Cape Cod memories

Posted By: Nick Cherau
Date: 12/7/08 5:59p.m.

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In Response To: Nick Cherau's Cape Cod background (pic) (Doug Kelch)

Ah! Doug, those beautiful pictures sure bring back the memories. I've spent the greater part of my life there and always messing around in boats from the time I was old enough to row or sail one, that would be 8 years old. My first real boat was a wooden Dyer Dinghy, cedar lapstrake over oak ribs, which my father and I rescued and rebuilt when I was eleven. She could sail like the wind. That white schooner is Capt. Bob Douglas's Shenandoah and I've had a few excellent meals on board her. I've known Bob for a while, the Cape is a small town in that way. If you live there long enough you'll know and be known by most everyone. The black Brigantine looks like the Black Pearl out of Vineyard Haven. I was crewing for a friend in the Opera House race around Nantucket a few years back when the Black Pearl began lobbing water balloons at us and the other nearby contestants. My friends father who is a die hard Republican took it badly, no sense of humour whatsoever, and hailed the race committee on the radio, demanding that the Pearl be disqualified. I still chuckle thinking about it. Cuttyhunk used to be a sleepy little island where nothing changed much and prices were cheap. There didn't used to be any dock charge and if there was an empty mooring you were welcome to it until the owner returned. Those were the days. Fair tide and a steady breeze, Nick