I am about to head off for my annual week of sailing around Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands on the Shenandoah out of Vineyard Haven. And as happens each year, I’m beginning to count the days until I get on the Vineyard Fast Ferry from Quonset Point, R.I., and head over to the Vineyard.

The Vineyard Fast Ferry is fast, as ferries go. As it starts flying up Vineyard Sound with Martha’s Vineyard on the starboard side and the Elizabeth Islands on the port side, I start getting into an island frame of mind. The hassle of driving up I-95 and rushing to make the ferry is all behind me. Now it’s all up to Mother Nature and what she decides regarding the winds. There is nothing I can do about it!

The Shenandoah is a 108-foot square-topsail schooner with no auxiliary power, which makes it unique in the U.S .schooner fleet. “No auxiliary power” means we rely solely on the whim of the wind and the tides to move from one anchorage to another. If there is no wind or too little to set sail, we wait until there is enough wind. So you find a comfortable place to sit and read, sit and chat, sit and look at the surrounding marine activity, or jump overboard and go for a swim.

When you spend time on the Shenandoah you become aware of the elements. Combinations of wind and a fair tide or wind and a foul tide mean we will either spend the night anchored in Tarpaulin Cove (Naushon Island) or not.This is how our ancestors traveled by water before the age of the steam engine. Reverting back to the methods our forebears used forces you to chill out and let nature take its course. I guess that is why hypertension was not a prevalent health issue before the steam era. After a day on the Shenandoah, I am totally relaxed. After a week, I am so relaxed a charging rhino won’t upset me.

Life on board is not all lazing on deck like beached seals. When the wind is right and Capt. Bob Douglas decides we’re sailing, the first mate bellows, “All hands on deck!” This is when the excitement starts. Everyone is required to help raise the sails (as well as lower them at the end of a sail), and six people are needed on the windlass to raise the anchor. I’ve sailed on the Shenandoah seven times and I still get a thrill when the acres of canvas start to fill and we start getting under way. I’ve got goosebumps just writing about it.Since there is no electricity, we create our own amusement, which is usually through music. The people I sail with are a very musical group. We always have at least three or four guitars, a fiddle or two and sometimes a mandolin or a cello, and several banjos. Not all the music is just for entertainment. The sails we raise are heavy and the anchor weighs about a ton. Work songs and sea chanteys really do help coordinate a group effort. People tend to pull or push a little harder when they get into the rhythm of a chanty. In fact, the chanty is such an important part of the work that goes into sailing a boat like the Shenandoah that we have our own “chanty man” on board — Bill Schustik, an incredibly talented and knowledgeable folk music/sea chanty musicologist. Only 11 more days …

Dick Evans, Vice President

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 6:02 am and is filed under Sailing, Adventure Travel, Dick's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.