Blog: Martha's Vineyard

Since our house in Edgartown is under construction, this summer my family rented a large place in Chilmark, overlooking the water. Last weekend a group of friends visited for the third annual friend weekend. Life is a lot quieter up island, and we relaxed the weekend away on the beach and barbecuing at the house. We continued the tradition of eating lobster from Menemsha, and seagulls reprised their role from last year as brazen stealers of food (a few days later, in fact, a seagull at Long Point actually tried to grab a sandwich right out of my hand!)

The ice cream store at Menemsha sadly closed for the season due to a fire, forcing us to wait until Sunday in Vineyard Haven for the final Vineyard must-do, ice cream. I didn't have my camera with me and had to use the crummy one in my Blackberry. Compare those pictures with the ones at the beach from my new Canon EOS 30D - what a difference a camera makes!

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The weather provided many beautiful days on the Vineyard during the Fourth of July weekend, with the exception of the Fourth itself. Rain kept many people away, but we joined a few other intrepid watchers on the beach and were treated to a terrific fireworks show in the rain - much better than last year, in fact. While I was too busy staying dry to capture any of it, here are the much more beautiful vistas in the sun.

The Islander, the older of two large passenger and auto ferries that carry the majority of people and cars to and from Martha's Vineyard, was replaced last year with a brand-new ferry, the Island Home. Now, according to the MV Times, the Islander is headed to New York where the city will refurbish it for use on Governors Island. That island, off the tip of Manhattan, is the subject of considerable debate over how to redevelop it into a public space (it's not allowed to have any permanent residents as part of the restrictions from the federal government, which previously controlled the island).

I'm curious why they need so much car capacity, though - the Islander previously made about 6-7 round trips per day carrying cars and people to an 87 square mile island; Governors Island is only 172 acres (about a quarter of a square mile) and has no residents, so even once developed with some commercial activity, it's hard to see it needing to transport hundreds of cars and trucks a day. Yet the Globe claims that "the boat will primarily be a car carrier." (Or maybe they're going to use it for construction purposes? Building stuff there would require more hauling capacity for a short time.)

For those who can't or don't want to drive, it's not easy to travel from New York to Martha's Vineyard. Other than flying, which is pricey, the Vineyard Fast Ferry, which runs between Quonset Point, RI and Oak Bluffs, MA, is an appealing alternative.

The ferry advertises convenient connections to Amtrak, and even posts schedules showing the best connections. A taxi service, Little Rest Limo, takes passengers directly between the two. Unfortunately, the connection information is misleading, often leading to frustrated passengers who miss their trains or ferries.

I've taken this route several times in the past, usually without a hitch. But yesterday, the advertised train connection was too short to realistically make, and since it was a holiday weekend, we arrived at Kingston at 1 pm having just missed the 12:41 train and every Amtrak train to New York sold out until 10:41 pm that night. Fortunately, there were a few seats available as far as New Haven, where we could take the Metro-North commuter rail to Manhattan.

Therefore, if you are thinking about taking the Vineyard Fast Ferry, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. The ferry is always a little late.

   The schedule shows the trip taking an hour and a half, but this isn't true. Even when the ferry leaves right on time and doesn't encounter any difficulties, it still really takes about an hour and 45 minutes. Going to the island this isn't a big deal, except tell your family or friends picking you up to save themselves the wait and show up 15 minutes later.

   But when trying to make a train, don't expect the ferry to dock when the schedule claims. Plus, it takes time to unload the ferry, check everyone in for the vans, etc.

2. The taxi takes longer than they say.

   The Web site says that the station is only 15 minutes from the ferry. And some of the other passengers on my trip yesterday reported that the ferry personnel were claiming the trip could be made in 15 minutes. This might be true mid-week in the middle of the day. But there are many small roads and traffic lights along the way, and often traffic. Expect the trip to take 25 minutes, or more on holiday weekends.

3. Pick a ferry with a 1½ hour connection time.

   The ferry's site lists the best connecting train to each ferry. Most of them leave 1½ hours to connection (for example, on the mid-summer schedule, 18 out of 22 northbound trips per week give 1½ hours or more, though only 11 of 21 southbound trips do), but unfortunately, the trips most likely to be crowded, like the Friday 4:30 ferry to the Vineyard or the Sunday 10:30 or 3:30 ferries back to the mainland, have the shortest connection times. (Northbound means from NYC to the Vineyard, though the ferry really travels east and slightly south. I'm using the terminology to match their train schedules.)

   Northbound, it's not uncommon for Amtrak to run an hour late. Southbound, the vans often sit at Quonset for up to half an hour just to wait for everyone to get off the ferry and get sorted out. An hour and a half connection time is pretty safe, though not 100% safe (Amtrak is occasionally more late, and the ferry sometimes runs into trouble).

   It's okay to book a shorter connection time, but just be aware. If it's an off-peak time, like mid-week, your chance of making it with an hour connection is pretty good. Just make sure you have a contingency option (see the next tip).

4. Northbound, leave extra connection time if you're trying to make the last ferry.

   If you go up in the morning and miss your ferry, it's not great, but not so terrible - there's a building you can wait in for the four hours until the next ferry. You should be able to get on the next ferry since capacity isn't so tightly restricted.

   But if you're on the last ferry and miss it, then you're stuck paying $100+ for a taxi to New Bedford for the ferry there.

   If your train is really late and you're on the last ferry, ask the conductor if you can pay to stay on the train one more stop to Providence, which is a lot closer to New Bedford, or even just to Boston, where you could spend the night and then take the bus in the morning. This is a last-ditch contingency, but it's much better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere in Rhode Island.

5. Southbound, consider booking the next later train on holiday weekends.

   If your connection time is tighter and/or it's a holiday weekend, it's not that terrible to miss the train because there's another one two hours later. Almost all of the time, there's room on that train - Amtrak trains don't usually sell out. But they do on holiday weekends, and you don't want to show up at Kingston station (a small building with nothing around it) and then find out the next train has no space.

   Therefore, during the busiest weekends, I recommend booking the next train two hours later instead. If you make it in plenty of time, you can change your ticket to the earlier train. You might have to wait longer while everybody else hops on the train, but it's insurance against the worst case scenario.

6. The ferry occasionally doesn't run in bad weather.

   The ferry goes really fast, but can't travel in really choppy water. When this happens, the Vineyard Fast Ferry company will arrange alternate transport from Quonset, but it could take a few extra hours. So decide whether you'd rather try to stay on the train to Providence and get a taxi to New Bedford (but call and make sure the New Bedford ferry is running), or if you have family or friends in Boston, to continue all the way there and take the bus to Woods Hole, which is much less weather-prone (the main ferry from Woods Hole uses huge car ferries which don't feel the waves nearly so much).

With all these contingencies, it might sound really scary to take the Vineyard Fast Ferry. It's not, and I'm going to continue using them. If you just choose ferries that have 1½ hour connection times, then you'll make the connection almost all of the time, and in the few other cases, you can simply take the next ferry or train.

Ideally, Vineyard Fast Ferry will adjust their schedule to eliminate the nasty 40-minute connection times on Saturdays and Sundays and other risky too-short connections. Or if they can't do that, they should at least recommend people book the next train to get an extra 2 hours of buffer time. Until then, consider linking to this post so that more people can find this survival guide and avoid the risk of being stranded in sleepy maritime Rhode Island.

At one end of the island of Martha's Vineyard is a smaller island, Chappaquiddick. The only access is via the tiny three-car "On Time Ferry". As an island off an island, with only one store, Chappy is secluded and beautiful. I biked around the island on a beautiful afternoon.

These pictures are part of my further exploration into better Photoshop color correction, so any comments you have about what looks good or bad are welcome.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Stefanie got to see my favorite vacation spot, the island of Martha's Vineyard, for the first time.

I also have been learning more advanced Photoshop color correction from this book. Unlike most Photoshop books, rather than simply giving recipes to follow and trying to use every new Photoshop command, this book delves into the basic theory of color, channels, and contrast, using curves, blending modes, sharpening, and other simple yet complex tools to make better images. It's really dense, and there's still a lot to learn, but you be the judge of whether these images are better than the last set I edited.

Hooray for more wedding pictures!

After brunch on Saturday of the wedding weekend, we caught a few rays at the beach before the Alpert family and friends headed inland to set up for the rehearsal dinner at the Sailing Camp Park, a wooded park with a rustic lodge building overlooking Lagoon Pond. I had just put the finishing touches on my photo slideshow tribute to Jamie and Erika, and spent the afternoon at the park nervously checking the video and audio systems and running through the show to ensure the timings were all right.

As the sun set I joined the wedding party on Fuller Street Beach, the site of the wedding ceremony, for the rehearsal itself. Fuller Street is a popular beach for weddings in September, but nobody is allowed to reserve it - you simply have to show up and claim some space. As we arrived for the rehearsal, another couple who had gotten married earlier were on the beach with their photographer to get a few pictures in such a beautiful spot.

I drove up from New York in the pouring rain. Friday was rainy and gloomy. The weather reports predicted rain Saturday and clearing Sunday - perhaps just in time for the wedding, but perhaps not.

But Saturday morning dawned bright, clear, and sunny, and activities started to kick into high gear. First, Jamie took the groomsmen out to breakfast while Erika took the bridesmaids, and bestowed gifts on all. I got a beautifully engraved iPod nano, but sadly the pictures didn't come out (reflective shiny = nice design, hard to photograph).

And back at the house, friends and family of the Alpert clan gathered for a bagel brunch in the sunshine. Relive these events in installment number two of the wedding photos.

Providence's T.F. Green airport is a 15 minute drive from downtown Providence, but it is directly adjacent to the Amtrak tracks where trains from New York to Boston pass every day. Imagine if there were a stop there, so train riders from the north and south could connect to flights to a variety of destinations, or rent cars to drive to the many seaside towns in Rhode Island and Cape Cod?

The State of Rhode Island has been thinking this for quite some time. For years, the T.F. Green airport Web page has said "until the Warwick station is built..." But no station had been built. Last month, Rhode Island broke ground on the station at long last. And having MBTA trains, which currently run to Providence, extended to the airport would make it easily accessible to millions from Boston and points south, relieving congestion at Logan.

But transit riders from New York and Connecticut may not be so lucky. According to the Providence Journal, Amtrak refuses to stop at the airport. Apparently, Amtrak wants the area around the station built with extra tracks so that Amtrak's trains don't get blocked behind other trains. It's not clear whether, absent the tracks, the Regional trains will still stop there, or no trains at all. Right now, Regional trains stop at many little tiny stations, like Kingston, RI, that certainly don't have four tracks.

If Regionals stop but Acela Expresses bypass the station, I can understand that - most customers are traveling between the major cities, and Amtrak needs to keep the running time as quick as possible. But if Regionals don't stop there, that is just ridiculously brain dead.

I found out about the station in the context of transferring at Providence en route from Martha's Vineyard to New York. The Vineyard is pretty easy to get to from Boston: a 1½ to 2 hour drive, or a 2 hour 20 minute bus ride, plus a 45-minute ferry. But how to get there from New York City?

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