look. Dubbed "gingerbread cottages," they became a tourist attraction in their own right in the late nineteenth century. So, too, did the Tabernacle: a circular, open-sided pavilion covered by a metal roof supported by tall wrought iron columns, erected in the late 1880s, which became a venue for services and community events. The campground's gingerbread cottages are cherished historic landmarks as well as very expensive real estate. Many are still family owned and passed on generation to generation."

Even though they call the places cottages - they are quite large, and you can see where they have been added  on to.  Most look like there have been several additions over the years.

Nice detail work

Many varieties of homes

Cute bright pink cottage.

Row of cottages by a park

The Methodist tabernacle.

Just a very pretty tree

We enjoyed some aimless wandering around Oak Bluffs, then caught the bus to Edgartown.   Edgartown was definitely more touristy, with a lot more people (tourists) wandering around, and lots of traffic.  We hopped back on the bus and returned to Vineyard Haven for lunch, which had not near as many tourists, and a calmer atmosphere.

We talked about sailing to Nantucket, but expected it would be much like Martha's Vineyard, and mostly touristy.  With the forecasted winds, we decided the better plan was to head to start heading west, and find a good spot to sit during some heavy winds coming up.   

Had a nice sail, and passed by Woods Hole.  Woods Hole is another one of those city names that Kris had heard of throughout her life, mostly due to the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute there.  We thought about going to see the institute, but as it was the weekend, decided to pass on that.  There is no good anchorage in Woods Hole, so we west slightly  and anchored in Hadley Harbor.  The pass between Woods Hole and Hadley Harbor is narrow with strong current.  High speed ferries go through there at high speed as well.  It was a difficult enough pass without encountering a ferry while in it.

Rough water through the very narrow pass.  Only 275' between the buoys, with a 3 knot current opposite the wind.

Large mansion on hill in Hadley harbor

While there, it was calm enough, with clear enough water than Dean decided to scrub the hull insides which had some brown stain still.

Laying on the Kayak is the easiest way to clean between the hulls.

After one night in Hadley harbor, we spent 4.5 hours travelling 12 miles, as we were into the wind.  It was a nice sail, with calm seas.   Anchored in another one of those places that Kris has heard of for a long time - Cuttyhunk Island.

Went for a walk ashore.  Went up to Lookout point, highest point on island at 154', and walked to some WWII bunkers built in 1941 by the United States Coast Guard to look for Nazi U-boats.  The bunkers are of course only ruins now.

Cuttyhunk harbor

There are several trails on the island

View of island and ocean from the old WWII bunkers

We were not impressed with Cuttyhunk.  It seems like mostly a place where locals come to grab a mooring, and hang out and sit on a rocky beach and play in the water.   We stopped at the Historical Society building and display and it was mostly about who has lived on the island and who married who and when.  Not our cup of tea.

Glad we went and saw the places we have heard about, as we would always wonder if we had not, but probably will not return to any of them.  They are a bit too touristy and crowded for our enjoyment.

Toady we hope to sail  to Block Island to wait out a bit of a blow, but wind direction may not allow it, in which case we will mostly likely head to Newport again.  Its a foggy morning, wet morning.  74 degrees.