I guess you can’t escape it. My propensity for marathon days became apparent early in my cruising on Strider and I even wrote an article about it in which I speculated on its connection with my increasing amount of single handing.
http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/images/LongDays.pdf
A primary objective for this summer was to do some cruising. I’m afraid if I look back through these posts, I’ll see that I managed maybe two or three days of what most people would consider “cruising”. Of course, setting out to cover about 1000 miles in six weeks wasn’t entirely consistent with this objective but it is still ironic to have finished up this segment by covering 266 nm in three and a half days, a run that appeals to the dark side of my cruising heart. I probably should have been a delivery skipper instead.
We saw some great sights though. The run up Digby Neck in beautiful weather just a few hundred yards offshore will be memorable even though I did it the other way just a couple weeks before. Signs of human habitation are often miles apart on this stretch of impressive coastline. Coming up the channel after passing through the reversing falls, the clicking I heard was the “Wow” meter beating its needle against the peg.
I’ve spent the distant passage of Irene on a mooring at the very windward head of a cove in Kennebecasis Bay under high bluffs. I winched the ball up with the main halyard winch yesterday and shackled on a second pendant that I carry in my considerable collection of severe weather mooring gear so I probably could have ridden out a direct hit.
Late yesterday afternoon, a sailboat in the 25 foot range came around the point and headed into a nearby cove that shows an overhead powerline on the chart although I can’t see it from here. He made a sudden turn and ran hard aground. The lone occupant then ran around energetically trying to get free. There was more energy than effectiveness and I was watching with concern as he jumped in and out of his dinghy in full foul weather gear and boots since he couldn’t have swum a stroke in that outfit if he had slipped into the water. I don’t wear my PFD as much as I should but I always do when dressed this way.
The yacht club committee boat soon came out manned with what looked like every person who had been in the club house and he rowed the dinghy out to pick up a tow line. They soon had him free and he cast off the tow just as soon as he reached deep water.
He then motored inside the green buoy that marks the end of an old sunken breakwater as I waved frantically from a couple hundred yards away. The keel must have slipped between the old log cribs because he made it to an open spot just upwind of the obstruction and threw out a chainless Danforth. Why is it that so many people feel that the anchor must be thrown? Maybe that’s why they don’t put a length of chain between the anchor and line, so they can throw it better. Letting out about 4:1 scope, he jumped in the dinghy and rowed rapidly ashore as I thought, That boat won’t be there in the morning.
Surprisingly, the boat held through the brisk gusts of the evening. It started blowing quite just before dawn this morning, shock like gusts that heeled Strider like she had been struck by another vessel and occasionally lifted swirls of spray off the water 15 - 20 feet in the air. Sure enough, when I looked out this morning, the boat was a few hundred yards downwind. Fortunately, a wind direction change that accompanied the increase in speed put her out in the channel instead of up on the rocks. She is directly the other side of another moored sailboat but I can’t see any sign that they made contact in the night. She seems to be holding for now and the wind is easing and the sky is clearing.
Barbara arrives Thursday and is meeting me here so I can’t go far. It’s a big lake and river system so there are no long distances that must be covered to reach shelter or a port. We’ll see if sufficiently restrictive geographical constraints will result in my actually doing some cruising.
http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/images/LongDays.pdf
A primary objective for this summer was to do some cruising. I’m afraid if I look back through these posts, I’ll see that I managed maybe two or three days of what most people would consider “cruising”. Of course, setting out to cover about 1000 miles in six weeks wasn’t entirely consistent with this objective but it is still ironic to have finished up this segment by covering 266 nm in three and a half days, a run that appeals to the dark side of my cruising heart. I probably should have been a delivery skipper instead.
We saw some great sights though. The run up Digby Neck in beautiful weather just a few hundred yards offshore will be memorable even though I did it the other way just a couple weeks before. Signs of human habitation are often miles apart on this stretch of impressive coastline. Coming up the channel after passing through the reversing falls, the clicking I heard was the “Wow” meter beating its needle against the peg.
I’ve spent the distant passage of Irene on a mooring at the very windward head of a cove in Kennebecasis Bay under high bluffs. I winched the ball up with the main halyard winch yesterday and shackled on a second pendant that I carry in my considerable collection of severe weather mooring gear so I probably could have ridden out a direct hit.
Late yesterday afternoon, a sailboat in the 25 foot range came around the point and headed into a nearby cove that shows an overhead powerline on the chart although I can’t see it from here. He made a sudden turn and ran hard aground. The lone occupant then ran around energetically trying to get free. There was more energy than effectiveness and I was watching with concern as he jumped in and out of his dinghy in full foul weather gear and boots since he couldn’t have swum a stroke in that outfit if he had slipped into the water. I don’t wear my PFD as much as I should but I always do when dressed this way.
The yacht club committee boat soon came out manned with what looked like every person who had been in the club house and he rowed the dinghy out to pick up a tow line. They soon had him free and he cast off the tow just as soon as he reached deep water.
He then motored inside the green buoy that marks the end of an old sunken breakwater as I waved frantically from a couple hundred yards away. The keel must have slipped between the old log cribs because he made it to an open spot just upwind of the obstruction and threw out a chainless Danforth. Why is it that so many people feel that the anchor must be thrown? Maybe that’s why they don’t put a length of chain between the anchor and line, so they can throw it better. Letting out about 4:1 scope, he jumped in the dinghy and rowed rapidly ashore as I thought, That boat won’t be there in the morning.
Surprisingly, the boat held through the brisk gusts of the evening. It started blowing quite just before dawn this morning, shock like gusts that heeled Strider like she had been struck by another vessel and occasionally lifted swirls of spray off the water 15 - 20 feet in the air. Sure enough, when I looked out this morning, the boat was a few hundred yards downwind. Fortunately, a wind direction change that accompanied the increase in speed put her out in the channel instead of up on the rocks. She is directly the other side of another moored sailboat but I can’t see any sign that they made contact in the night. She seems to be holding for now and the wind is easing and the sky is clearing.
Barbara arrives Thursday and is meeting me here so I can’t go far. It’s a big lake and river system so there are no long distances that must be covered to reach shelter or a port. We’ll see if sufficiently restrictive geographical constraints will result in my actually doing some cruising.
