sailingblog

We left Plymouth Harbor around 1 pm and got to Spectacle Island, one of the islands in outer Boston Harbor, to pick up the new wifi card around 6:30pm. We has a fantastic sail with great winds from the southwest on our port quarter and made great time - over 8 knots sometimes.

We decided to skip Salem, as NOAA was predicting a hot humid weekend. We overnighted at the Constitution Marina in Boston harbor near the USS Constitution: "Old Ironsides", the Revolutionary war ship that is the oldest vessel still commissioned by the US Navy. Below right is a shot of a WWII Destroyer and in the background is the monument for the Battle of Bunker Hill of Revolutionary War fame.

We didn't get in and get moored until 9:30PM, so we showered, ate some soup, and plotted tomorrow's sail to Rockport, MA on the GPS, and then to bed. We are both exhausted! I have some more pictures to upload tomorrow after I get them from Scott's camera.

Day 13, August 26: We got up at 6:30 am and began the cruise out of Boston Harbor and discovered we hadn't been at Constitution Marina since we cruised past it on our way out of the harbor. We don't know where it was we stayed - it was a small inlet with only about 10 moorings. Oh well...

Below left is a shot of some cormorants, the only birds that can fly, walk, and swim underwater so well that they can actually catch fast swimming fish. Right is a shot of our solution for my swollen foot - my foot swells when I am in hot humid weather- now you know why I moved to CT.

We had a smooth sail to Rockport, MA with fair winds and clear skies. We made about 29 miles in a little over 6 hours. I also caught a big bluefish! When we arrived we tied up at the dock to wash the salt and seagull poop off the boat. Below is a shot of the ramp up from the floating dock at low tide. The tides up this far have a range of about 9 feet. the range 3 feet in CT and up to 18 feet up in Maine. Needless to say, I will go ashore tomorror at high tide. We anchored just outside Sandy Bay harbor in time to watch a beautiful sunset. No wifi out this far :-( so I will post this tomorrow.

Day 14, August 27: We stayed two nights in Rockport anchored outside the harbor. Rockport is a beautiful little fishing town also known for its granite quarries of old, and currently for its artists and artisans. The water was so clear that you could see ropes or anchor chains 10 feet down. The Hobbitt House photo is just a curious little house I saw.

Day 15, August 28: We "slept in" today until 8 am, got up and lazed around drinking coffee, then made pancakes for breakfast at 11 am. Finally, a day of leisure! We will leave here this afternoon for the Isles of Shoals, 6 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, NH, a 19 mile sail. It's a full moon so even if we get there after dark it should be easy to find a mooring. Then we will sail on to York, Maine, about 6 miles, tomorrow afternoon and stay there for a day or two. Scott's daughter Lisa, her son Conner, and his dad, Carlo, are coming to meet us somewhere in southern Maine, probably York.

Well, it's 9:00 pm and we're about set sail. We both napped, me longer than Scott LOL, and had the first real sitdown dinner in a week. Scott showed me a neat way to bake potatoes - in a covered skillet on low heat which saved heating up the boat by firing up the oven. We had to come back into the Sandy Bay yacht club to take on water, get reliable WiFi, and take on diesel. The full moon is rising, the winds are from the southeast and we should have a really lovely moonlit sail north to Isles of Shoals. Scott said he really wanted to visit, and when I asked him why, he said, "one of the islands is named Smuttynose, and one, in life, simply has to visit such an oddly named place". Since we're going quasi-bluewater (offshore) and out of cell phone reception, we'll have to check in with Coast Guard Station Portsmouth via radio, to verify reception, and to let them know our "flight" plan. We actually left around 10:30 pm and had a great sail under a bright full moon. Got in around 2:30am and went straight to bed. Alas, no wifi...

Day 16, August 29: After a lazy morning and afternoon naps for both of us, we left the isle of Shoals and sailed/motored over to Portsmouth but avoided the big commercial port and went into Little Harbor south of New Castle island southeast of Portsmouth and picked up a mooring to get wifi.

Day 17, August 30: Well Jama found a fantastic harbor, Little Harbor, just off New Castle Island, southwest of the main Portsmouth Harbor. I came into Portsmouth, reluctantly, because it is a busy commercial harbor, and only to pick up cheap NH cigarettes. But we lucked out. Little Harbor is close to the open ocean but well protected behind breakwaters north and south. It's also adjacent to Wentworth-by-the-Sea, an iconic, Victorian hotel where, coincidentally, the peace treaty between Russia and Japan was signed, they tell me. .I got up early because my cell phone was beeping due to a low battery (you'd think the beeping would use up what was left of the battery faster!) Later we will motor over to the dock to tie up for lunch and take on water and also go to the grocery store for provisions and, of course, cigarettes (no sales tax in NH)!

Day 18, August 31: Another lazy day...Scott took the dinghy up the river to get food and supplies. I took a nap while Scott took the dinghy out exploring Sagamore Creek, and came back and said he could live here. We went out 6 hours later, and the tide was out - a full moon tide and the water level dropped over 11 feet. The tide ranges are larger the further from the equator you are. CT tide ranges are 3-4 feet, up here is 11-12 and in Maine 20 or more. In Galveston, on the gulf coast they are so small as to be virtually unnoticeable.

The photo of the pan on the stove also shows our expeditious way of heating up a can of soup or vegetable and our "clothes dryer" drying my footie with rubber tread - great for the boat in cold weather as it is so easy to slip in socks. Potatoes are baking in the pan. We're definitely not members of the high brow yachting set LOL. The other photo is some friendly people we motored by in the dinghy who were having cocktails after a harbor cruise. After our cruise, Scott surprised me with dinner: baked chicken, baked potatoes and creamed corn. We ate talked, laughed and went to bed soon after.

Day 19, September 1: We woke up and started to make coffee and the stove was out of gas! So we started up the generator to use the hot plate. Scott is going shore in the dinghy through another water inlet to get some prescriptions refilled. Later we are taking a dinghy cruise to check out some of the houses. We both think it is so pretty here that we are thinking about buying a house here when we move.

Scott loves this area, even the marina where we can surreptitiously tie up and drop off trash bags in their dumpster. That's always a high point of the day...getting rid of our garbage! He went off after dinner exploring again, and said he encountered a 7 knot outgoing current in the main channel. The water was boiling! We will probably leave here this afternoon and set sail for Casco Bay.

Day 20, September 2: We decided to take a dinghy cruise around the harbor and rivers to take some pictures as well as run up to get more natural gas for the stove. We had an strong incoming tide against a brisk opposing wind, the rapids and standing waves were really big so it was more like the Dinghy Adventure ride! We both got wet and had to bury the camera bags under a windbreaker. The dinghy engine gas tank ran dry halfway there (the new bigger motor really sucks it down) and we had to stop and switch tanks while drifting. On the way back we had an outgoing tide with strong currents in our favor.

We saw a house on the banks of the Sagamore river that looked really interesting (and also deserted) that we want to find out about so we got the coordinates from the GPS and emailed a realtor about it.

We stopped at a floating restaurant for clam chowder, then did a little fishing on the way back to our boat. While we were cruising around fishing (I got some bites, but didn't manage to snag anything but seaweed), it got dark and we were stopped by New Hampshire's finest for not having the required 3 navigation lights on our dinghy (we had 1 - a small flashlight, which was fine for the rear light). Connecticut doesn't require them, but New Hampshire does for any boat with an engine.

Then they followed us back to our boat, because that is where the registration was, and they decided to do a safety equipment inspection on the big boat as well. Our boat is big enough to be a Coast Guard documented vessel and does not require state registration. Everything passed. I was sitting in the dinghy while all this was going on wondering if we didn't pass inspection would they arrest Scott and take him away and leave me on the boat all alone! LOL

Day 21, September 3: We are finally in Maine and it only took us 3 weeks! We set sail for Biddeford Pool yesterday around 3:30pm - about 27 miles. NOAA had predicted southwest winds, but the winds were from the southeast (when the wind is coming from behind you, it is called following or pooping seas) so the boat rolled and wallowed. Scott put up the sails to stabilize it some but it was a rough ride. I finally went below to the aft berth and read and slept for the last few hours of the trip. We pulled into Biddeford Pool about 11pm and picked up everything that had fallen or been thrown about the cabin and went to bed.

We sailed for Small Point Island in Casco Bay. Another rough sail (for me) with high seas - some 10 ft rollers were coming in behind us at the end. We got in around 7 pm and picked up a mooring, but the outgoing tide and the swells coming in from the open ocean kept the boat rocking so we decided to go further in around the point to a protected inner harbor.

We proceeded in very slowly as the tide was two hours from low so the water was shallow. We followed the directions in the chart book to avoid rocks and and an underwater shoal. The passage was impeded by two rows of small sailboats on the most unusual mooring system Scott has ever seen. Unbeknownst to us, that mooring system consisted of a 300ft heavy underwater cable to which were attached 10 floats with small sailboats. In trying find the deeper water, we motored slowly into the mooring field and inadvertently picked up one of the mooring lines on the rudder. By the time we got that released, the tide had gone out even more - we had bottomed out in the mud!

Thankfully our boat has winged keel meant to hold some of the boat's weight as a regular knife keel would have buried itself in the soft mud. Scott tried to motor us out of there, but the outgoing tide was against us. By that time it was 9:55 and low tide was at 10:55. He said there was no motor made that could free us at that point, so he used the dinghy to lay out 150 ft of anchor line and chain and we went downstairs, had a cold supper, set the alarm for 1 am and went to bed. It felt really strange, after 3 weeks of gentle (and not so gentle) rocking, to go to bed in a boat that was perfectly still and listing about 10 degrees to port as it settled slowly into the mud.

By 1 am the tide had come in enough to refloat the boat. Scott wanted to make sure there was enough water. He told me this morning that in the time it took him to smoke 2 cigarettes, the water had risen another foot! Then he used the anchor line to pull us into deeper water, started the engine, and motored back out to the original mooring went back to bed. An unexpected (mis)adventure, but no harm done.

Below are photos of the waves coming into the harbor at sunset, almost low tide, the aforementioned odd 300 ft mooring line, and a swordfishing boat.

Day 22, September 4: Scott has gone out in the dinghy to take some pictures and I am sitting here by myself, listening to the wind howling outside and feeling the boat swing around and rock from the wind. Other than the wind, it is very quiet - no sounds of boats coming and going. With the wind chimes tinkling an eerie, off-key tune, it feels like the Twilight Zone - as if we are in a deserted ghost harbor.

Below are pictures of where we are moored and a working lobster dock that appears to be abandoned. Note the old Texaco sign.

Today we sail for Boothbay Harbor, about 15 miles from here, to stay for a night and do some shopping, take on water, and gas, etc. We are expecting an easy sail with strong winds from the West Northwest. We will see...

Scott here: We decided to have a substantial lunch (franks and beans) before taking off, not knowing how long or how tough the sail would be. Upon closer examination the trip was about 19 miles, given that Boothbay Harbor is well north of the open ocean. As expected the wind was strong, steady 20 knots with gusts to 25, but the seas were flat. Unlike the previous couple of days this wind came from the land, with little fetch over the open water, hence no big seas. Because of the strong winds we sailed with just the jib, but that was enough to drive the boat at almost hull speed (the maximum speed the hull can go, regardless of how much power is applied), and in fact, the wind drove the boat as fast or faster than the engine would.

We covered the 19 miles in just a few hours, dropped sail in the outer harbor, and motored into Boothbay Harbor just before sunset. It's a fantastic spot - lots to see and do. We saw a harbor seal who came up close to inspect us. This is just about as far south as they come, and they're a harbinger of Fall and Winter's approach. We picked up a mooring in a calm cove at the BH Yacht Club. We took on water, and Jama luxuriated in not one, but two showers, back to back LOL. After nightfall, I grilled a steak outside on the small gas grill we hung off the back railing, and Jama heard me whistling, clucking, calling, then laughing - I had heard the seal close behind the boat and was calling it. I sudddenly realized that whistles or calls to a seal aren't like that to a dog - the seal probably thought I was some loud, crazy human.

Day 23, September 5: Arose to clear blue and crisp skies. It's a lazy day. We seem to alternate between busy days of putting miles under our keel as we drive north to Penobscot, and lazy days where we loll about just recharging ourselves. We both took long (3 hour) afternoon naps, Jama wound up front in the V-berth, I was in the aft berth, and that pretty much used up the remainder of our afternoon. We left the Yacht Club to moor at Wotton's Wharf where they have both water and power. I did a slow motor tour of the harbor's east side and took some photos. The "our next boat" photos are wishful thinking.

Day 24, September 6: Still Scott here: Awakened to a partly overcast sky, and increasing South winds. I had a bunch of errands I wanted to do - food store, hardware store - I even did 2 loads of laundry at the marina! It's getting busy here. Wotton's Wharf is co-host to a three day regatta. According to the sponsors "The Shipyard Cup is an invitational regatta open to yachts over 70 feet (21 meters). A gathering of elegant yachts, the fleet includes flush-deck speedsters, large ocean cruisers, and timeless classics, all brought together in the "Corinthian spirit" of true amateur competition".

I saw a couple of really big boats come in. One, a hundred and sixteen footer which we saw earlier in Newport, RI is docked 100 feet away. I teased them this morning, saying their docking where they did ruined my view of the parking lot! I got some pictures of us adjacent to this boat, and it looks like we're their tender. While I was shopping, Jama made a fantastic dinner of Salisbury steaks with Hunter Sauce, mashed potatoes, and early peas. Real comfort food, for the cold and tired. I raved about it and said Jama should offer the recipe to interested blog readers.