Pristine beaches. Quiet mooring field. Peaceful village. Tranquil harbor. Picturesque beyond belief. Then we showed up!
Tucked away just west of Martha’s Vineyard lies Cuttyhunk, a most isolated yet beautiful island, where the biggest attraction is someone arriving on their boat. We may have slightly shattered the serenity during our two night stay, but despite that we were really able to relax. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Taking a boat vacation isn’t just about the place you anchor and what you do while there. The voyage is an equally exciting aspect of the trip. “Without the voyage, there would be no journey”-Admiral Heidi, probably.
Actually, as soon as the van is loaded with all of our supplies and we pull out of our driveway, heading to the marina, the vacation has begun. Provisioning the boat the night before departure is a job the kids selflessly leave to me and Danny while they pursue ways to disturb our neighbors along the dock. As it is for many Domestic Engineers, planning and then packing the food was my responsibility, and you better believe I brought an avocado along for the ride because it elevates any dish and what is wrong with trying to bring a little sophistication to the meals when it’s nothing but peanut butter and jelly, ad nauseam, I’d like to know? I might still be a little salty about that. IYKYK.
Speaking of salty, the cruise to Cuttyhunk was nearly perfect. Clear skies, glassy seas, and empty shipping lanes are the stuff of captains’ dreams, and honestly their passengers too because you want repeat customers, you know? The only thing that could have made it better would have been to spot some sea life. But getting back to those passengers and their dreams, I’d say they’d rather have an easy passage with no wildlife sighting than see a dolphin but in four foot swells!
As stated earlier, Cuttyhunk is beautiful. It is also one of the tiniest places I’ve ever been. The island is so small the post office, pizza restaurant, and general store are all part of people’s homes and there are no cars, only go-carts. You may not think this is much of a problem, but according to local chit-chat, Larry was trying to get into the laneway of Curly’s home the other day, but Mo’s go-cart was in the way and he wasn’t even there to move it so Larry had to wait for Mo’s return before he could park where he needed in order to do the job he was there for. I wanted to hear how it all panned out, but we were done with our ice cream we’d purchased from a shack on the dock the size of a double-wide outhouse and it was time to dinghy back to our boat. It just goes to show you that no matter how idyllic the location, there are bad drivers everywhere!
You may not get the best sense of how small the island is (and I’m kicking myself for not having taken pictures of the home-based stores or the shack shops on the dock whose maximum occupancy was probably four), but its beauty is hard to miss. Another advantage these pictures have is that you can neither hear how quiet the island is nor how we definitely disturbed that peace. The kids conducted their outdoor activities exactly the way those videos promoting travel to a water-based destination wouldn’t: loudly. You know how they’re always showing off the surrounding nature with smiling people quietly fishing or paddleboarding or swimming or sitting in chairs or whatever they’re doing? They are showing you a lie; none of those activities are done quietly. You can’t just paddleboard. It has to actually be a jousting match. You can’t just jump into the water off the swim platform; you have to dive off from the roof simultaneously. Over and over and over. You can’t just stand aft to fish. You must run bow to stern, constantly, in case the fish have been swimming circles around the boat.
After two days of this, we decided we needed to spread the joy of our presence elsewhere, so we motored over to Martha’s Vineyard, which was approximately 25 miles away. Cruising at a cool 8 nautical mph, we pulled into the marina about three hours later.
As you have hopefully already noticed, Ellie has appeared in several of the photos. This July boat trip was Ellie’s first with us and my feelings on her presence can be summed up in one question: have you ever had fun shopping with your boys? The question isn’t limited to actual shopping; the point is that it was simply just so nice to have her with us as a capable and quieter mariner.
Once done playacting as tourists, we returned to the boat for the evening, mentally preparing ourselves for the voyage home the next morning. Despite the sunshine, smooth seas, blue skies, beautiful destinations, eating out, family time, book reading, and swimming, I’m never ready to return to life as we normally know it 🙂
But return home we did, and, as they say, this is the end.
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