Marthas Vineyard to Block Island

We had a calm night to sleep in but Peter woke early and raised the crew by 6:30AM to head to Block Island. We raised anchor by 6:45 and headed north. Unfortunately when we reached our turn to the west into Vineyard Sound the fog closed in. Peter decided to turn into Vineyard Haven and anchor for a while to let the fog clear. This place on the sound is extremely busy with ferry traffic between Woods Hole and 3 locations on Martha's Vineyard. We were going against a strong current and had limited maneuverability so the wisest decision was to wait it out. After an hour at anchor we decided to go ashore and do some provisioning at the grocery store on shore.

Just a little boat with it's own helicopter

The original "Black Dog" schooner



By 1:30 the fog cleared and we hoped the current had slowed to give us a better passage through Vineyard Sound. We got our wish on the fog bit but the current was still on the strong side so we had to abandon the trip to Block Island and decided to pull into Menemsha. This is a tiny fishing village which has not changed it's character on Martha's Vineyard over the years. Years ago the fisherman made there living by spearing swordfish offshore and fishing in the sound. Once "line fishing" started with the bigger ships it depleted the swordfish supply and the govn't had to regulate the number being caught. This changed forever the nature of Menemsha. There is a beautiful sculpture at the harbor entrance depicting a fisherman spearing a swordfish.

The other claim to fame for Menemsha is it's use in the film "Jaws". There were sheds built along the docks for the movie that remain today and the harbor entrance is the same used when Jaws swam in through the breakwater. Every August the little town celebrates a Jaws Festival.

The infamous Jaws breakwater

The harbor masters office

We would have loved to stay longer in Menemsha but all night we were rolling violently in the waves from a west wind so we did not sleep much.

The next morning we left by 8:30AM thinking the fog was clearing. It didn't. We had about 25 miles to Block Island, well offshore on a direct route, and had fog almost the entire way. The visibility changed from about 1/2 mile to 500ft. Once it cleared as we passed Newport then came on top of us again. thank goodness we had our radar and AIS on so we could see boat traffic. We had to cross 2 shipping channels but found no large ship traffic to worry about. Jane got to use her favorite toy (new in 2009), an automatic foghorn. this allows her to relax a bit and not have to constantly blow the hand held air horn.

It was a slow going trip as we had current against us all the way. Our top speed was maybe 6.5k. Closing in on Block Island the fog came and went but thankfully it did clear long enough to allow us in through the channel and get anchored for the night.