Detour #275: Driving into the Jaws of Martha’s Vineyard, USA
Photo Hazal Ozturk
Terror took hold of the unspoilt beaches of Martha’s Vineyard in 1975 when Jaws hit cinemas. Detour tracks the infamous shark sightings and movie locations on a road trip around the Massachusetts island.
“He didn’t eat a car, did he?” asks Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody after witnessing a licence plate being pulled from the body of a shark. It’s a mere minnow compared to the toothy beast that terrorises the community of the fictional Amity Island, but it’s a line from the movie that springs to mind as I cross the rather low-lying Jaws Bridge. Formerly known as the American Legion Memorial Bridge it was renamed after Steven Spielberg immortalised Martha’s Vineyard on film.
Photo Rusty Watson
It’s already been a somewhat scary start to this road trip, although that has nothing to do with sharks, but rather a vehicular mis-step. Instead of paying to bring our car across from the mainland by ferry, my other half and I got cheap foot passenger fares and planned to tour Martha’s Vineyard on a moped. A few hundred hards of wobbling and weaving later we turn around and rent a small car instead.
We drive south from Oak Bluffs to Joseph Sylvia State Beach and over the bridge next to which a young sailor falls victim to the shark. In the summer months adrenalin junkies are often seen leaping into the sea here, but we’re obviously too “afraid to go back in the water”. Instead we continue alongside Edgartown Beach and on into Edgartown itself. The picture postcard town looks exactly as it did in 1975 and on a short stroll through its quaint streets it’s easy to spot the buildings used as the police station, Amity Gazette HQ and Town Hall.
Just a few minutes out of town is South Beach where the film’s opening scene was shot. Its glorious sandy shores look very tempting, but… you get the idea. On foot you could walk almost all the way along the coast to our next destination, but in a car we need to head inland, passing by the island’s airport then heading coastwards once again. At Chilmark you can take a short detour to the tiny fishing village of Menemsha, home of Quint’s shack or get stuck into the seafood at Homeport or Larsen’s Fish Market.
The final stop is Gay Head where Hooper and Brody try to convince Major Vaughn to close the beaches. The view from the lighthouse across the cliffs is amazing, the water looking even more appealing. Or it would if it wasn’t for that pesky shark.
Photo Rusty Watson
ROADBOOK
CLASS: MOVIE MAGIC
NAME: INTO THE JAWS OF MARTHA’s VINEYARD
ROUTE: Oak Bluffs to Gay HEad Lighthouse
COUNTRY: USA
Distance: 31 miles
The window of opportunity to drive into the wilds of Alaska’s Denali Highway is narrow.