Halfway Point, Nantucket.

Work, work, work. Here is Jim off on his daily commute to the Edgartown office. Where is the office? Why at 'Espresso Love' of course. That's the local coffee/internet cafe where Jim can plug in and deal with all the client needs. Not to mention charge up the 'ol iphone and computer. So much for a quiet summer for Jim.
Now, on to the next destination. Nantucket. We pulled up stakes and headed out from Edgartown on a cold and overcast morning. See below. But as we made the trip across to Nantucket island, the sun came out and the seagulls were chirping.
The crossing took about four hours which is a little longer than expected. Because it was a Sunday, we didn't see much other traffic on the water. But the harbor was pretty full when we arrived and we felt lucky that we had secured an advanced reservation. A friendly harbor boat escorted us to our mooring location. They then stopped by to give us hand-outs on the island. What a really nice greeting. Very impressive.

Today the sun has gone away again and it's raining. Bob looks at it as a free 'boat wash'. There was a ton of salt on the decks. Whatever. This island is the mid-point in our adventure. So from here we will retrace the route already made. Bob had some nice news from the Virgin Islands this morning. Three more of his paintings have sold. One of them a large one. Always nice to get that kind of unexpected news. Maybe now he will start to work on those 'summer paintings' that he talked about. Can you say procrastinate? Whatever, again.
Tonight JimBob will celebrate the art sales with a dinner on shore. So many wonderful restaurants and so little time. Good thing because Bob is getting fatter by the minute!
Hope all is well with all our followers. Stay tuned as usual. Who knows what funny stuff will turn up!

Land-Ho, again. Edgartown Martha's Vineyard.

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Once again we got up early and headed off for the next island on our route. This time it's Martha's Vineyard. Specifically, Edgartown harbor. We had a nice southerly breeze and motor sailed past the town lighthouse, see above. We were a day ahead of schedule, so we picked up a temporary mooring and were moved to our permanent spot the next morning, see above again.
Jim now has to go to work! Of course he donned a wonderful business look and called for the launch service to pick him up. I overheard the launch guy exclaim, "Are you off for work, and from your boat?" Yes working from the Far Niente...a tough job but somebody has to do it! All the launch guy could say was "Awesome!"

Now what will Bob do to fill his time? Paint? Not yet. There is much to explore and photos to take for possible paintings. Also there is soooo much seafood to eat. Why not have lunch and watch all the beautiful craft sail past the Chappy ferry. "Sure, give me another chardonnay."
Then it was off to the the local laundry to drop off our mammoth load to dirty duds. My goodness, fifty dollars worth of stuff! Whatever, at least we now have clean sheets.
Jim has really been working hard, but I managed to get him to take Sunday off. We drove out to the Gay Head lighthouse and had a delicious lunch overlooking the Vineyard Sound. Once again it was local seafood so fresh that the fish seemed to jumping around on the plate. Yummy.

One evening we took in a chamber music concert at the Edgartown Whaling Church. Very cool. The music was amazing. Afterwords we had a late dinner of, wait for it, seafood! Perhaps we are growing gills!
Today we got a text message from our neighbors the Rogers. They are visiting Nantucket and plan to join us in Edgartown later this week. These are the same two who came to our outboard-rescue on Block Island. Can't seem to get away from home completely!
Next week we head over to Nantucket ourselves. Jim has work there as well. What a life, jealous?

De next island be Cuttyhunk island.

Moving on, we have now arrive at Cuttyhunk island. This is one of the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts. We were greeted by a friendly islander who viewed us with a wary eye. Did he/she poop on our engine. No, thankfully not.
Our trip from Block Island was smooth since we have now decided to continue a plan of early morning departures. The sea is calm and the winds have been fair, motor sailing once again. Upon our arrival we have many choices for a mooring because we are early. Later in the day we watched many a boat head out for lack of space.
Once settled in, we went ashore to scope out the local environs. Very beautiful and very remote. We liked our choice in mooring because we were on the front line and all the nightly noise fell away from us. There were several hardy parties to be seen. But not heard by us!
Exploring the island was a gas. We went for a long hike out to the most westerly end of the island where there are World War II bunkers. Jim pissed on one. Really Jim is nothing sacred? We provisioned up at the only market and arranged for a lobster dinner that night. People here are very friendly and the whole place seems like a throw-back to an earlier time in America.
Next morning we walked to a B&B and had a lovely breakfast of french toast. A wedding was setting up and there was lots of activity.
Here's a photo of Jim hanging out with the Blues Brothers. Wow, who remembers them?
Anyway, back to our dinner for the evening. We ordered two lobsters that were cooked for us in advance. All we had to do was stop by the dock at 6PM and pick them up. Corn and salad provided by us from the local market. As we were setting up dinner, a small craft of really cute young folks began to cruise the harbor. It was a raw bar! Local oysters, clams and absolutely killer chowder. Of course we had to have some of that. Here's Bob picking up the yummy stuff.
Tomorrow we head out for Martha's Vineyard.
Full of seafood and happy as clams!
Follow with us...more to come!
JimBob

We're back on de island. Block Island.

Maybe we just love islands, anyway JimBob have arrived on Block Island, Rhode Island. It's an island fest! The sail from Stonington was smooth and fast. Bob had a celebratory rum punch and Jim noticed that we were greeted by a hot air balloon. No connection to us surely.

 We headed into town to see the sites. Since it was Sunday the ferries from the mainland had deposited tons of tourists. What a crowd of fat people! Shame on Americans! Jim had some work to do so Bob rented a Moped and went exploring. Upon leaving the dock we ran the dinghy aground. Bad move. We soon discovered that the prop wouldn't turn anymore. So, in the morning Bob rowed the dinghy into a marina for advise. The expert said that a 'sheer pin' had snapped and would have to be replaced. But he couldn't get the prop off to make the fix. Bob rowed back to the boat. Not one to be daunted, Bob spent the next two hours hammering on the prop. Good thing he had his trusty carpenter's hammer. It finally came off. But the sheer pins was broken off and stuck in place. Enter our neighbors Joanne and Dave Rogers. They appear on their lovely boat and Dave insists that he can help. Bob and Dave spend the following several hours hammering on the sheer pin. Finally it comes off too. A new pin is inserted and off we go in the outboard. Thank you Mr. Rogers!
Dinner with the Rogers is arranged at a fun restaurant. JimBob get sage advise about the next leg of the journey...Cuttyhunk Island.
Check out the beautiful Block Island sunset. Looks like one of Bob's paintings. Perhaps it will be. After an early evening JimBob crawl into the sack to get some needed rest. Tomorrow we head out for a long open water sail to Cuttyhunk Island, which is part of the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusets. We haven't had much wind, so we've been motor sailing in the early morning hours to make better time. So far, so good. Jim looks wonderful. Bob is peeling!
Jim is feeding us well. More island tales soon.

Yo He Ho, We're off on the bounding main!

       So at 6:45 AM on Friday, July 6, JimBob cast away the lines and set sail for their big summer sailing adventure. As you can see by the photo at the left, we are dragging our link to the world of the land-lover behind us! It was a beautiful morning. Can you believe that we actually got up so early to get started? I think we were both still asleep when we left our little home port of Dolphin Cove. Cast away that safety net! Jim looks confident that Bob knows what he's doing on the boat. Bob is chugging down some stiff caffeine to hide his nerves.
      The weather was ideal for a very long first day. We had a lot of miles to cover and, in the end, it took us eight and a half hours to get up the Connecticut coast to Westbrook. If we had been driving we could have made the trip in a couple of hours. Whatever. After the long trip we spent a quite night in a slip. Little did we know that the slip we occupied would leave us sitting on the ground during the night. But as the sun came up, so did the tide. And so did the boat. Off we went, again an early start. No sooner did we slip out to sea when Bob discovered that the GPS (satellite navigation system) wasn't working. We went around in circles for a while trying to figure out what was wrong. No luck. Bob made the decision to navigate the old-fashioned way. With charts. Thank you Roy Sambrook for the new set of charts for coastal New England. They came in super handy!
      After arriving at Stonington, Connecticut and settling in to Gene Brown's (our neighbor) lovely slip, we were fortunate to meet Al, the dock wizard of Stonington. He took Bob to the local West Marine where after forking over eight hundred dollars we had a new GPS. Does everything on a boat cost a thousand dollars? Apparently so! Here it is below, jury rigged near the wheel for good viewing.
      Now we are set for the off-shore trip to Block Island, Rhode Island.     Stay tuned!