Dave wrote:
On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 07:51:40 -0400, jeff said:

Some mooring fields have a robust launch service (Scituate and Salem
come to mind), most others you're on your own. However, we've managed
to hold out and get by with a rowing dinghy, rather than deal with an
outboard.

What do you do at Menemsha, leave the dinghy on the beach outside the harbor
entrance?

We haven't gone ashore at Menemsha in a while but you can tie up at the
marina there, assuming you can handle the current. Outside, you could
leave the dink NE of the jetty, but probably not on the public beach
right there. They run two moorings inside, and about a dozen outside,
first come, first serve. I was inside several time years ago, but only
used an outside mooring for a easy layover in recent years. Outside is
not highly recomended - its rather rolly for most boats.

We normally stay in Vineyard Haven, which has become our "home away from
home" and take a bus to Menemsha.

Dave wrote:
On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:35:42 -0400, jeff said:

What do you do at Menemsha, leave the dinghy on the beach outside the harbor
entrance?
We haven't gone ashore at Menemsha in a while but you can tie up at the
marina there, assuming you can handle the current.

That is, of course, the issue. I like to spend a night at each of the main
ports on the Vineyard when we go there, but there's no way anyone could row
in from the outside moorings when that current is in the wrong direction.
You either motor, or leave the dinghy outside. (Or plan on spending enough
time ashore for the current to have turned). A stopover there was enough to
persuade me to get a motor. We had previously stayed inside, and it didn't
occur to me that that big pond at the back of the harbor could create quite
an obstacle at the entrance with the tide rising or falling.

So your desire to go inside at Menemsha is worth the price of a engine
(plus the associated hassles like registration and maintenance)?
Mooring at VH and renting a car would have been about 90% cheaper!
Sounds to me like there's just a little rationalization here.