We awoke
early in Kettle Cove, Naushon Island to light wind and thick fog (where the
track changes from green to orange). After breakfast all hands
helped to weigh anchor and get underway for Quicks Hole,
Vineyard Sound and thence to a landing spot on
Cuttyhunk Island near, in fact, to where the last whaling
ship, the Wanderer, was lost in the 20's. By
mid-morning dories were
over from the Ernestina and all rowed ashore for a
couple hours on the Island on the western side of Cuttyhunk
Pond. You
can see the orange track on the chart image to the right
showing our circum-navigation of Nashawena, Cuttyhunk and
Penikese Islands. After
setting our main and fore sails at anchor, we weighed anchor and set
jumbo and jib for a series of reaches across Buzzards Bay
downwind to New Bedford.
On the final tack, we carried
on in to Apponagansett Bay off Padanaram Harbor to anchor for
dinner. We left the main sail up during dinner but then struck
it and stowed all sails and readied the ship for port. From
Padanaram we motored the final five miles round Clark's Point
and Fort Rodman to pass again through the hurricane barrier
and dock at Tonnessen Park on State Pier. After
a few final remarks, Randy Peffer read from his book and all
departed the ship.
"Buzzards Bay truly
has turned out to be an elbow in time. But I suspect that
almost any place you sail can be. On the coast, the past is
constantly reaching out to touch the present. And - as
I found out- the future. Or maybe it is the other way
around. To explore slowly - as under a press of sail - is
sometimes to feel the saudade for all the rituals and people
you thought that you and this land had somehow lost. And at
the same time you consider how those traditions and friends
endure. Whales vanish, but they don't vanish. Shipmates
leave us, but they never really leave. Youth fades, but it
returns in new shapes. Like this Bay - one day is a
millpond, the next day a tempest, but always here." ~
An excerpt from pgs. 237-238 in Logs of the Dead Pirates
Society by Randall S. Peffer.
Great trip! We'd like to extend
our sincere thanks to the South Coast Learning Network
and to Randy Peffer for a great program. We enjoyed having his
wife Jackie and five-year-old son Jacob aboard as well! Program
Coordinator: Rhonda Moniz
Captain: Gregg Swanzey
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