We haven’t often retraced our steps but today we arrived back in Newport, Rhode Island. It’s where Grace made landfall in the States from Bermuda before we sailed off towards Maine. That was back in June this year and it’s now a month till Christmas Day. We motored into the anchorage / mooring area. Last time it was absolutely rammed with hundreds of boats. This time we are the only boat here. Pick your spot.
If we venture any further towards New York, we will be sailing off the page. Our paper charts run out here. UPS has a package waiting for us to collect on Monday with what’s required. Unfortunately it’s not like buying a 2017 Road Atlas from Esso for £2.99. We have all the charts stored electronically on a chip which we use with the chart plotter (think SAT NAV if you don’t know what a chart plotter is) but we like to have paper ones too in case the electronic gremlins decide to play naughty games. And paper charts are easier for planning purposes too as you get the big picture rather than something screen size. We don’t have a 60” flat screen on the boat.
Yesterday was a top day. We spent it on Martha’s Vineyard. I don’t know how or why the island got it’s name. Was there a Martha or even a vineyard? Come on Bro, you can look that up for me or maybe some else knows? Lisa feel free to contribute, we know you’ve visited previously.
A college friend of mine lives on the island. She acted as guide, chauffeur and chef. We spent a happy and easy few hours in her company having brunch, driving rounds the island, taking a hike through Memensha Woods then back to meet her 5 dogs in Oaks Bluff. It’s a stunning place and Sally said we’d seen it at its best in the bright early winter sunshine without thousands of tourists who flood the island during the summer months. I secretly love the idea of turning up to visit people by boat.
So Christmas is a month away. Last year we were at sea for Christmas somewhere between the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands. I recall having had a real pasting for two days with grotty weather and grim winds, a double g is not good, thinking this is not what I signed up for. Christmas Day was the first time we were able to sit at the table and eat something without the plate behaving like a grasshopper on speed. Not sure where we’ll be this year.
grace of longstone 
I have in my suitcase a paper chart of the Falklands – ill keep it for you x
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From Wiki: Originally inhabited by the Wampanoag, Martha’s Vineyard was known in their language as Noepe, or “land amid the streams”. In 1642, the Wampanoag numbered somewhere around 3,000 on the island. By 1764, that number had dropped by around 90% to 313.
A smaller island to the south was named “Martha’s Vineyard” by the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, who sailed to the island in 1602. The name was later transferred to the main island. It is thus the eighth-oldest surviving English place-name in the United States. The island’s namesake is not positively known, but it is thought that the island was named after Gosnold’s mother-in-law or his daughter, both named Martha. His daughter was christened in St. James’ Church (now St. Edmundsbury Cathedral), Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and is buried in the Great Churchyard which lies in front of the Abbey ruins between St. Mary’s Church and the Cathedral.
The island was also known as Martin’s Vineyard (perhaps after the captain of Gosnold’s ship, John Martin); many islanders up to the 18th century called it by this name. The United States Board on Geographic Names worked to standardise placename spellings in the late 19th century, including the dropping of apostrophes. Thus for a time Martha’s Vineyard was officially named Marthas Vineyard, but the Board reversed its decision in the early 20th century, making Martha’s Vineyard one of the five placenames in the United States today with a possessive apostrophe.
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