I’m waiting out another severe thunderstorm threat on a town mooring in Gloucester. This one also looks like it won’t live up to its billing but it’s too late to go on now. I should be in Portland in 2-3 days and, as you can guess from this, I’m eager to get there.
Power legs are shown in red and sail in green. Not a lot of sailing but what we did was great.
I’m facing a lot of unknowns when I get back to Strider’s home port so feeling on the terse side. So, I’ll just stick to the bare facts.
I spent a busy day in Cuttyhunk buying ice and what little I could find at the local market. No beer. Paul showed up on the 1900 ferry with what looked like an awesome amount of luggage for such an experienced cruiser. I forgave him when I found out it was mostly beer.
We left Cuttyhunk the next morning in low and grey skies but with enough visibility to appreciate the Elizabeth Islands. It as a pleasant but not very sporty sail up to Vineyard Haven where we toured the inner harbor where I think you can now count more schooners than even in Camden or Rockland. Many are small but some of those are among the best examples of the type anywhere.
A town mooring in Edgartown was next to wait out the last bit of bad weather.
We walked around town the next day and made a supply run to the market. Back on the boat, we (or, I) figured What the hell. How bad can it be for a run of a few miles over to Woods Hole? We got the answer, along with an impressive amount of spray driven down our necks and into other chinks in our foul weather gear armor.
We stopped briefly in Woods Hole so I could show Paul the waterfront and wave at the R/VTioga. There was some impressive tidal action where the wind was still blowing in from the full expanse of Buzzards Bay on our way over to Hadley Harbor. The clearing of the sky into that wonderful post storm sunset light made the cold wet crossing well worthwhile.
We headed out the next morning into a stiff wind that was forecast to back. The plan was to tack back to explore the other side of the Elizabeth Islands and anchor at the end of the canal but I suddenly realized that everything was lined up for a sleigh ride to Boston instead of a long power leg the next day. We skipped the tack and just kept on.
It was a grand sail up the bay, double reefed and going faster nearly close hauled than the boat will make under power. After a quick refueling stop in Sandwich, we headed out into Cape Cod Bay and more of the same wind which stubbornly refused to ease and back into the SW as predicted. No complaints though as it was more sporty and grand sailing.
Just past Plymouth, the wind stopped like someone had shut a door. We then powered into left over seas up and around into Boston where we picked up a mooring near World’s End inside of Nantasket Beach.
The next morning, we toured the entire Boston waterfront from the airport up into the Mystic River and back to Rowe’s Wharf where I dropped off Paul for his return to Canada via the car he left in Boston. I then made a long an boring run up to Gloucester in calm winds and seas where I now sit looking at the Doppler radar and thinking it wouldn’t have been a bad bet to have continued on to Portsmouth today. It might have been damp and dismal but I don’t see any yellow blobs on the radar.
I’m ready to be there.
Power legs are shown in red and sail in green. Not a lot of sailing but what we did was great.
I’m facing a lot of unknowns when I get back to Strider’s home port so feeling on the terse side. So, I’ll just stick to the bare facts.
I spent a busy day in Cuttyhunk buying ice and what little I could find at the local market. No beer. Paul showed up on the 1900 ferry with what looked like an awesome amount of luggage for such an experienced cruiser. I forgave him when I found out it was mostly beer.
We left Cuttyhunk the next morning in low and grey skies but with enough visibility to appreciate the Elizabeth Islands. It as a pleasant but not very sporty sail up to Vineyard Haven where we toured the inner harbor where I think you can now count more schooners than even in Camden or Rockland. Many are small but some of those are among the best examples of the type anywhere.
A town mooring in Edgartown was next to wait out the last bit of bad weather.
We walked around town the next day and made a supply run to the market. Back on the boat, we (or, I) figured What the hell. How bad can it be for a run of a few miles over to Woods Hole? We got the answer, along with an impressive amount of spray driven down our necks and into other chinks in our foul weather gear armor.
We stopped briefly in Woods Hole so I could show Paul the waterfront and wave at the R/VTioga. There was some impressive tidal action where the wind was still blowing in from the full expanse of Buzzards Bay on our way over to Hadley Harbor. The clearing of the sky into that wonderful post storm sunset light made the cold wet crossing well worthwhile.
We headed out the next morning into a stiff wind that was forecast to back. The plan was to tack back to explore the other side of the Elizabeth Islands and anchor at the end of the canal but I suddenly realized that everything was lined up for a sleigh ride to Boston instead of a long power leg the next day. We skipped the tack and just kept on.
It was a grand sail up the bay, double reefed and going faster nearly close hauled than the boat will make under power. After a quick refueling stop in Sandwich, we headed out into Cape Cod Bay and more of the same wind which stubbornly refused to ease and back into the SW as predicted. No complaints though as it was more sporty and grand sailing.
Just past Plymouth, the wind stopped like someone had shut a door. We then powered into left over seas up and around into Boston where we picked up a mooring near World’s End inside of Nantasket Beach.
The next morning, we toured the entire Boston waterfront from the airport up into the Mystic River and back to Rowe’s Wharf where I dropped off Paul for his return to Canada via the car he left in Boston. I then made a long an boring run up to Gloucester in calm winds and seas where I now sit looking at the Doppler radar and thinking it wouldn’t have been a bad bet to have continued on to Portsmouth today. It might have been damp and dismal but I don’t see any yellow blobs on the radar.
I’m ready to be there.