Naushon Island and Onset Bay, Massachusetts

First of all, let me mention that photos will be added today to the post made on Wednesday, June 29. The service I had was not strong enough to support uploading photos yesterday. 

Yesterday, we arrived, after eight hours of motorsailing from Fishers Island, NY, at Naushan Island, Massachusetts, and anchored on the south coast of this privately owned 7.4 square mile island, in Tarpaulin Bay. Although we had to motor because of lack of wind, we enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather and amused ourselves trying out our sextant, reading and doing puzzles and crafts. 

Peter taking a noon sighting

Louise crocheting

Arriving around 4 p.m., we got everything ship-shape, had a snack and then took turns with the kayak going to the sandy shore. The water was really clear, a dazzling blue in the bright afternoon light. Peter and I paddled toward the lighthouse on the western shore, into the wind, and then followed the shoreline to the east in the lee of the low green hills. We beached the kayak and walked along the edge of the water, observing hundreds of herring gulls and cormorants diving for fish and smaller, well-camouflaged piping plovers that skitter across the sand and pebbles so fast their legs are a blur. 

Lighthouse at Tarpaulin Bay on Naushon Island

Herring gulls catching fish

Herring gulls

Gulls on the shore; Mantra is the middle sailboat at anchor

Piping plover

Comorants

Louise and Mike kayaking in Tarpalin Bay

Southern New England's geology shows the signs of the latest ice age, including kettle ponds nestled among the low hills of the coast. Just behind a beach dune was a large pond, dark with tannin, surrounded by reeds and other vegetation. The island only has a few houses along its 11 miles length, so the landscape is bucolic and picturesque.

Kettle pond

We were planning to stop today in Nantucket, an island of the super wealthy, but that would have made for an extremely long day of sailing around Cape Cod tomorrow so we changed plans and went through the channel at Woods Hole and up Buzzards Bay to Onset Bay, where we arrived at 3 p.m. The current will be favorable for practically floating us through Cape Canal, and we are planning to overnight in Plymouth tomorrow and then arrive in Boston on Saturday. Mike and Louise fly out of Logan Airport for London on Sunday.