Category: 2021 New England Sailing

Not much to say about today. It rained most of the night and was a very dreary morning. We were up early and finished packing.  Then we took the boat over to the gas dock where we filled up the boat with diesel and water, filled the dingy with gas, and did a final pump out. Then we left the boat and came home.

Overall it was a good trip.  It was really nice to be back on the water and enjoy boat life.  It was also nice to see my friends, Deb and Peter, and Leigh.  All in all great to do a little traveling again.

Today is our last full day on the boat. We had a leisurely morning on the boat.  It was a beautiful and calm morning.  Here is a picture of the boat next to us.  You can see there is hardly a ripple on the water.

We decided to go on a nature walk on Cuttyhunk.  On our way to the island we stopped at our New Castle boat friends.  We were talking to them about boats and they invited us on to their boat, 2006 Sabre 425, for a tour.  They have a lovely boat.  They were giving us tips if we decide to buy a boat.  We got their card and hope to stay in touch with them because they are very nice people.

Then we went for our walk.  Here are some pictures from our walk.

On the way back to the boat, a couple pasted us and as soon as they walked by I realized it was my old Lytron boss, Dave Voorhes and his wife.  He use to rent a house on Cuddyhunk for the summer but he hadn’t been back for 15 years.  Weird that he was there when we were there.  We visited briefly with them.

We returned to the boat and had lunch.  I packed one bag and then it was time to leave.  We had a nice four hour sail back to Newport.

That evening we had dinner with my college friend, Leigh, at a lovely restaurant right on the water.

All in all it was a lovely day even if it was our last whole day on the boat.

We were up early. Our slip was right at the edge of harbor inlet and the tide was rushing in through the narrow channel. Consequently the boat was rocking and rolling.  All in all it was a terrible location. When the tide was in, we moved the boat to one of the two mooring balls in the harbor. Rick was concerned that we could be pushed into the rocks by the tide rushing out if we waited too long. We were right in front of the Coast Boats.

We left Menemsha at 9:30 and motored through Quicks Hole (a hole is a narrow channel between two islands) with the tide slightly in our favor to Cuttyhunk.  We arrived in Cuttyhunk around 11:30 so it was a short trip.  The harbor had lots of empty mooring balls so we got our pick.  We moored easily and had lunch.  It was really beautiful, peaceful, calm, and serene.  According to Wikipedia, Cuttyhunk has 10 year round residents but the population swells to 400 in the summer.  Here are a couple of pictures from the harbor.

Then we put the motor back on the dingy and went into town. We had a little trouble locating the dingy dock but with the help of a couple of locals we found it. We checked out the menus of the three lobster shacks.  Then we walked up the hill, passing the little general store, post office, library, town hall, and one room school.

There was a lookout at the top of the hill with amazing views.  We also explored the WWII bunkers which were on the edge of the hill.

We returned to town, bought Rick’s dinner, and dingied back to the boat.  The harbor was filling up by then.  Our New Castle friends who we met in Nantucket and saw again in Edgartown pulled in.  It’s fun to get to know sailing people.

That evening we hung out on the boat and watched the full moon.

It was another exciting day. We woke up really early (4:30 am) to fog and went back to sleep.  When we woke up for the second time, around 6:00, the fog had burned off and it was a beautiful day. We left Edgartown around 6:30. We let the dingy out on its long leash but quickly noticed it was taking on water again so this time we pulled it in tight and it was fine for the rest of the trip. We motored all the way to Menemsha because the wind was on our nose most of the way. We arrived in Menemsha around 11:00.  Here are a couple of pictures from along the way.

Once in Menemsha we pulled up to the fuel dock and got diesel. The harbormaster sent us to a dock which was on the end of the pier. Rick didn’t want to back in so he drove close to the jetty and was turning around. The depth gauge read three feet but there wasn’t three feet of water because we were in the mud. Rick gunned the engine but we were stuck.  The head harbormaster wasn’t in so the summer assistants called him and he said we should put out an anchor and wait for the tide to come up.  It was about 11:45 and the tide was still going out.  Low tide was at about 1:00.  So we just waited and watched the coast guard practice rescue maneuvers outside the harbor. You can’t really tell from the pictures that we were stuck but here they are anyway.

At low tide the boat listed slightly to one side.  A fisherman was helpful and took out anchor out into the channel. People along the dock were watching us and around 1:45 they said they could tell we were starting to float.  Rick was on wheel and I was at the bow and I started pulling in the anchor.  It pulled the boat forward and off whatever we were stuck on (the technical term for this is Kedging.).  Luckily the bottom was muddy and sandy so no damage was done to the boat.  With the help of four people on the dock we were able to dock without further incident. We breathed a sigh of relief!

I went over to the little restaurant to get Rick some chowder.  We topped off our water tanks and did other boat chores.  That evening Rick got a lobster dinner take out and we returned to the boat to cook my dinner.  By then it was raining and it rained for most of the evening.  Our boat is very cozy in the rain!

 

 

We woke up early because we wanted to be off the mooring between 5 and 6 am. We planned to go to Menemsha which we estimated would be a 9-10 hour sail  However the weather had other plans for us. The harbor was socked in with fog and we had to just wait it out. We finally got off the mooring around 9.

We motored out of the harbor through the channel and then proceeded to put up the main sail. As we finished putting up the sail, I noticed the dingy was half full of water. It has been taking on water over the bow as it plowed through the waves. We had taken the motor off, as it customary for a long sail. This was our first leg without the motor on the dingy. The change in weight distribution resulted in the bow being lower and allowing water to splash in over the bow. This was a problem!

We slowed down by putting the engine into neutral and pondered what to do.  We decided our first effort would be to pull the dingy closer to the boat and bale it with the bucket on a rope that we typically use to swab the deck. We got about 50% of the water out and started motoring again but decided it was riding too low in the water and would just fill up again.

We put the motor back into neutral and took down the sail. Then we lowered the swim platform, pulled the dingy up onto the swim platform and dumped as much water out as we could. Who needs fitness blenders when you have a dingy full of water to haul out!  Then we added another line to the dingy painter (line) to make it longer and started up our journey again. This seemed to work and the dingy was no longer taking on water.  Crisis averted!

Oh, wait, not yet, we motored on and, about an hour later, the fog rolled back in and we only had about 1/4 mile of visibility. Luckily the boat has radar and we were both on lookout. We only saw one boat that was close to us and we used the horn to alert them to us. Eventually the fog cleared and we were back on our way.

After all that we decided to go to Edgartown instead of all the way to Menemsha. We pulled into Edgartown around 1:30. What a day!

We spent the afternoon relaxing on the boat. We didn’t go into town because we didn’t need anything and because we didn’t want to put the motor back on the dingy, only to have to take it off again for the next leg of our journey.  Needless to say we had dinner on the boat and an early evening.

Sorry another day with no pictures.

Happy Father’s Day 😘

It was a beautiful day, perfect for our sail with our Nantucket friends, Deb and Peter.  We started our day by going into town to get a few groceries.  We came back to the boat, relaxed, and had some lunch.  After lunch we dinghied to the dingy dock to pick up Deb and Peter.  We took them out for a sail.  The wind picked up on our way back and we were heeled over pretty far so we pulled in the sails and motored back.  Once back on the mooring we had a little happy hour of wine and cheese.  Then we took them back and said good bye.

Back at the boat we readied her to leave because we are planning to go to Menemsha tomorrow which will be a long sail so we want to leave early.  We had dinner on the boat.

It was a great day.  We really enjoyed hosting Deb and Peter on the boat.

(Sorry no pictures, I was enjoying myself and I forgot to take pictures, Oops!)

We were supposed to take out our friends, Deb and Peter, out for a sail but when we checked the weather it didn’t look too good. The winds were 20+ mph, with gusts up to 25 mph. There were supposed to be 3-5 foot seas, and small craft advisories. We decided to postpone for a day.

We went into the aquarium to see the exhibits we had missed on our previous visit which included Clementine, the 10 pound orange lobster. We walked through town and had some lunch.  Here are a few pictures from  town.

I followed up lunch with the world’s biggest ice cream sandwich which even I couldn’t finish! We walked out to Brandt Point Lighthouse.

We returned to the boat and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. The wind was howling. Postponing was the right decision!

Rick cooked dinner on the boat. Another early night.

Yet another beautiful day on Nantucket!  We started the day by walking to the grocery and liquor stores.  Nantucket is so pretty, here are a couple of pictures from our walk.

Interestingly, after shopping, we had trouble getting an uber, lyft, or taxi back to the boat.  Just as we had given up hope and were planning to push the cart back to the boat, an uber became available.

Once everything was stowed back at the boat we returned to town and went to the aquarium.  It’s a very small building and actually looks like a joke but Deb was on the board for many years and her son worked there so she encouraged us to go.  It houses local species that it collects for the season and then releases back into the ocean at the end of the season.  We were toured around by Jack, the director of the aquarium and a very enthusiastic marine biologist.  It was excellent and we highly recommend it to other Nantucket visitors.  Here’s a picture of the aquarium and Jack.

After our aquarium tour we returned to the boat for lunch.  Rick wasn’t feeling that well so I went into town by myself and went to the Hadwen House and the old Quaker Meeting House.  At the Hadwen House I learned more Nantucket history.  Hadwen made his fortune in candles made from spermaceti (from the sperm whales) which are smokeless, giving them a big advantage.  He built a large house for him and his wife and then built another one for his niece.  The “Three Bricks” are brick houses across the street which were built by Hadwen’s father in law, Joseph Starbuck, for his three sons.  Here are pictures of the Hadwen House and the Three Bricks.

The old Quaker Meeting House was pretty much what you’d expect, a completely plain room with some benches.  Here’s a picture of the outside.

I walked back and returned to the boat.  We had a lazy evening, watching a huge mega yacht dock.  I looked it up it’s for sale, only $40M . . . .

After a relaxed morning we went to the Nantucket Whaling Museum which was a short walk from the dinghy dock.  It was an excellent exhibit, not only about whaling but also just a general history of Nantucket.  It was a lot to absorb and would have been better if we could stretch it over two days but informative nontheless.  They had a lovely roof deck with views of the harbor.

We walked to the bakery and got a loaf of bread and then returned to the boat for lunch.  We were going to rent bikes in the afternoon but were feeling lazy.  Rick watched boats and I watched my book.  That evening we ordered take out barbeque.  It was a beautiful evening to eat dinner aboard the boat.

Today we planned to go to Nantucket and figured it would take us 5 hours.  We wanted to be in Nantucket by 3 so we would have to leave by 10.  Since we were up by 6:30 and didn’t need anything from town we just figured we’d get on the road, or on the sea.  We left at 7:20. Once again the forecast was wrong, we were expecting 9 knots of wind but we got 25 knots.  The wind was in the low teens when we left so we put up the sails but then as it built to 25 knots. we had to reef (shorten the sails).  The wind whipped up the seas and the boat was rocking and rolling.  I didn’t feel too good.  We saw power boats that were experiencing a lot worse so I guess I shouldn’t complain.  As we got closer to Nantucket the winds and seas calmed.  Just after noon, we arrived in Nantucket under beautiful blue skies. Here are pictures of the channel into the harbor.

We had no trouble mooring the boat. The harbor is beautiful and we decided to extend our stay until Sunday.  Here are pictures of the harbor.

Once settled we cleaned up the salon which had things strewn all over the place because they slide around during the rough transit, swabbed the deck, had some lunch, and took showers.  Now we are ready for Nantucket.

A college friend has a house in Nantucket and we had arranged to get together with her and her husband, Deb and Peter.  We went a shore and Deb met us as the dinghy dock.  We walked back to her house and she provided a historical tour along the way.  We visited for a while at their house and then they toured us around the island.  We went out to Sankaty which is on the eastern most point of the island.  Most of Nantucket is sandy earth and Sankaty, facing the Atlantic, is very vulnerable to sand erosion.  Many of the houses here have been moved back from the eroding cliff and some have been condemned by the town.  They have tried a number of preventative measures, all with limited success.  Here are some pictures of Sankaty.

We returned to their house to let their dogs out and then went out of Madaket to get takeout for dinner.  While we waited for the takeout we enjoyed the sunset.

We had dinner and then they drove us back to our dinghy.  It was wonderful to see Deb and Peter and some of Nantucket.