Cape Cod

Left beautiful Newburyport on the ebb tide under sunny skies and 20 knot NW winds on our starboard quarter.  Seas were high as we approached Cape Anne, but once we rounded it, they abated a little.  As a result, we decided to sail by our initial destination of Manchester-by-the-sea, and continue past Gloucester, crossing the Gulf of Massachusetts, passing the city of Boston on our starboard, and finally grabbing a mooring in the little village of Scituate.....a distance of about 50 miles!  We have northerly winds predicted for the whole week, so decided to take advantage of them, as the prevailing SW winds would be on our nose, making the way more difficult and slower.

saying goodbye to Newburyport

double lighthouses!?

Cape Anne

Boston

Scituate is a nice little town and we were met by a friendly and accommodating young lady who showed us to our mooring, then brought us in on the launch for much-needed showers at the club house, then took us in to town and picked us up again after we re-provisioned at a good grocery store!  All in all, we were settled back on the boat and making dinner by 6:00pm as a result!

Scituate lighthouse; where two daughters of the lighthouse keeper 'scared off'  invading British troops when they saw them coming in by boat, by playing 'Yankee Doodle' with such vigor, the British worried that there was a whole band of American soldiers waiting in the bush for them, so they turned around and went back to their ship!!

The next morning dawned bright and sunny again, with more strong winds from the north.  We decided to make for Cape Cod and the canal.  Again we had to time our entrance to the canal, as it is seven miles long, so one doesn't want to be bucking the tide the whole way!  On the way we passed Plymouth...yes, THE Plymouth!  Took a picture of the lighthouse, but the famous rock was somewhere inside the harbour, so didn't see it.  Apparently the pilgrims actually made their first landfall in Provincetown, right in the 'fist' at the top of Cape Cod, but were unable to leave their ships.  After about five weeks, they moved on to Plymouth where they settled and the rest, they say, is history!!

Plymouth lighthouse

Our trip through the canal was uneventful, but pleasant and fast on the westward-flowing ebb.  It is a fairly wide, placid piece of water, well protected from the winds, so warm and quiet, bordered by bicycle/walking paths on either side and lined with sporadic homes watching the boats motoring by.  It was quiet as far as traffic was concerned also, so pretty much had the canal to ourselves!  At the west end of the canal we came out in Buzzard's Bay, a beautiful bay that reminded us somewhat of Lake Ontario...lots of water, but land within site of three out of four horizons!  The water was lovely and calm, and in fact the wind had also died down to about 5 knots, so it was a nice peaceful end to our day!  We anchored that night in Wood's Hole, in a harbour called Hadley Harbour, at the western-most end of Cape Cod, just before the little chain of the Elizabeth Islands begins.  Wood's Hole is well-known for it's scientific community, specializing in oceanographic and marine sciences.  One can only imagine hanging out at the local coffee shop and listening in on the conversations around you!!

entering the east end of the canal

transiting the canal

exiting the canal at the western end, entering Buzzard's Bay

The next morning the north winds pushed us across Nantucket Sound and on to Martha's Vineyard!!  We decided we were so close, and had heard so much about it, that we really had to stop.  We decided to go to Edgartown (named after the son of the Duke of York at the time..1671) rather than the much noisier and busier Vineyard Haven or Oak Bluffs.  Wow!!!  It was really pretty!  Every street we walked on looked like some movie ideal of good old Americana!!  White clapboard houses with black window shutters and white picket fences, surrounded by well-kept lawns and gardens with LOTS of trees, lining narrow, winding streets and brick sidewalks.  It really was charming!!  The downtown was very walkable (as was the whole town, as far as we could see) with lots of shops, restaurants, two ice-cream shops, and a coffee shop.  We regretted not being there on Thursday, as one of the restaurants had some live jazz playing there both Thursday and Friday.  We did find a great book store with the best children's section I have ever seen!!!  Unfortunately (or fortunately??!!) we got there only about half an hour before closing, so had limited time.  The grandchildren almost received a load of books for Christmas!!!!

The town started out as a whaling town, so there are a number of houses still being lived in that were old whaling captain's homes.  One of the captains brought home a chinese pagoda tree in a flower pot in 1833 to grace the home he was building at the time, and it is still there....176 years old!!!  The town is also where Herman Melville made his one whaling trip which inspired Moby Dick.  Rumour has it that his captain, Captain Valentine Pease, (whose home we went to see also) inspired the character Captain Ahab.  And finally, for all the movie buffs out there, Edgartown was the town where they filmed Jaws!!  I didn't recognize any of it, but that is par for the course!!  Apparently the chinese pagoda tree made a cameo appearance.....  We really enjoyed wandering around the town, soaking up the late afternoon and early evening fall sunshine, and are so glad we went out of our way to come!!

entering Edgartown Harbour

176 year old Chinese pagoda tree!!

Captain Pease's house  (aka Captain Ahab!)

very cool wind vane!

The next day we left, again with those northerlys still blowing, but under cloudy skies, and made for Cuttyhunk, at the southwesterly tip of the Elizabeth Islands.  Once again, we made really good time and arrived early, only to discover the entrance way was trickier than we had anticipated and we would have to round the bottom of the island and come back to it to get in on the Buzzard's Bay side, so decided instead to push on right across Buzzard's Bay, to Newport, Rhode Island.

As we approached Narragansett Bay where Newport is situated, the sun came out and we arrived in the busy, busy harbour of Newport.  There are more huge (and I mean HUGE!!) sailing vessels (100' plus) and mega yachts here than we have ever seen before in one place!  The whole place is a little overwhelming to be honest, and we have decided to just stay the one night.  We do prefer the little villages to the cities....one city always seems to be like the other....so we haven't even left the boat and will make our way to Mystic on the outgoing tide!!!!

entering Narraganesett Harbour

Newport harbour