Sloops and schooners sailing out of Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard. Even if you don't have a sailboat, there are plenty of opportunities to sign up for day sails and sunset cruises, on beautiful wooden boats like these.
A Boat Birthday Party! Don't get drunk and fall in the water. And if you do, could you take this scrub brush with you and clean the barnacles off the hull?
Just another day, and sunset, on the water. Quiet evening at anchor are spent talking, reading, writing, fishing, cooking good food, having a glass of wine. No TV, no shows about the coming zombie apocalypse. If it does come, I just hope those zombies can't swim.
Three generations - Lilan, Sophia, Annie - in Cuttyhunk Harbor, Massachusetts. Sailing is a great way to spend time with family, because you can't escape them even if you wanted to! So you better get along. This was a short, happy cruise, but try this for a month (tight spaces, stressful situations, little privacy) and results may vary.
One of my favorite moments of the day. Sails are stowed, anchor is dug into the bottom, dinner is cooking on the grill, a salty breeze cools off the long sunny day. Time for a jump in the ocean, before the sharks get too active. Best to have a crewmember test the water first.
Family Time on Aquinnah - my cousin Treat and uncle David, out for a day sail from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven. The sail was brisk, but against the tide the shoreline hardly moved at all. When Buzzards Bay empties, the current through Woods Hole can be 5-6 knots.
Stacey at the helm on the crossing to Martha's Vineyard. It's good to get crew involved in boat handling, for safety (in case I fall overboard), for their own enjoyment, and so the captain can take a nap.
On a sailboat, there is plenty of time to fool around and relax. Unless you enjoy constantly working on projects, in which case there is always plenty to do. I prefer spending my time sailing, exploring new cities, meeting the locals, walking deserted beaches, snorkeling coral reefs, rather than varnishing woodwork. So my topside woodwork has gone 'natural' and native, as have I.
Smooth sailing across Nantucket Sound. The Sound is full of shifting sand shoals that have wrecked hundreds of boats over the centuries. Charted depths and actual depths can be very different, with disastrous results if you are not careful.
The sand shoals (Yellow) between Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Every storm can drastically change these shoals and depths. Cape Cod and the Islands were formed by the advance and retreat of the last ice age, some 23,000 years ago.
"East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold."
~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House
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