Storm Front

October 10, 2007
Wednesday
After spending the night in Hyannis, we caught the 0930 ferry to Nantucket, where Billy Joel wrote about modern island life,

"I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"

And I'm cruising through Long Island Sound

I have charted a course to the Vineyard

But tonight I am Nantucket bound

We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday

And left this morning from the bell in Gardner's Bay

Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home

Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone

So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"

And I go where the ocean is deep

There are giants out there in the canyons

And a good captain can't fall asleep

I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes

I know there's fish out there but where God only knows

They say these waters aren't what they used to be

But I've got people back on land who count on me

So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"

And if you work with the rod and the reel

Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis

And I still have my hands on the wheel

Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"

More and more miles from shore every year

Since they told me I can't sell no stripers

And there's no luck in swordfishing here

I was a bayman like my father was before

Can't make a living as a bayman anymore

There ain't much future for a man who works the sea

But there ain't no island left for islanders like me"

As we crossed the Sound, a man approached Gail and gave her a package of post cards, saying, "I saw you were writing cards and thought you’d like some of mine." They were beautiful photographs of Nantucket and each one credited Thomas P. Benincas Jr.
We went to the table where Tom was sitting and thanked him and he introduced his wife Mary. They work at Yale and spend holidays on Nantucket where he pursues his real passion, photography. They were on their way over for a ten day stay in a rented house.
The MV Eagle docked at 10:30 and we dragged our bags to Seven Sea B&B (the address is 7 Sea Street, get it?)
Gail of Gail’s Tours picked us up at 1:00, after we had lunch at the Brotherhood of Thieves.
Gail said she is sixth generation on Nantucket. She took us first out to Brant Point and showed us the summer home of the heiress of the Heinz family fortune, who shares occasional residence with her current husband.
Down the street is the efficient Gilbreth house where twelve children learned the Morse code while sitting on the toilet. (If you don’t get this, just ask.)
Most of the houses on Nantucket look alike, which is done on purpose. A local mantra is "Gut fish, not houses," as an effort is made to preserve the gray, shingle-sided homes built by the whalers who settled here in the 1800s.
The oldest surviving house was built in 1686 by Tristram Coffin for his grandson Jethro. The Cabot Lodges have a home here as does Tommy Hilfiger. John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden in a house named Eden East on the south shore.
We went by Sankaty Lighthouse which was jacked up and moved last week away from the eroding cliff. Lots of houses are going through the same process as noreasters tear away the shoreline. Gail also showed us one of the many cranberry bogs. The sprayed bogs are full of cranberries. The organic bogs are choked with weeds.
After the tour, we wandered around the downtown shopping area and out onto the wharves. We had trouble finding shot glasses and T shirts amongst the shops that cater more to people who buy Peter Beaton hats and Nantucket Looms cashmere sweaters.
We had dinner at Rose and Crown Grog Shop, two for one entrées and home of the Goombay Smash, "fruit juices and lots and lots of rum." I also sampled Nantucket’s Cisco Brewery’s Whale Tail Pale Ale.
Thursday
Matthew Parker served us a healthy breakfast at Seven Sea and we caught the MV Iyannough back to Hyannis. The captain pronounced the name several times but I never did get it.
We drove to Sandwich, the oldest village on Cape Cod, through a neighborhood signed "Slow Children" and "Blind Drivers," not a good combination.
At the Heritage Museum and Gardens, we toured the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame.
The league was founded in 1885 for college players. Of 20,000 applicants each year, 300 are chosen to play among the ten teams. They play for no salary and must provide their own housing, food, transportation and find part-time work. They are required to show up at the ball park every morning at 7:30 and to be in their own beds at 11 pm. The league practices no tolerance for misdeeds.
Local people take them in and mentor them and care for them and businesses are glad to provide employment.
One-third of major league players who played in college went through the Cape Cod League, about 200 of today’s players. One in six Cape veterans make the big show. Nomar Garciaparra, Will Clark, Thurman Munson, Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Carlos Pe a played for such teams as the Orleans Cardinals, Chatham Athletics, Brewster Whitecaps and the Cotuit Kettleers.
Our host, Joe Star, was an Iwo Jima veteran and was making plans to attend a reunion with five other survivors next year.
Also on the grounds of the Gardens was an exhibit entitled "A Short Life and a Merry One, Pirates of New England," whose title was taken from a quotation by Captain Bartholomew Roberts in 1721, "In an honest Service, says he, there is thin Commons, low Wages and hard Labour; in this, Plenty and Satiety, Pleasure and Ease, Liberty and Power; and who would not ballance Creditor on this Side, when all the Hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower Look or two at Choaking. No, a merry Life and a short one, shall be my Motto."
We had lunch at Daniel Webster Inn and drove to Rhode Island, a short drive but a merry one.