After a foggy, cloudy morning in Cataumet, the sun decided to make an appearance. By 10 AM, we had bright sunshine and I started to get the boat and dinghy ready for the short voyage to Oak Bluffs MV. D.O. and Linda arrived right on time, as they always do and stowed their bags and a lot of alcohol for the week ahead. D.O. helped with boat prep.
By 11 AM, Nick, Geovanna and baby Anthony showed up and started to prep their boat - Rogue Rage for the trip. Nick brought the boat down from Boston the previous Sunday in order to make Anthony's first real boat trip an easy one.
12 noon we were off the dock. The trip from Kingman Marina to Oak Bluffs harbor is only about 17 miles, but we would need to cross Woods Hole passage which required us to slow down thru that area. The seas were mostly calm, about 1 ft or less, which is a rare thing for Buzzards Bay. We arrived in OB around 1:30 and were tied up and settled by 2PM.Around 3, we decided to head over to the beach and get some sun, in anticipation of rain for the next few days. D.O. and Lynn decided to stay behind on the boat and relax. Kristi and Keri were happy to be at the beach and we decided to take a swim. The water was cold........so our swim didn't last long.
Oops, that's not Kristi or Keri....here they are...
After the beach, it was cocktail hour (or two) on the Salesman Ship. We hung out for a while and then went up to the Ocean View Restaurant for a late dinner. 
After dinner, we went back to the boat and snuck under to go to bed, so Fidler wouldn't "make" us drink all night long. I knew what that cat had in mind.......
Wed July 1, 2009
We woke up this morning to gray skies with the feel of rain in the air. After a walk up to get coffee at Mocha Motts, we decided to play Apples to Apples. This is a game that Keri brought along, and little did we realize, but we would be playing many games of Apples to Apples. That and the card game War. The girls watched a movie or 2 and D.O. and I went over to fix a tiny hole that developed in the dinghy - "Legal Tender" (get it?.....Lynn is a lawyer and the little boat is known as a tender......)
The rain stopped long enough for us to fire up the grill for lunch. Burgers and hot sausages. I don't think we really left the boat for long that day until dinner at Sharkys. Great mexican food. I knew my vacu-flush heads and holding tank would pay the price later.
Thursday July 2, 2009
Again, we woke up to rain. It seemed like it had rained the entire month of June and now it was July and it was raining more. The rain was really coming down hard and at one point the wind picked up and started gusting and hail came down. One particularly hard piece of hail busted through the islinglass (clear plastic stuff above the real-glass windshield, for you non-boaters out there). Thursday turned out to be mostly a wash out. I don't think it stopped raining until later in the afternoon and Lynn and Keri rented bikes and met the rest of us later at the beach.
At night, D.O., Linda, Lynn and I went out to dinner at Jimmy Seas. Kristi and Keri stayed back at the boat and had dinner with Nick, Geo and Anthony. Nick had pulled out the grill and fire up all kinds of meat. Linda and Lynn raved about Jimmy Seas....I thought it was OK. Lynn said the only reason I didn't like it was because she wouldn't "let" me get the Carbonara......any kind of cream sauce and alcohol is not a good combination for me (see ref above about holding tank and vacu-flush). I also think the amount of alcohol that Linda and Lynn had helped with their enjoyment of the meal.
Nick stayed on our boat to watch Kristi and Keri and at one point said he had a headache and was going to get asprin at his boat. However, 9 year old Keri informed us that he came back with a milkshake - sized glass of Scotch instead.
Friday July 3, 2009
We rose this morning with the promise of sun!! Vin and Kate were coming over by ferry and would be here early afternoon. Lynn, Kristi, Keri, me, D.O. and Linda rented bikes and biked to Vineyard Haven. The roads into Vineyard Haven are tough for bikes because there are no sidewalks in some places and the cars go flying by.
In VH, we walked around some of the stores and got some lunch and then biked back to OB harbor to meet Vin and Kate. Around 3 PM, we made several trips by dinghy over to the beach. D.O. and Linda decided to stay behind on the boat.....D.O. had enough of the sun....and Linda probably had enough of the kids.
After the beach, we went back to Salesman Ship for 
some cocktails. And then on to Nancys for dinner. Nick, Geo and Anthony stayed behind. The rest of us ended up getting a table up on the deck, with a great view of OB harbor.
After dinner, we went back to boat and took out the accoustic guitar. I must admit, this was my favorite part of the whole trip. Playing the handful of songs I can play most-of-the-way through was great. Everyone was singing along and Vincenz played a few tunes....good time. After everyone went to bed, Nick and I stayed up and had a few more drinks. All and all, a really good day!!
Saturday July 4, 2009
Happy 4th of July!! Today was bright sunshine. I woke up before everyone else and decided to take a little dinghy ride around the harbor. There is nothing better than getting up early and just going for a ride. Checking out all the boats and just cruising around enjoying the beauty of the water...I love it. It's during these little rides that I reflect on how lucky I am....in so many ways - health, family, friends and career.
I also went to reserve a few rental cars. There would be 11 of us, so we needed a few vehicles. By the time everyone got up and motivated and did the Mocha Motts thing....we didn't have too long before we had to head over to Edgartown for the parade. We cruised around up to Menemsha and Gay Head and stopped by Cronig's Market to pick up some overpriced supplies for the cook out tonight, including a $12 block of cheese. Vin and Kate decided to miss the parade but said they would meet us later at the Lighthouse beach in Edgartown. After the parade, we drove over to the Lighthouse and met up with Vin and Kate and loaded up all of the food and supplies for the cook-out on the beach. We trekked what felt like several miles over rocks, beach and brush to finally reach our prime spot for the cook-out and then fireworks. After unpacking enough food to feed a small region in South Africa, we discovered that we did not have a knife or paper towels / napkins. The knife was the most troubling given the aforementioned block of cheese. Vin and Kristi decided they would run (literally) into town and pick up a knife and paper towels. By the time they returned, we had most of the food cooked and everyone was eating. There is something about having a BBQ on the beach, with the sun setting and a few great friends.....it's what summer is all about.
Sunday July 5, 2009
It was time to go..... The final day of this vacation was sunny and nice, with a stiff SW wind. This would make the trip back to Kingman a little bumpy, but it would make Nick's trip all the way back to Boston a long, tough one. Certainly not one I would have wanted to do with an 8 month old.
We left OB harbor around 11:30AM, after packing everything up and securing the dinghy and Nick getting fuel.
During the trip back to Kingman, Nick called on the radio to say that if D.O. and Linda could drive Geo's car back to Ashland, then she and Anthony would make the long boat trip back to Boston. One problem.......they had to get us the keys. Geo put the keys in a plastic bag and secured them to a life jacket and line and heaved them across between two carefully manuvered boats. We got back into Kingman around 1:30PM and the kids got a ride back to the house to hang out with their cousins. Lynn, Linda, D.O. and I fininshed up the last of our food for lunch and cleaned the boat. Lynn had to leave to pick up Wilson and D.O. and Linda left right behind her. I stayed on the boat to finish cleaning and to just reflect on the week vacation. Despite the weather, the week was awesome!! It was a great chance to spend time with Lynn and the kids. D.O and Linda are just about the best boat guests you could ever ask for!!! There are not too many other couples who could put up with us for the week.
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