Back to the Vineyard – Edgartown, with a Splash of Vineyard Haven

We left Nantucket later in the morning on July 18, allowing the fog to lift. It was an overcast and dreary morning.

Edgartown is always a stop on our travels out this way. Nice harbor, beautiful architecture of a classic New England whaling town, steeped in history and now tourism. 😉 I’ve written about our stays here in 2016 and 2017 so once again I will try not to be overly repetitious. It’s getting harder because we have our favorite things that we enjoy doing over and over.

We already had plans for our first evening in Edgartown, continuing a tradition Al and I began many years ago – a Vineyard Sound concert. “Vineyard Sound” is an all-male acapella college group that began in 1992 as a group of ten friends from Connecticut College, Skidmore College and Wesleyan University who all loved music and the island. 

This group is special to me. I first heard them back in 1993 when they sang at Silas Deane Middle School in Wethersfield where I was then teaching 7^thgrade mathematics. Two of the founding members had attended the middle school so they did a concert there for the kids. When we honeymooned on Martha’s Vineyard in 1994, we looked them up and have tried to catch a concert every time we have been here since then. Naturally the members change over the years, but I must admit, with chagrin, that I was caught off guard when I realized the current singers were not even alive when we heard the first Vineyard Sound concerts back in 1993. Feeling old……………

They perform 5 evenings per week in various locations around the island so we were able to see their Thursday evening Edgartown concert at the Federated Church.

All of us thoroughly enjoyed the concert. The songs were a nice mix of old and current, appealing to everyone. And afterwards we stopped at Scoops for ice cream……….. Yikes! No pictures???? Have to take my word for this.

On Friday morning, we played the “Dockwa game” for a mooring again. Now that you need to go through Dockwa for a mooring reservation in Edgartown, you can only get one night at a time. Once you are there, you spend each morning requesting anther night, sometimes in person and sometimes on the VHF. It is interesting to listen to the VHF as people call in to request another night’s stay. Sometimes they get one and sometimes they don’t. I haven’t quite figured out the why’s for that although I have theories.

Our big event(s) for this Friday was to take a bus to Vineyard Haven using the MVTA, Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority. It’s a great system for getting around the island. An all-day pass is $5 for senior citizens. Isn’t it nice to be that old?

Why did we leave Edgartown and head to Vineyard Haven? Because Friday nights are lobster roll night at the Grace Episcopal Church. Dan Pashman’s Sporkful podcast about these lobster rolls was very motivating. This would be a first for us and Anthony and Annette were all in, too. If you are near Vineyard Haven on a Friday evening in the summer, we highly recommend going to Grace Episcopal Church.

We had tickets for a 7:30 pm movie and had time to squander with a walk around Vineyard Haven. Our walk brought us to the Black Dog Tavern, another must-do tourist thing to share with the crew of Magnolia .

Weather dictates boating travels and activities. Saturday and Sunday were just too hot to do anything on shore. The heat wave that arrived on the east coast affected the islands as well as the mainland. At 90 degrees, this became one of our quieter stays in Edgartown. We mostly stayed on the boats, reading, blogging, and weaving, and swimming off the boat.

Sunday was our last day in Edgartown so we dragged Anthony and Annette along to share another of our MV traditions – breakfast at Among the Flowers. (hmmm…. food sure seems to be a major part of our boating.)

Sunday became another lazy day on the boats, which was just fine because it was another hot one. Our Edgartown buddy, Mike, stopped by to say hi and give us a pump out. Mike runs the pump-out boat during the day and the launch in the evening, and he never fails to visit for a spell. Now pump-outs may not be a pleasant topic for a blog, but it is certainly a necessary and vital part of boating. Pump-out boats = clean harbors!!!

Monday morning began with a very early stop at Edgartown’s water dock before departing for the next harbor. We do love that water dock – so easy to refill the tanks.