ssloop: Fiddler’s Cove, MA to Glen Cove, NY

Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard have long been the playground of the rich and famous. But their history is steep in the whaling industry. In the 1800’s these two small islands owned 1/4 of America’s whaling fleet. By the 20th century, with the decline of the whaling industry, these beautiful islands became popular with tourists.

On Tuesday, August 12, we pulled out of Fiddler’s Cove, headed south to Vineyard Sound and across Nantucket Sound for 48 miles to Nantucket Island. We dropped the anchor in the protected bay in the harbor. Wow! What a lot of yachts in the marinas, on mooring balls and on anchor. We’re not in Maine anymore! We’ve left behind the working harbors of fishermen and lobster boats for the extravagance of luxury. We took the dinghy to town and found a spot amongst hundreds of other dinghies to tie up. We spent the afternoon in town checking out the shops, restaurants and also people watching.

The next morning we moved 28 miles over to the bay off of Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. The anchorage here actually outside the harbor in the open waters of the Sound so we were happy to have calm weather. Here we dropped the hook amongst mega yachts and huge sailing vessels. We felt pretty small. Here we also enjoyed the afternoon scoping out the town and the pretty people.

On Thursday, we traveled 68 miles across Rhode Island Sound to Block Island, Rhode Island. Block Island has a very large bay in the middle which is filled with hundreds of boats on anchor or moorings balls or slips in the marinas. A very popular boating destination with pretty beaches and a fun town.

Due to upcoming unsettled weather in the forecast our next stop was 40 miles over to Greenport, New York. We stayed at the Safe Harbor Stirling Marina for 3 nights. The first 2 days we enjoyed the town and the nearby pretty waterways. A true boating paradise.

Monday morning we received news that Sheli’s mom had a stroke so we began investigating how, when and where we could leave the boat and fly home. Sheli’s brother Rod, flew from California to Grand Rapids that day to be with mom giving us time to get a plan together.

We were able to make arrangements to have the boat hauled out on Thursday at Safe Harbor Glen Cove, NY. Our overnight stops to get to Glen Cove included Safe Harbor Pilots Point, Westbrook CT and a night on anchor at Sand City, Northport, NY.

The crew at Glen Cove Marina had the travel lift in position as we pulled in. Thirty minutes later the boat was out of the water. We spent the afternoon closing things up, throwing/giving away any food that would spoil as we were going “dark ship” (no electric). That evening we took Uber 45 minutes to a hotel near NY LaGuardia Airport. Friday, August 21 we flew home.