Mattapoisett to Point Judith

We finally left the Mattapoisett Boatyard - our home away from home - Thursday, Sept.14th. We said goodbye to Cheryl, Dave, Carl and their staff, who have been absolutely wonderful to us us while we worked on the boat and learned how to handle her. Thank you so much for everything! You really made life a little easier for us!We headed out to Pocasset, on Tom's advice. The forecast winds didn't materialize although the rain did. We met the captain of Windmill, from New Hampshire, who helped us avoid the shallow area of the anchorage. A day later we witnessed what could have happened to us when another boater was left on the bottom in low tide! Henry Mitchell was in the neighbourhood visiting friends and dropped by with gifts of fishing gear to help us on our way. Thank you Henry!! We hope to be posting photos of tuna soon! We stayed another day and enjoyed sunshine and sand and a spectular sun set. We met Greg and Bart, Rider and Eric abound Alefe, San Francisco.
Sunday morning we departed for Cuttyhunk. We had quite a nice sail, making between five and six knots most of the way. We anchored in Cuttyhunk and then went exploring. We visited the few shops and the World War 11 lookout before heading back to the boat where the Raw Bar approached us with clams on the half shell. We all tried them and have the proof!Monday morning we set sail for Newport with a weather report stating that the dense fog would burn up by 9 a.m. Well, it didn't. We sailed several hours, keeping an eye on the radar and an ear out for boats. All hands were on deck. The fog burned up around 2:30 p.m. just as we were approaching Newport. We managed to get in safely. We visited the Seaman's Institute Tuesday morning to do laundry, check email, have breakfast and shower before touring the town. We had lunch at the Black Pearl, at Stephen's request. Wednesday morning we decided to head into Long Island Sound via the Race, paying careful attention to the timing of the speed of the currents. Well, we had a foul current and the wind direction was not as advertised, again. With the wave action, we stirred up the sludge in our fuel tank and lost our engine, again! We were close to Point Judith so we made a course change. It took over two hours to go the two miles to the breakwater at Point Judith Harbour Refuge, but we had no room for error. Tacking upwind was quite difficult against the current. At one point we were sailing backwards! We made it in and Doug worked on the 'beke changing fuel filters and bleeding the lines. Once he got the engine going again, we went into the Point Judith Pond to calm waters where we are now.

photos

Danielle up on skis.
Stephen up on skis for the first time.
Splash! There goes Danielle!
Row 14, Fenway. What a blast! Kansas City was winning but the Sox came back in the eighth inning to score 6 runs and take the lead. Unfortunatety, they lost it in the ninth. What an amazing place to see the game. The emotions run high at Fenway with a very spirited crowd.

Oh yeah - technical breakthrough. I figured out how to blog and post at the same time. One major stumbling block is consistent WiFi access. It has taken me five attempts and almost an hour to post this. I keep losing the signal partway through posting the photos and have to start over. I guess you can't be too fussy when you are borrowing access.

Other news of note - Bill and Cathy Bennet are the proud parents of Eleanor (Nora) born July 28th.
Ciao for now!
Dar

Waterskiing and Fenway

Sept. 6 -8
I'm jumping ahead a couple of weeks to post the latest news. Three days ago Stephen got up on waterskis for the first time and Danielle tried to drop a ski for a few spectacular splashes. We spent two days touring around Boston and managed to get to see Boston and Kansas City at Fenway last night. Hopefully I'll have some luck posting the pics. Oh yeah, the pics at Fenway are from the fourteenth row behind home plate!

Nantucket and Hyannisport

We spent five nights in Nantucket and two nights in Hyannis Port.
Sunday, August 20 was pouring rain in the morning so we decided to do laundry. Danielle and I ended up getting stuck at shore because Doug had a minor crisis at the boat and couldn’t come and pick us up. Doug thought we were sinking because the bilge pump kept cycling on and off. As it turned out, the water wasn’t going all the way out but kept going up the hose and down the hose. After tasting the bilge water to see if it was salty, he decided to sponge out the bilge. Miraculously, the problem was fixed! And Danielle and I were finally picked up from shore.
Monday, August 21 was spent touring the town, walking up and down the streets looking at houses and popping into boutiques. There is art everywhere! Stephen had quite a time rollerblading on the cobblestone roads. We went to the Coffin School, which is now a museum, and saw a show on the development of fishing on the island. (Coffin was one of the first white settlers on the island.)
Tuesday, August 22 - Danielle, Stephen and I went to the Nantucket Whaling Museum, a highlight of our trip. We saw a 48’ skeleton of a Sperm Whale – just a teenager! After visiting the museum, we headed to the Brant Lighthouse. We walked onto the Coast Guard complex in our search, and were very nicely escorted off the property. Oops! We were told where the lighthouse was and made our way there. Danielle and I checked out the shells on shore while Stephen watched guys fishing. One guy had a sand shark in his cooler! I chatted with a guy from Ontario who was working as a pilot. He had flown his client to Nantucket for business for a few days. What an interesting job he has! Doug picked us up from shore at the lighthouse around dinner time after having rebedded a chainplate and the bolts from the mast collar, two sources of water entry discovered during the rainfall from a few days previous.
Wed. Aug.23 was spent at the beach. Stephen met a friend, Harry, and spent the day catching jellyfish.
Thurs. Aug. 24 - Danielle and I went to shore to pick up a Nantucket basket and some cards from an art gallery. We headed out of Nantucket Harbour around noon. I decided to do a loop around some boats to let a giant ferry go past. We passed a very sad sight on our way in and out of the harbour – the mast of a sailboat. We think the boaters misread the markers and headed out to sea one marker early, hitting the breakwater, which is hidden at high tide. With 15 knot winds and fairly calm seas, we had a fantastic sail across to Hyannis. Our cruising guide described Hyannis and a great destination but we found no other boats anchored. We went to Hyannis Port where we anchored. A guy sailed by us and said, “Welcome to America!” He offered us a mooring at the Yacht Club, which we took advantage of for two stormy nights. Thanks to Max from Glide, we were safely moored, two boats away from Teddy Kennedy’s boat, and 400 or 500 yards away from the Kennedy compound!
Friday, Aug. 25 – We decided to go exploring. We walked around the neighbourhood until we found the Post Office and the General Store where we called a cab. What beautiful houses! We went into Hyannis and walked around the town. We stood under a beech tree planted in Hyannis in 1776.
Saturday, Aug. 26 - We decided to leave Hyannisport and head for Quisset. Doug carefully read the tide charts for Wood’s Hole and we planned to reach the cut at slack tide. It was blowing 20 knots and the seas were 3-4 feet and building. We tried to put up the main but were having difficulty. We forgot to consider the combination of the wind direction and current in Nantucket Sound. What we got was a rocky ride and an ill crew. To make matters worse, the motion of the boat stirred up sediment in the fuel tank and plugged the filters, causing the engine to quit. Ahhhh! We put up the genoa and sailed into Vineyard Haven, on Martha’s Vineyard, anchoring under sail. We looked like experts! Doug changed the fuel filters and cleaned out the raw water filter. We fired up the engine and moved behind the breakwater, taking a mooring.
Sunday, Aug. 27 – We ate breakfast at the BlackDog which was not an inexpensive venture. No surprise on Martha’s Vineyard! The kids and I toured the town while Doug worked on the boat.
Monday, Aug. 28 – We woke up to fog. We again calculated the best time to go through Wood’s Hole, deciding whether or not to travel with the reduced visibility. As we still could see about two to three nautical miles and most of the markers were spaced about a mile apart, we decided to go for it. It was flat calm as we motored to Wood’s Hole. We used our radar for the first time and it actually worked! There were very few boats around. What a different experience than the last time we went through Wood’s Hole. We sailed about halfway to Mattapoisett once the wind picked up.

More pictures

Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Hyannis Port

When last blogging, I wrote of going through Wood’s Hole and sailing in Vineyard Sound with the genoa up, going 81/2 knots, and reaching 91/2 at one point. Of course, the current was with us. We went to Edgartown, the largest town on Martha’s Vineyard, on Sunday, Aug. 13 staying in Katama Bay. We dinghied to the end of Katama, walking on the beach in the sand dunes with the Plovers, the waves crashing against the shore. I was worried that the tide was coming in so I wouldn’t let the kids go far. As it was, the tide was going out and our dinghy was high and dry by the time we went back to it. We came across very weird looking dead creatures with long spikes which we found out were Horseshoe Crabs.
We walked around Edgartown, buying fudge at Murdick’s, homemade ice cream and squid for fishing. Stephen fished from the boat and shore, catching numerous Scup, a crab and Sea Robins, prehistoric looking fish with fins that look like wings. A photo is posted on the previous blog posting. While we were fishing and collecting shells, Doug saved a man’s life. The man had jumped into the water to get his dinghy which had drifted away and got into trouble. Doug jumped in our dinghy and went over and held onto him in the water. Another boat came over and dragged them to shore where a lifeguard helped the man.

Boats, boats, boats. You wouldn’t believe the boats! When we were sailing to Edgartown we saw a huge yacht that had a helicopter on it. It went past us and then turned into the wind. At that point, the helicopter took off! We were frantically trying to get pictures of the boat while we were sailing. Later we saw the boat in the outer harbour at Edgartown, as well as many other humungous yachts. They’re a dime a dozen! Interestingly, they are registered in Kingston or other Commonwealth ports. Coincidence?

Afer Edgartwon we headed over to Nantucket for a few days. I’m out of time now so I’ll update that part of the trip later. We have to move from Mattapoisett today to a more sheltered anchorage as it’s supposed to blow 25-30 konts all weekend due to Ernesto.