Cape Cod 4th of July

[RicM]

Miss K, Time after Time, and I are in Cotuit Harbor on Cape Cod, waiting for the parade in town to start. Got here yesterday after an easy 5 hour run from Wickford. Cousin Ron (and aspiring Albin 31TE owner) secured us a mooring in one of the prettiest NE harbors you'll ever see, a town that was the summer fantasy of my youth. My cousins had horses, boats, cars, a pool table, air hockey games etc etc all a few years before I did ( they being older and of more means). The beach was walking distance and every visit included a big clam bake in the back yard on the white shell driveway that was made from the remains of hundreds of clambakes. Here I am, many many years later sitting in the harbor on my own boat, still digesting last nights clambake that included blue crabs & striped bass, thinking that life is a pretty wondrous thing.

[DougSea]

Miss K, Time after Time, and I are in Cotuit Harbor on Cape Cod, waiting for the parade in town to start. Got here yesterday after an easy 5 hour run from Wickford. Cousin Ron (and aspiring Albin 31TE owner) secured us a mooring in one of the prettiest NE harbors you'll ever see, a town that was the summer fantasy of my youth. My cousins had horses, boats, cars, a pool table, air hockey games etc etc all a few years before I did ( they being older and of more means). The beach was walking distance and every visit included a big clam bake in the back yard on the white shell driveway that was made from the remains of hundreds of clambakes. Here I am, many many years later sitting in the harbor on my own boat, still digesting last nights clambake that included blue crabs & striped bass, thinking that life is a pretty wondrous thing.

Sounds like a great trip Ric! (Both the actual one and the memory lane voyage...)

I don't know if you saw my Edgartown post but I wanted to make sure you knew that your description of Lake Tashmoo last summer made me insist to Kat that we stop there as part of our trip. It was beautiful! I suspect our next MV trip will have more nights there, the walk into Vineyard Haven from the little town dock was a piece of cake, despite the pouring rain on the walk back. (Actually, we kind of enjoyed the walk in the rain!)

[RicM]

It is now the 8th of July, and I am writing this from the dock at Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville. What!? How did we end up here? True it was not part of the original game plan, but then most of the week has not gone according to plan, it has been much, much, better!
The parade was hysterical, a sort of hometown, cub scouts and fire engines meets Mardi Gras kinda thing. For some reason everyone in the parade throws candy and beads to the spectators. No one knows why. There are home made floats of pirate gangs, mermaids (basically a pagan display of which teenage girls developed over the winter, a kind of pubescent coming out party), and lots and lots of Stanley Cups made from cake forms and tinfoil. My favorite was a giant (5 ft across) steamer clam on a cart behind a sit-down lawn mower. The clams' "woodaler" was rigged with a super soaker to allow it to squirt salt water into the crowd en route.

After that we had dinner with Cousin Ron and then fireworks at "the shack", a place so mythical there isn't room to describe it here. Cousin Derek, of Islamorada fame, was back for the festivities, and being in the 40 ish age bracket was playing beer pong with high school buddies. No fishing for them the next day, they were not "sea worthy" until Thursday. I remember (vaguely) when I could drink like that.

Tuesday was a recovery day all around, dingy trip across the harbor to Samson Island beach, lots of naps, and Miss K finds herself falling into a love relationship with Cotuit, and even I have to admit to getting sucked in even deeper. Every morning on the mooring is more beautiful and peaceful than the one before... then trouble in paradise!

[RicM]

Trouble comes in the form of the pump out boat, ain't it always the way? Turns out the moorings are owned by the town and are registered to a specific boat. Even with permission, you are not allowed to use someone else's mooring. This is supposedly to prevent a black market in moorings (which can take several generations to get and are to Kettleers what low numbered license plates are to Rhode Island politicians). Kettleers is what Cotuit residents are known as because the land upon which it sits was bought from the Wampanoags for a kettle and a hoe. Unfortunately the land was actually owned by the Mashpee Indians, but thats another history lesson.

Anyhoo, the pumpout boat is manned by the assistant Harbormaster who politely pumps our head then tosses us from the mooring with a stern warning instead of a boat ticket. Our plan had been to go on to Chatham today anyway, were we planned to try try tuna chasing, a sport of some renown locally, but over venison burgers at the home of Capt Scott we determine that the Chatham giant tuna is over, but there is school tuna at "The Claw", about 15 mi south of the Vinyard. The Capt is extremely dubious about my plan to tail rope a 200 pound tuna and drag it backwards until it croaks and suggests that we stay in Cotuit and he will guide us on Thursday for school tuna. His prediction is that a 200 pounder will turn TaT's engine box into wall insulation and break all our legs. We heed the Captain. Crosby Yacht Yard, while hideously expensive ($4/ft, no showers), and unbelievably picturesque, provides the one thing every tuna nut lusts for, FREE ICE! Thursday morning at 4:30 am we load up with 50# of block and cube and pick up Cousin Ron and Capt Scott at the town dock and start steaming south.

[RicM]

Now I know what you are all asking, where's the pictures? I left the laptop at home this trip and I'm using my new iPad, which, they forget to tell you, has no way of ingestling photos from a non Apple device like a CAMERA!

So anyways, we steam south for about 3 hours and sure enough BAM! Tuna busting bait! Not tons of tuna, not giants, but respectable, 40-50 # fish. We start the troll and hook up, but nobody picks up the rod, cause we didn't want to jinx it by deciding the order. The fish escapes. Capt Scott is the picture of a Cape Captain, crusty, and extremely profane, with an air of imminent threat and danger. He has calmed down quite a bit since I first fished with him in the 90's. His look says "if you f*^kheads dont figure this out quick I'm gonna use the gaff on YOU". We figure it out quick. Ron's up next.

Left side rigger goes off, Ron looks at Scott's hockey stick/homade gaff and steps up smartly. The fight is on and it's a good one. Hard to tell who's more exhausted or afraid at the end, Ron or the fish, but the fish ends up dying and Cousin Ron doesn't. It's a good thing.

Very nice 60 pound bluefin tuna in the box we circle the area, still getting dive-bombed by terns, but start getting doubles and triples of bluefish, "the f*^king yellow eyed devils" in Scott's icthyology. By this time it's 1pm, we have been on the move since 4:30am and still have a 3 hour run back. The seas have been a gracious 2-3ft, the breeze 5-10 from the south so we decide to put it astern and run for home and sashimi. Pictures and video to come.

[DougSea]

Now I know what you are all asking, where's the pictures? I left the laptop at home this trip and I'm using my new iPad, which, they forget to tell you, has no way of ingestling photos from a non Apple device like a CAMERA!

You need one of these:

CameraConnectionKit.jpg

Quite the story Ric, as always! They're pretty strict about moorings in Edgartown, but at least you can get a town mooring fairly easily! Looking forward to seeing you guys at the rendezvous, and hearing all about the trip...although I think you wrote most of it...on an iPad keyboard...above.

Safe travels!

[RicM]

Doug,

So I was told that there's no overnight anchorage in Tashmoo by a couple of residents. I guess that enforcement is lax, but it is illegal, though not posted. We got away with it, but I would have felt terrible if you got busted. Are you able to stay the whole weekend at the rendezvous this year or are you doing the hit & run again? We can't wait to see the new boat. I will be getting a camera dingus for the iPad on return. Otherwise it's an excellent replacement for a laptop in my book.

[DougSea]

Doug,

So I was told that there's no overnight anchorage in Tashmoo by a couple of residents. I guess that enforcement is lax, but it is illegal, though not posted. We got away with it, but I would have felt terrible if you got busted. Are you able to stay the whole weekend at the rendezvous this year or are you doing the hit & run again? We can't wait to see the new boat. I will be getting a camera dingus for the iPad on return. Otherwise it's an excellent replacement for a laptop in my book.

Interesting...I think they may be playing the same game as the people who put up the "non navagable" sign at the Sand Hole near Oyster Bay. I used a bit of my Google-foo and found the following: http://www.tisburyma.gov/Pages/TisburyM ... textPage=1

Check out the info near the bottom!

I'm looking forward to going back next summer!

I plan on spending the whole weekend at the rendezvous. Admiral Kat won't be with me as she's insisting on doing her "fire pit crew" duties at the club clambake. I'll miss her... but we just had an awesome 8 days on the boat, so I'l get over it!

The camera thing works well for the iPad but I have to admit I haven't tried to upload to AOG and I'm not sure the website controls will work, as the iPad doesn't have a "normal" file system. BUT it does work well for viewing and uploading to systems like Flickr that have an app. I love mine, and rarely feel the need to break out the laptop. Must say I am impressed by the amount of typing you did for the above!

[RobS]

I will be getting a camera dingus for the iPad on return. Otherwise it's an excellent replacement for a laptop in my book.

$600 and no card slot

I still like my $275 netbook WHICH COMES WITH an SD card slot. And it's always wifi connected via my 3G hotspot enabled Droid.

[DougSea]

$600 and no card slot

I still like my $275 netbook WHICH COMES WITH an SD card slot. And it's always wifi connected via my 3G hotspot enabled Droid.

Nope...not going with the netbook.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the iPad, carry it with me constantly. Don't need to open it up, the battery lasts forever, I'm always connected (3G and Wi-fi) and the screen is great. And my Otter-box case has already proven it's toughness!

[RobS]

And my Otter-box case has already proven it's toughness!

At least it's too big to end up flooded in the aft scupper like your Olympus cause this one ain't waterproof

[RicM]

Do I have to separate you two?

[RobS]

Do I have to separate you two?

I already took care of that with Nancy, the dockmaster, make that dockmistress, at Coecles

[jcollins]

Do I have to separate you two?

Ric,
You crack me up.
Your description of your travels, as usual, is great.

[Chuck Waygood]

Ric, this Florida guy loves your cruising story. Can't wait for the pics. Thanks for the fun.