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Sail Newport With Your Own Captain

With the America’s Cup currently being held in San Francisco, celebrate its origins by taking a sail on Narragansett Bay in Newport. September is a glorious time to sail the bay, with the waters still relatively warm and boat traffic reduced to a minimum. Home to the smoky sou’wester, a prevailing wind with average speeds in the 10 to 20 knot range, Narragansett Bay deserves its reputation as one of the finest cruising grounds in the northeast. Yet, you don’t have to be an America’s Cup sailor to sample the sport. At Sightsailing, located at Newport’s Bowen’s Wharf, Captain Ed Early skippers the 34-foot O’Day called Starlight. A former instructor for Offshore Sailing School, Early has been sailing for over 30 years. He’ll guide you past Fort Adams, Hammersmith Farm, where JFK and Jackie O held their wedding reception, and Clingstone, a good name for the house that clings precariously to the rocks. Sweet talk Early and he might even let you take the wheel. Starlight can accommodate 2 to 6 guests. Cost is $270 for a private 2-hour sail, $495 for a 4-hour sail. 

 

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Mass Audubon Cruises to the Elizabeth Islands

Take the ferry from New Bedford or Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama plans to vacation once again this summer, and you’ll pass the far less congested Elizabeth Islands in Buzzards Bay. With numerous coves and a strong southwesterly wind blowing 15 knots almost every afternoon, this is a favorite cruising ground for sailors in Massachusetts. The waters are inundated with yachts, Hobie cats, sunfish, schooners, even the 6’ 2” long dinghy known as the Cape Cod Frosty. Only two of the islands, Cuttyhunk, the outermost island, and Penikese, a former leper colony, now a state-owned bird refuge, remain public. This summer, Mass Audubon will bring guests on naturalist-led cruises to both islands. Leaving from Wood’s Hole, you’ll learn about the natural and cultural history of the Elizabeths, and venture on foot to find Leach’s Storm Petrel and Tern colonies.

 

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Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe to Close After 87 Years

Several summers ago, I was hired by Chevrolet to drive a Chevy Malibu from Boston to Washington, DC on one tank of gas and then write about the experience. It was an absurd assignment, made even more ridiculous by the macho photographer they hired to take shots for their glossy magazine. It was a brutally hot day and seeing that he was following my wife and me in a convertible, I asked if he needed any suntan lotion. "Oh no, I don’t need that," said the guy. By the end of the drive around 9 pm, he was as red as a boiled lobster. 

 
Anyway, we needed an iconic Boston locale to start the drive and I thought there was nothing better than Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe. “That sounds like that Seinfeld episode where they try to drive as far as they can without running out of gas,” said Chris Manjourides, when he heard of my assignment. Together, with his brother Arthur and sisters Marie and Fontaine, the siblings run the restaurant, founded by their father in 1927. Lisa and I sat on the red stools across from photographs of all the celebrities and famous politicians inluding President Obama who wisely made their way to this small breakfast joint nestled amidst the fashionable brownstones of the South End. Since the age of 12, Arthur has arrived every morning at 3:30 am to cook the freshly made muffins. Locals stand in line for a chance to dine on their gigantic three-egg omelettes, tasty turkey hash, and blueberry pancakes. Now the siblings can finally sleep in. I just found out that the place will close in June. They’ll be sorely missed in this town. 
 
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Friendships are Easily Made When Hiking Hut-to-Hut in the Whites

Once you venture beyond Mizpah Springs Hut to Mount Pierce, you’re above treeline, walking through the Presidential Range on the historic Crawford Path ridge walk. You’re entirely exposed to the weather since there’s really nowhere to hide. Perhaps it’s this vulnerability that allows people to open up as individuals, sharing secrets and stories they wouldn’t normally share with others down below. Or maybe it’s simply the chance to join in the same adventure as your fellow backpackers, partaking in a memorable experience you’ll remember for years. Whatever the reason, folks are more apt to open up when hiking hut-to-hut. During the course of the week, we heard poignant stories about people overcoming breast cancer and recent divorces by meeting a new challenge like hiking up some of the 48 peaks that are over 4,000 feet in the White Mountains. 
 
We shared sardines and travel stories with a couple from Beijing we met on the trail, went over the maps every day with two women from Quebec City who were on the exact same route as us, and yes, talked about our often harried lives with two women from Oxford and Sturbridge, Mass. With communal dining every evening and morning at the long hut tables, it’s quite easy to meet new people. At breakfast at Lakes of the Clouds, we sat next to a grandmother and her granddaughter, not more 6 years old, and it was one of the sweetest images I’ll remember. You’ll also meet folks in your bunks, tease the guy who snores all night and the one who has a bladder the size of a pea, waking up every hour to use the toilet. In the end, you’ll realize you have the best souvenir of all, friendship. You exchange addresses and hope to meet again on another trail, another hut, another experience to share together. 
 
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AMC’s Best Sea Kayaking in New England: 50 Coastal Paddling Adventures from Maine to Connecti

Registered Maine Guide Michael Daugherty has just come out with a beauty of a book describing his favorite sea kayaking paddles along the New England coast. They include many of my favorites, including the Porcupine Islands near Acadia National Park, Georgetown Island off mid-coast Maine, Castle Neck in Ipswich, Monomoy Island off of Chatham on the Cape, Newport, and Connecticut’s Thimble Islands. Many of these jaunts can be done in a memorable day trip or turned into an overnight, ideal for the novice to more experienced paddler. Daugherty notes the distance of each trip, but far more important discusses the tidal changes and necessary cautions against strong currents and boat traffic. Only an avid paddler with a mind for detail could write such a book and I’ll happily carry it in my dry bag for many joyous days along the coast. 

 
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Ski Saddleback for Free Midweek When Staying at the Rangeley Inn

In May 2003, the Saddleback Ski Area in Maine was down to one employee, general manager Tom McAllister. Forced to lay off his entire staff, McAllister announced that the family-friendly ski area in Rangeley would close down unless a buyer was found. In stepped Bill Berry, an avid skier who taught skiing for 25 years at Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, Maine, and had skied and cherished Saddleback. Few realized that this former professor of geology at the University of Maine, Farmington, had family money to play with. Now there are more than 100 employees working on the mountain and more than a quarter of them are at Saddleback year-round. The Berry family has invested more than $12 million in improvements so far, including a new base lodge, three times the size of its predecessor, lifts, a terrain park and halfpipe, and the opening of a new glade, Casablanca, which at 44 acres is the largest glade in the Northeast.  The mountain’s 2000-foot vertical drop is not far behind the 2,360-foot drop at Stowe, so don’t mistake Saddleback for a small ski area. The Rangeley Inn, my favorite hotel in the region, has just announced a midweek special where if you spend a night at the lodging, they’ll throw in a free lift ticket at Saddleback. Check it out!
 

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Spending the Night on Grape Island

My only experience with the Boston Harbor Islands was visiting the Civil War-era fort on Georges Island and walking the trails of Spectacle Island, mostly formed from the dirt unearthed during Boston’s Big Dig. Last Thursday, however, I spent the night on Grape Island, one of the four islands in the harbor that offers camping. Only a stone’s throw from the mainland and the town of Hingham, you feel a world away on this 50-acre forested outpost. We kayaked around neighboring Slate Island with a ranger, ran into a 10-point buck and several doe, watched the sun set over the Boston skyline, and built a bonfire on the beach. There were only 10 sites on the island, and people in the know booked the sites months in advance at ReserveAmerica.com. It’s primitive camping with no running water available, but it’s great to be out on the water for a night or two, smelling the salty air and seeing Boston from a different viewpoint. 
 

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