Rounding the north tip of Block with the water displaying interesting characteristics

After attending to our to-dos, Ms Rocna left her sand/mud home and by 10:45 (hey I log these details, I don’t remember them) we embarked on another motoring trip; 37nm to Cuttyhunk Island, the southernmost island in the Elizabeth Island chain. Bartholomew Gosnold was the first European to “discover” the Elizabeths in 1602. In 1863 the islands were incorporated as the Town of Gosnold, still the smallest township in Massachusetts. Gosnold is also credited with naming Martha’s Vineyard; good thing he didn’t want to name it after himself.
Our Spectra watermaker awakened from his long slumber and performed flawlessly given he’d been pickled for two months; poor guy.
Surprised to see plenty of available moorings at 4:15, but that’s why we arrived on Thursday because that time on a Friday might not yield the same result. Room to anchor gives you options but the holding is crappy so not a smart move unless the winds are low. Twenty moorings sit outside the inner harbor but that toocan berolly with boats zooming by and with north winds. We nabbed an outside ball on the NE side. The giraffe-neck style is easy for most boats but with our screecher pole and two anchors I had a fun time putting a line through; Captain Russ was spot-on though and kept us in place while I did my job.

Cuttyhunk oysters are a must even at a price I will not tell you. Freshly harvested right here and delivered by the Raw Bar boat, along with chowder and clams on the 1/2 shell. You need to get Stuffies at the store on the dock.

The owner himself and young helpers deliver the goods

Our first night feast began with oysters and chowder, aka chowda!

Scottish Highland cattle on Nashawena, a stone’s throw from Cuttyhunk

We dinghied to the outer harbor and did a double take when we looked across to Nashawena Island which is privately owned by the Forbes Family. Nashawena is 3 miles long, covers about 1,800 acres, is the second largest of the Elizabeth Islands and lies between Cuttyhunk and Pasque Islands. The island has an official permanent population of 2 persons as of the 2000 census.
These caretakers of the island live in the white farmhouse, known just as “the farmhouse on Nashawena”. This farmhouse is a popular subject for photographers and artists. See?

Doesn’t this look like a painting?

In years past, Nashawena was used for sheep farming, but many were killed when coyotes invaded the island, apparently swimming from Woods Hole as deer had done. The branch of the family that owns Nashawena now works with scientists to raise cattle in an effort to manage the vegetation.
These cattle are Scottish Highland cattle which are obviously used to a rugged nature in their native Scottish Highlands, so this weather is no big deal for them. They both graze, browse and eat plants many other cattle avoid. And they obviously love the beach!

The day we left we rounded the north end of Nashawena and found more cattle

The upside to in-season cruising is that shops, museums and eateries are open even during the week. We planned to take advantage of that and visit two places we hadn’t gotten to in all our previous 6+ visits to this slice of heaven.

Loving the old-fashioned life on the island. Lemonade and a cookie.

A walk up the main road left no doubt summer was in full swing; the food carts and shack beckoned with breakfast and lunch delights, business was brisk on the fisherman’s dock, the Corner Store (with the best t-shirts most anywhere) tempted us with sale bins and the Cuttyhunk Historical Society was open! The exhibit told primarily of the history of the two fishing clubs as well as life on the island through the years. One display was a letter describing the rescue of a ship’s crew that wrecked on the reef in bad weather. The heroics and selflessness of those courageous lifesaving folks is humbling. They used a breeches buoy, which we’d seen demonstrated at Mystic Seaport some years ago, and on the third (and final) attempt, the line reached the ship. Five hours later all were safely ashore, although nearly frozen, this being winter naturally.

I emerge from the Sea Girl shop empty handed

Russ found this next to Sea Girl

Inspiration for watching Pirates: Dead Man’s Chest

Sopranos Pizza- outside dining or take-out only

Kay’s Choice- shrimp, cheese, fresh herbs and ricotta. Fantastic crust

Surprisingly excellent meals can be found on Cuttyhunk- in season.  Sopranos not only baked a great pie, but the menu was a fun read.

Saturday morning found us walking up to the Fishing Club B&B for breakfast. A Bed and Breakfast seems the perfect second-life use for the Fishing Club and the public is welcomed for breakfast which was excellent. My International Omelet of linguicia, mushrooms, tomato, black olives and a smidgen of cheese kept me full way past lunchtime.

The Fishing Club B&B overlooks Vineyard Sound

The Cuttyhunk YC prepares for a model sailboat race

Fog is very common on Block Island

This is entirely unofficial; but me thinks that anyone who loves Block Island and stops at virtually nothing to get and be there, goes as often as time and family allow and has participated in at least one anchor drag, bumping encounter or has (without qualm) rafted up at the dock, mooring or on the hook; surely the word to describe them is Blockhead. Think about how it works with a positive slant, then on the flip side with a Lucy intoned, “Charlie Brown; You Blockhead!”
While we may not deserve Blockhead status, I must confess, I did fib; but not intentionally! Here goes the story of O (not that one!!) rtolan 🙂 and her two-engine motor trip from Three Mile Harbor, past Montauk and on to Block Island’s New Harbor aka Great Salt Pond.
That long-lasting weather system was finally in its last throes of watering the entire east coast on Wednesday and we began making noises about heading to Block instead of waiting until Thursday. All set to go after visibility improved; but wait! ..the current is against us and if we delay until 1pm we will receive a mega speed boost. So we waited and for much of the 36 mile trip our speed was around 8kts; motoring mind you as the wind ranged from zero to eight knots.

Looking into Lake Montauk, home to more sport-fish boats than you can shake a fish at

We passed by Montauk, out on the end of Long Island, a place we had talked about visiting in our old power boat days but the high cost of a marina stay put the kibosh on that every time. Doesn’t look like much from the outside and we did learn that plenty of good anchoring can be found further into the lake. Odd structures along the beach turned out to be camper trailers.

A long line of trailers lined the beach

The fog returned as we left Montauk behind and made way in Block Island Sound, which at this point is basically in the Atlantic Ocean. Forget the fog; how about those swells? NOAA did not lie; the swells were a good five feet but spaced far enough apart to be tolerable. Radar on of course and not much was happening; only one boat came within a half-mile and we never saw it, just heard the engines.

The entrance to New Harbor comes into view about a mile out and we follow a couple other sailboats in at 6pm. 90 town moorings and all are full. No Harbormaster at this late hour, so no one to assign us a private one. What’s a girl to do? Not leave, that’s for sure. We found a good spot in 7ft of water between the private moorings and the beach near Breezy Point. Low winds and no thunder storms should make for an uneventful night.

Just because we anchored one night doesn’t mean we care to do another, especially as the anchorage will fill to bursting with each passing day. Three items on our must-do list between 6pm Wed and 11am Thursday: dump trash and recycling, buy groceries and last but most importantly, eat Killer Donuts! How convenient that Payne’s is on the way to town, making a breakfast stop possible and then another on the return trip for the next day’s feast.

Foodie Notes: Payne’s Killer Donuts are fantastic- sugar, sugar/cinnamon or plain. I’ve read the secret ingredient is sour cream which explains the almost gooey-in-your-mouth feel as you inhale them. Soft and best eaten fresh, they are still very good the next morning.

Check out the Block Island Depot for reasonably priced local produce and eggs. You can find a decent variety of cheeses, grains, crackers, beverages, grain-fed beef products and my special recommendation: Talenti Gelato (priced less than at B.I. Grocery down the street). They make sandwiches, salads and breakfast stuff too.