Month: September 2021 (Page 1 of 2)

We started the season with Block Island, and we’re pretty well closing it there too. With building winds and seas, we had a raucous run from Cuttyhunk with only half a jib and still managing to top 6 knots. The seas were hitting us on the beam and growing, so it made sense to sit a day or two out in Block till they dropped again. That and the coming storms.

We started at the library for the requisite WiFi downloading session, meandered through town for a final visit, and then went back to our new favorite local Old Island Pub for lunch. We finished off the day with mudslides at The Oar, where we watched a few hearty souls braving the wind and the seas, come in for the final weekend of the season. Many of the island businesses shut down as of Saturday, so we had timed things nicely.

We did manage to finally meet Gerrett & Katrin on Balena, friends of Saphir. We had missed them when we were both in Cuttyhunk, but were now both anchored with a little more time in Block. They invited us over to their boat (this seems to be the season for us and Hallberg Rassys) for cocktails and we wound up spending a lovely evening aboard (the cocktail “hour” started at 4:30 and ended at 9:15!). We saw them quickly the next morning at the Farmers Market, and then we were off.

Or so we thought. Trip noticed something looked odd and asked for the bathyscope (a device that allows him to look directly below the surface without getting wet. It turns out our sacrificial zinc on the prop had completely worn away. The zinc’s purpose is to prevent the prop from corroding (a very expensive piece of equipment to replace). Unfortunately the zinc had not lasted the entire season as we had hoped. We dug out the wet suit, the dive tank, and Trip had to dive. Luckily we were in shallow water with good visibility and no chop. With it being so late in the season we also didn’t have to worry about crazy boat drivers speeding by. The zinc got replaced, Trip got a brief shower, and we were off.

After a final load of laundry Tuesday morning while we waited for a favorable current, we sailed for Cuttyhunk. We picked up really nice wind and got to the anchorage an hour before the raw bar boat was expected, so we tidied up and I took a shower. At 5:20, when I would have expected the boat to come out (there were a dozen boats in the outside harbor, despite the end of the season), I instead heard a radio call to the boat. They indicated that they were no longer working the boat this season, and would be finishing up service in 15 minutes. We raced to drop the dinghy and raced (racing used loosely given the speed of our dinghy) into the docks where the chef was kind enough to stay open for us straggling souls. For the record, we were not the last to come in with late orders and I’m sure he made good money.

We collected our oysters on the half shell (raised right there off the island), shrimp cocktail, stuffed scallops, and clam chowder and made a slightly more relaxed trip back to the boat for dinner. Not as fun as when the raw bar boat comes boat-side, but worth it nonetheless.

Our sail from Provincetown to the Cape Cod Canal was almost identical to two years ago, just a little bit less wind. Strong northeasterlys and following seas gave us a sleigh ride all the way down using just the jib. Despite the crummy foggy and drizzly start to the morning, the weather cleared as we entered the canal. We anchored behind Wicketts Island in Onset and went ashore to meet Leslie, who had come down from Boston to spend the weekend with us. We did a late lunch on shore, and then went back to the boat to enjoy the near-full harvest moon from the cockpit with music, wine, and chocolate.

Leslie had to leave Sunday morning, but Jen and Anne had driven down in the meantime for brunch. We discovered that the newly opened Glen Cove Inn (restored by a local family) where we ate, was featuring a blues band in their basement bar that afternoon that we couldn’t miss, so Trip and I went there after Jen and Anne headed back to Boston. A fun, full & exhausting day.

And to top things off Joy was able to stop by the boat Monday night after work for a few cocktails and apps. We had packed a lot of socializing into a few days with amazing weather, and it was time to move on.

We left Beverly sooner than intended because a) not many friends were going to be available to meet up, and b) the winds shifted, giving us a good chance to move south. We would have normally sailed for Warren Cove, just outside of Plymouth and close to the Cape Cod Canal, but the anchorage would have been completely exposed and very uncomfortable in these easterly winds. The good news was that we had a few good days of wind to move south, and our friend Carmen was staying at her friend’s house in Provincetown, so Ptown it was. As usual we had a few hours of motoring to start, but once the winds filled in we were flying along. The only disappointing part was that our angle from Beverly only clipped the bottom edge of Stellwagon Bank (where the humpbacks would be feeding this time of year). We didn’t manage to see any whales, but did anchor comfortably in Provincetown before the sun set.

We dinghied into town on Friday for Trip’s obligatory purchase at Shop Therapy (vintage hippie clothing), and wandered around enjoying the sights. Carmen joined us for lunch and then we joined her back at Wendy’s house for drinks with her and Wendy on the deck. A fun time in a beautiful setting. We were bummed not to be able to stay for dinner, but we had an early departure for the canal the next morning. Lucky that we left when we did as a massive bank of fog had rolled into the harbor, and we crept along the docks and mooring field till we found the boat again.

Unfortunately it was another motor down to Beverly, but at least Trip got to use the sextant and take some sun sights. We picked up a mooring at quite possibly the friendliest yacht club we’ve ever visited – the Jubilee Yacht Club. After a stellar lunch at the Anchor (nearly a dive bar, our usual favorite), we refilled a prescription at CVS, grabbed some groceries, and Trip even found some vinyl at a local record shop. Then it was back to the club for showers and drinks at the yacht club before turning in.

We were both a bit embarrassed the next morning to receive a happy anniversary text from my brother. Are we ‘that in love’ or ‘that married’ to have each forgotten the day? We walked over the bridge to Salem to enjoy the historical sights, and had a nice little lunch at a local Mexican taqueria (all the fancy places worthy of an anniversary meal were closed till dinner). Then it was back to the yacht club where Thalia and her daughter Allie came by with pizza and wine for a quick dinner and catch up before last call from the launch for a ride back to the boat.

Despite having to start the day with the motor (one of those notorious days when the winds don’t fill in till noon), we finished with a lovely sunset sail into Rockport. Unfortunately we are jinxed in this anchorage. Despite it’s great proximity to town and relative protection from wind and swell, the two times we’ve anchored here we’ve managed to drop some of the chain on rocks at the bottom. This translates to a constant screeching sound of chain against rock all night long, as well as periodic jerking of the boat when the chain catches under the rock. Needless to say it was a sleepless night for me. I was a little bit apprehensive at how easy it would be to up anchor around the rocks, and noted two diver preparing for a shore dive (could we flag them down and have them free us?), but after a little resistance the chain anchor came up easy enough, and we were off to Beverly.

The first few hours leaving Portland made for a great sail. Unfortunately the wind turned southwest mid-morning, we were still battling some residual swell from the hurricane, so we knew we weren’t going to get very far that day.

Luckily Kate from s/v Timothy Lee had told me about free town moorings at the entrance to the harbor in Saco. We had never considered Saco in the past because we normally do longer off shore runs up and down the coast or opt to stop in Isle of Shoals. But we knew high winds were coming in Sunday from the southwest and we needed a place to hang out until we could comfortably move south again. Saco fit the bill.

The entrance wasn’t as bad as it looked, and the mooring was a comfortable giant rubber ball (crucial for when the current runs opposite to the wind and you find yourself hitting the ball repeatedly – not fun at 3 AM with a plastic ball). We went ashore to explore Camp Ellis, the eastern most point of Saco. It’s a fun little collection of summer cottages, but the evidence of coastal erosion (sand still in the streets courtesy of the most recent storm swells I imagine) makes it a losing investment. We stopped at the most popular (and only) restaurant in the village, Huets, for an afternoon cocktail, and then it was back to the boat. A wonderful, albeit short, stay.

The forecasts called for really high surf thanks to passing Hurricane Larry, but we really didn’t see much on our way from Harpswell down to Falmouth. We grabbed a mooring at Handy Boat Services, went ashore for long overdue hot shore showers, dumped a huge load of trash and recycling, and caught up on laundry. All that and then we had lunch with the Knotts again. We joked that we were able to start our Maine summer with them and end it with them as well.

We knew about Long Cove from several cruising friends and could watch boats going in and out while visiting Lawrence and Viviane at High Head. But James highly recommended it so we went straight there from Snow Island.

It’s a beautiful spot, and we had it all to ourselves with the exception of a couple of rude locals who insisted on driving small boats at high speed a couple of times through the cove. Lawrence and Viviane rowed over the next morning and we walked one of the trails owned by Bowdoin College’s coastal management program.

We spent the next couple of days back on the guest mooring at High Head with Lawrence and Viviane, trading cocktails and dinner different nights, with an unintended pause in between when it was blowing so hard they could not make it over to Kalyra in their rowing dinghy. They were more successful the following night and a grand time we had.

It was just a couple of miles further north, but Snow Island was an easier spot to meet people ashore. After anchoring north of the island, we dinghied into the marina up Orrs Cove to meet up with friends Mark, Traci & Juniper for lunch. They had come up from Boston to see a new exhibit at the botanical gardens near Boothbay Harbor, and we were a convenient stop on the way back.

An unexpected bonus was getting to watch the Blue Angels in action over three days during their performance at the Brunswick air show!