Lemons to Lemonade — Cupcake Afloat

We have had a busy, fun, productive few days. On Monday we woke up to a bang and a hisssss. Turned out the hose to the second propane tank I installed last month had too sharp a bend in it and the kink was too much. Bang. Hissss. This is the lemons part.

Quickly shut off the tank and then cursed because tank #1 was empty…ran out the night before. What to do about a propanemergency in Woods Hole? First called Josh Olins to see if they were going to be heading anywhere propane tanks could be filled (tank #1 works fine). Then realized that we didn’t want to hustle back to Woods Hole from our anchorage because even if we left promptly, we would hold up the Olins Show.

On a whim, we called our pal Matthew Layne who had intended to sail with us to Block Island but plans fell through. Turns out he was able to drop everything to spend the week aboard Cupcake on our way to Block. This is the lemonade part. His wife, our pal Dasha, drove him to Woods Hole, then took us all to the hardware store for a fill up, then to the grocery store for, well…

Dasha thanked us for taking Matt off her hands, and off we went. Tuesday we had a delightful sail to Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon Island. Tacked out to Martha’s Vineyard, then back to Tarpaulin. Swam and relaxed.

Then on Wednesday we had another perfect sail from Tarpaulin, out to Martha’s Vineyard, and in to Cuttyhunk Island at the very tip of the Elizabeth Islands. (See what Ellen and Moss wrote for details.) More swimming, walking around the island, ice cream. Man alive it has been hot and humid.

First time we were able to dive on the anchor. It buried itself in sand within about two feet of hitting the bottom. Safe and secure, just the way we like it.

Today we woke up with the sun (which has been rising later and later) and set out for Block Island. It was a motorboat ride, then a sail for an hour or so, then a motorsail. We are anchored in busy busy Great Salt Pond and just got back to Cupcake after having hamburgers ashore with Matt and taking him to the ferryboat home.

The last time Ellen and I were on Block Island was 24 years ago just after we were married. We haven’t changed a bit.

This is one of the spectacular views from Cuttyhunk.

Finally, anybody have any ideas about this unusual five-cylinder radial, air-cooled engine we spotted on Cuttyhunk?