Vacation is tough.
Not the going, but the coming back.
We’ve just returned from a week on the boat. Our itinerary was simple – eventually find our way to Nantucket, then find our way back. We did that with stops at Cuttyhunk and Martha’s Vineyard en route. Overall it was an easy paced and relaxing trip, everyone had fun.
Of course returning to work today I found myself staring at my computer with a dumb look on my face, trying to remember what I was there for. The worst of being Out There was better than anything that happened to me today, which is not a Happy Thought for Contemplation.
As always, it was a learning experience. Things we learned this trip:
- In over 100 years of Internal Combustion Engines, I can not believe that anyone hasn’t invented a better way to tighten belts on an engine.
- Yeah right, we can be packed, organized and en route by 1600 on Friday afternoon when leaving for a week. The good thing about leaving for a week is that it doesn’t matter so much if you don’t leave until Saturday after all.
- Don’t go to breakfast on Cuttyhunk if you’re hoping for an early start. The Fisherman’s Club is a nice spot to go, but it’s not a short walk and there’s almost always a wait.
- Time & tides really wait for no man. Check thy Eldridges before you go to breakfast, in other words, if you don’t like sailing up Vineyard Sound into two knots of current.
- The designer put a stay sail there for a reason; it’s worth the effort to use it.
- Calling the launch service from outside the Red #6 buoy in Vineyard haven is really expensive; you can anchor a lot closer in.
- The people that predict weather for Nantucket it sort of suck at it. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and do what you want to; it works better.
- Bug spray is not water proof. Green head flies also suck.
- The shoals in middle ground off of West Chop have moved. Quite a lot; never mind that the chart says it’s 25 feet deep.
- We can get our spinnaker up and down, this is good.
- We can get by for 9 days on a full tank of water, including hot showers when we wanted them.
- So far…the heads will handle what we throw at them.
