Home Again

We are back in Winchester after an exciting couple of weeks.

After a peaceful night anchored at Fishers Island, we continued to have gloomy skies but otherwise favorable conditions for our trip North. Our first post-Fisher’s stop was Cuttyhunk, one of my favorite way stations in New England. Cuttyhunk is the southernmost island in the Elizabeth Island chain, technically in Massachusetts, but worlds away from civilization. It can only be reached by private boat, mail boat or seaplane, and feels like an old-time summer colony, especially when the population swells from two dozen in the winter to nearly 200 when summer comes. There are no land services to speak of beyond the library, a small general store, and an outdoor pizza restaurant (run out of someone’s basement with six picnic tables beside a pond.) Inscrutably, however, there is an in-water raw-bar in the form of a Boston Whaler that cruises the mooring field at happy hour each night with four enthusiastic college-aged students on board shucking local oysters and selling them over the side to visiting boats. You can also call them on the marine radio (Channel 9) to order fresh shellfish.

Another long day of sailing took us through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. Our friends Dennis and Liz Whittemore, and their daughter Corrine, sailed their new boat Panache to Provincetown to meet us. We had a great time, with the girls swimming off the boat each day and all of us exploring local shops, restaurants, bike trails and beaches.

Provincetown is a very unique place, a ménage of cultures which include a traditional Portugese fishing community, a century-old artists colony, and a gay summer community, complete with drag queens and local favorites the Bare Naked Laddies (modestly clad in miniscule briefs, cowboy boots and ten gallon hats) strutting their finery up and down Commercial Street on warm summer evenings. Somehow the mix seems to work, and the result is a charming community with great seafood, many galleries and a fun evening vibe.

After a great weekend both boats set out to return to Marblehead on Sunday, a sunny, bright day with perfect wind. Almost an hour out, however, we hit a fog bank and visibility dropped to near-zero in a matter of moments. Since we were close to a shipping lane, we quickly deployed the radar and while this enabled us to avoid oncoming traffic, we were soon separated from Panache. After a quick cell conversation, both ships decided to return to Provincetown. It took a couple of days to wait out the fog, but we were glad we did when we had a pleasantl sail to Marblehead later in the week.

It was wonderful to see Marblehead harbor again after almost a year away. As always, we were greeted by nearly 1,000 sailboats that call the harbor home, and after a little searching we soon found our new mooring, right next to Valiant, an early winner of the America’s Cup and the inspiration for the manufacturer of our boat to call its company Valiant Yachts. Nice neighborhood!

So, we are now back in Winchester. Our house seems enormous after ten months on our boat and things are certainly chaotic as we unpack both from Serendipity and our attic. Amelia has taken out every one of her toys to play with, allocating only a few minutes for each. Every time I stop in town I run into a friend or neighbor, often several – a far cry from many months dealing with strangers at every turn. While the sense of community is fantastic, it is also a little disorienting, and I wonder if we can give up our wandering ways.