world of charter

This month we hear from Dave Bernard, who shares memorable moments of visiting "back home" at the south shore of Massachusetts and the ripe summer cruising grounds of southern New England.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY 'WINONA' CREW

A Trip We Will Certainly Never Forget

As the doldrums of winter 2020 slogged on, the reality of my recent sale of my Hunter Legend Soupy Twist II (don't ask) set in. Newly boatless, I needed to book a sailing trip! Somehow, the scheduling gods at my employer blessed me with a couple of weeks off from late July into early August. This would be a great time for my wife Krista, my daughter Alyssa and me to visit "back home" — the south shore of Massachusetts and the ripe summer cruising grounds of southern New England.

Swift Yacht Charters has a great mix of privately owned yachts varying from about 32 to 50 feet in various marinas throughout southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. My biggest desires were modern electronics, a bimini/dodger and a dinghy, and all were met and my expectations exceeded when I booked Winona, a 2019 Jeanneau 419 for seven nights at an excellent price. Quahogs, oysters and lobstah rolls, here we come!

The months and weeks inched toward summer, and it looked as if the COVID debacle was firmly in the rearview mirror. As we neared the charter date of July 25, Hurricane Elsa crept up the East Coast, dragging what seemed to be the entirety of the moisture in the USA behind her. Halfway through July, Massachusetts had rain nearly every day of the month. Surely with the wet start to the month, we were due for some blue skies! Or not …

The crew also included my sister Jess and brother-in-law Andy, and we were all in good spirits as we motored south along the Sakonnet River toward the Atlantic. Apprehension quickly started to mount as the chop grew larger and more frequent, and the wind fought the outbound current. I assured the crew that once we entered the ocean, we'd be making a 90-degree turn for Cuttyhunk, and the wind and waves would be mostly behind us, making for a "smoother" ride (which wasn't really an outright lie). We made 7 knots with

Captain Dave ernard dresses like a local.

A classic schooner shows off in the mooring field.

a second reef on a broad reach at 1520 knots apparent, but the 6-foot-plus waves bashing the stern quarter turned the crew a darker shade of green. We toughed out the last 15 miles to Cuttyhunk, with Alyssa taking a motion sickness-induced nap.

Less than two hours later, we glided into Cuttyhunk, the harbor that's been my desktop screensaver since I booked this trip back in March. A perfect anchorage that blocks the prevailing southwest wind with a small hill dotted with modest, but surely not inexpensive, harbor homes calmed our nerves. As sunset approached, we dinghied ashore, got the requisite T-shirt, and hatched a plan to have dinner on Winona after a brief walk around the few shops and docks.

We hailed the famous floating Raw

Bar on channel 72, and within minutes, our fresh oysters and shrimp cocktails arrived via a skiff staffed by teenagers. Dinner and wine followed, and soon we settled in for our first night of sleep at sea. We had a great night's rest and rustled up the crew for some poorly made (my fault …) percolator coffee and a quick dinghy trip ashore. Cuttyhunk is a beautiful, laid-back place, and we'd have loved to spend some more time here, but we decided to press ahead to Martha's Vineyard, as Jess and Andy's time aboard was short. To get from Cuttyhunk to the Vineyard, we traveled east a few miles to pass through Quicks Hole, a wide passage between the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard, and the preferred passage in any tide other than slack. The passage was timed well, for as we entered, we were rewarded with 9-knot plus SOG and were soon in Vineyard Sound.

The fog hadn't entirely burned off, and the visibility dropped to … um … the minimums prescribed in my charter contract. It quickly became clear that most of the commercial fishing boats aren't AIS-equipped, so we pulled into Tarpaulin Cove on sparsely inhabited Naushon Island. Most of the Elizabeth Islands are privately owned, with only a few homes each, and all we saw in this half-mile-long cove was a quaint New England lighthouse, one home, a moored fishing boat and us. Signs lined the beach every couple of hundred yards, which I assumed said "You're not welcome here!", so we dropped a lunch hook in 15 feet of water, swam, and had a sandwich as we waited for the fog to lift. After a bit, we were underway again toward Vineyard Haven, with a clear view of the island and 10-15 knots behind us, making great time under full sail. We grabbed a ball, headed ashore, made a beer run, and had a nice fried seafood dinner with my old friend Josh, a resident here whom I'd met over 20 years ago. Cuttyhunk, our point of departure that morning, felt like a week ago.

You definitely need at least a couple of days to fully appreciate Martha's Vineyard. I finally figured out how to make decent coffee with the percolator, and the hot sun lured us into a morning swim, which was unfortunately cut short when my sister was certain she saw a shark! (It was actually a surfacing sea bird!) We slipped our mooring and motored a few miles away to Oak Bluffs. A bunch of my high school buddies and their kids planned to meet up to spend a day on the beach — and O.B. is the place to be to keep the kiddos occupied. We anchored off the beach and dinghied ashore, which, judging by the fact that I was the only boat that did this, I'm not entirely sure is legal. I didn't attract

Inset: Cuttyhunk, after the first day's run, restored balance and smiles for Andy and Jess Tamulynas, and Alyssa, Krista and Dave ernard. elow: Dinner delivery at sea

any law enforcement, and the kids had a great time riding the carousel, visiting the toy shops, and playing on the beach.

Most of my high school buds, as well as Jess and Andy, headed home via the ferry, and my friend George and his 9-year-old daughter Violet joined us on Winona for the evening. The wind was perfect for the quick sail back to Vineyard Haven, and George got his turn at the helm.

Vineyard Haven is old-boat heaven. Dozens of sloop- and ketch-rigged wooden boats zigzagged through the mooring field, and there were a couple of three-masted schooners sailing in and out on their sunset cruises.

After breakfast ashore the next morning, we drove George and Violet back to Oak Bluffs in the Jeep I'd rented for the day for a completely unreasonable fee. They departed on the ferry and we explored the island as a small family of three. We headed toward Edgartown, over the famous "Jaws Bridge" from the 1975 movie that was filmed here, and out toward the Katama Airpark. I'm a sucker for grass runways and old airplanes — we stopped for a minute and watched as they loaded up a restored Waco biplane for a quick scenic flight. Across the field is South Beach, where Krista and I got engaged 15 years ago — a mandatory stop!

From South Beach we drove almost an hour to the west side of the island to see Gay Head Lighthouse and cliffs. Perched a couple of hundred feet above the ocean, the visibility was spectacular, and we could almost see as far as Block Island. After a few family photos, we headed to Menemsha, home of the marina where they filmed the Jaws dock scenes. This sleepy corner of MV is pretty touristy, but only has a few seafood shacks, a beach, marina, art gallery and a used book store with some very old sailing books. Take my money! I picked up a 1928 copy of Yacht Navigation and Voyaging for my dad's upcoming 70th birthday.

I had hoped that we could sail all the way to Block Island, but a small craft warning forecast put the brakes on that idea. We did have good weather to get to Newport, so we left Martha's Vineyard as the sun rose to catch the current all the way out of Vineyard Sound. The current here can peak over 4 knots, so good timing is essential. We sailed about 35 of the 40 miles to Newport on a close reach in 10-15 knots of wind in the open ocean with little waves and swell. Our first jibe of the trip brought us through the east passage into Newport at about 1 p.m., eight hours after leaving Martha's Vineyard.

Gay Head Light and cliffs.

Left: Gay Head Light. Top center: n the mansion tour at The reakers. ottom center: S 'Columbia' at rest in Newport Harbor. Right: Horseshoe crabs predate dinosaurs by 200 million years

Mooring balls here are first come, first served, and while many were presently unoccupied, the harbormaster informed me that they were indeed all taken. The wind was up, so I preferred not to anchor, especially since the anchorage was quite crowded and we'd be leaving Winona unattended for lots of sightseeing. I had a slip reservation at Westwind Marina, and a quick phone call got me in a day early. However, this was not without its challenges: My assigned slip was an immediate 210-degree turn from the entrance, with a turning area much less than a boat length. All marina tenants watched me embarrass myself, and with all fenders deployed, including Krista with a roaming fender just in case, we headed in. After cleaning up the boat and a deserved

Dave's dad, Rich ernard, gets time at the helm.

cold beer, we poked around Newport and had an excellent dinner downtown before retiring early for the night.

Mandatory is a mansion tour with Newport's Gilded Age Mansions Trolley Tour. The next day we boarded the nicest trolley I have ever been on and our guide, Troy, glided us around Newport historical sites and through the neighborhoods of dozens of mansions built by the tycoons of the American Industrial Revolution era. Our tour included a guided tour of The Breakers mansion, an unapologetic display of the wealth amassed by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

My parents made the 45-minute drive from my childhood home to join us for a sailing lunch and peek into how the other half of the sailing world lives! We saw megayachts with their "garages" for multiple tenders and jet skis, plenty of 12-meters, modern racers, and 100-ft-plus cutters in addition to hundreds of other yachts that riffraff like myself sail.

We departed Newport around 10 a.m. destined for Third Beach, on the other side of Aquidneck Island, opposite Newport, and halfway back to Winona's home of Portsmouth. We were treated with the replica of the 1937 America's Cup winner, the 135-ft Ranger, filling her spinnaker and making way toward Martha's Vineyard. We feasted on the remaining food and beer on the boat and watched the sunset on the bow.

The final day came too soon, although it felt as if we'd been on board for a month! After a quick snack, we weighed anchor and motored the final eight miles up the Sakonnet River. Once tied up to Winona's mooring, we cleaned up the best we could, hopefully leaving her in better shape than we'd found her.

The cruising grounds of southern New England are a truly magical place to explore via sailboat. There are dozens more anchorages that we didn't experience — when I'm a full-time cruiser, I'll definitely be spending an entire summer here. Oh, and don't forget to visit Naushon Island — it turns out the signs on the beach said "Visitors Welcome" after all! Thanks to Hope at Swift Yachts, Tom, and Winona, and the weather's cooperation, this was a trip we will certainly never forget!

– dave bernard

Alyssa, chillin' out max, on the last day aboard at Third each, RI.