My back/hip (SI joint), which has been very good since the events of a year ago, has been bothering me a little bit ever since I stepped in a grass obscured hole in Chesapeake City. It woke me up last night about 0200 and I took some Aspirin. I decided to check email and weather while waiting for it to take effect enough to try and go back to sleep. That was a mistake.
I had one email with some bad family news. The details aren’t mine to divulge but it’s one of those things where, even though you can’t do anything, or maybe because of that helplessness, you feel like you should be there.
I dashed off a quick email to my friend from Canada cancelling a planned week of cruising around the Cape and Islands and tried to go back to sleep. When I felt like I had enough fitful sleep to head out into the very thick fog predicted, I raised the anchor and headed down the river.
The fog scaled up off Watch Hill and I could leave the helm long enough to fire up the laptop and check the weather; severe thunderstorm alerts, hail, damaging winds, the works. Doppler radar showed it all staying well to the north so I kept on.
The classic southwester of this part of the world came up and it would have been a grand day rolling along on large swells coming in over the horizon. I just slogged along under power with a little jib rolled out. I didn’t feel like enjoying anything.
Off Point Judith, radar indications of little storm cell seeds popping up and an evaluation of my fatigue level persuaded me to run up into Newport. I found several boats anchored over what the chart indicates to be a cable area. After a look at the cumulus building up on the horizon, I decided 40 bucks would be well spent for the better sleep of a town mooring.
According to the Harbormaster, the cable is now marked with a series of spar buoys and the boats were anchored properly. I wasn’t going to move at that point.
So, I’m now in delivery mode. Paul may still come down to help me with the long legs back to Portland although I’m not sure where we’ll be able to meet up. The winds look to be fair long enough to get me there.
I probably won’t feel like writing much for a while. Watch the SPOT. I’ll resume posting when I begin enjoying this again.
I had one email with some bad family news. The details aren’t mine to divulge but it’s one of those things where, even though you can’t do anything, or maybe because of that helplessness, you feel like you should be there.
I dashed off a quick email to my friend from Canada cancelling a planned week of cruising around the Cape and Islands and tried to go back to sleep. When I felt like I had enough fitful sleep to head out into the very thick fog predicted, I raised the anchor and headed down the river.
The fog scaled up off Watch Hill and I could leave the helm long enough to fire up the laptop and check the weather; severe thunderstorm alerts, hail, damaging winds, the works. Doppler radar showed it all staying well to the north so I kept on.
The classic southwester of this part of the world came up and it would have been a grand day rolling along on large swells coming in over the horizon. I just slogged along under power with a little jib rolled out. I didn’t feel like enjoying anything.
Off Point Judith, radar indications of little storm cell seeds popping up and an evaluation of my fatigue level persuaded me to run up into Newport. I found several boats anchored over what the chart indicates to be a cable area. After a look at the cumulus building up on the horizon, I decided 40 bucks would be well spent for the better sleep of a town mooring.
According to the Harbormaster, the cable is now marked with a series of spar buoys and the boats were anchored properly. I wasn’t going to move at that point.
So, I’m now in delivery mode. Paul may still come down to help me with the long legs back to Portland although I’m not sure where we’ll be able to meet up. The winds look to be fair long enough to get me there.
I probably won’t feel like writing much for a while. Watch the SPOT. I’ll resume posting when I begin enjoying this again.
