Land Ho!

The distinct red striated cliffs of Gay Head loomed out of the sea at 0600 on Sunday morning.  At the request of the local Native American population, Gay Head is now being called Aquinnah.  ) A quick call to Russ's Mom, Bibi, and see if she'd like to meet us for a short sail to Vineyard Haven.  We ducked into Menemsha to pick up our passengers, Bibi and Russ' sister, Debbie, who was up for a visit.  They ended up getting a bit of a ride from the short squall that hit as we rounded Middle Bank, the shallow spot which runs along the NW side of the Vineyard, a torrential downpour, but not much wind.  The rain cleaned the salt off the decks and crew quite nicely.

We made it into Lagoon Pond at the 1550 bridge opening and jumped in for a a swim.  A nice stay for a few days during an extreme heat wave.  It's nice to have cool water right outside the back door!  We left Andante bobbing on her secure mooring in front of Bibi's house on Tuesday morning and hopped on the wonderfully cheap SouthWest airlines.  The only problem with the cheap fare was that it was out of Providence and we had to get there.  Take the ferry to Woods Hole. Get on the bus to New Bedford. Switch to another bus in New Bedford after an hour lay-over and finally get to the airport.  Not too bad.

Russ and I spent a week at home.  Carolyn and Josh had spent the past month paddling the Grand Canyon with their Mother, Step-father, step-brothers, Uncle and some other paddling friends.  Carolyn ran everything in her kayak and Josh rowed an oar rig for parts of it and rode on an oar rig for the other parts.