We're planning on making the event. We've made the sail, Penobscot Bay to Buzzards Bay - and back - over a dozen times in the past few decades. We've usually packed that into a 2 to 3 week trip making the passage, about 150 NM (under sail), on an overnight. In my minds eye, the passage always looks easy,...
Recalling past passages, brings me back to reality. I recall, 24 hours under power on a sea of glass, on the other hand,... I remember well the boat hitting 12 knot stints surfing downwind on large rollers in 37 knots of breeze.
Mostly, the passages (at least half single handed), have been something in between.
The best one I recall - heading south, was with our son and daughter and myself. It had an unlikely beginning; light Southerly winds on the nose in the mouth of the Penobscot Bay, at dawn. That usually meant motor-boating. But our kids are dyed in the wool sailors and when I suggested we allow ourselves 30 or so hours to sail it - come what may - they were all for it, we shut the engine down.
We spent a great day sailing close hauled, heading SE out into the Gulf. Boat speeds were in the 4 knot range, at times ghosting through lulls of 1 to 2 knots, but she was steady and determined and doing all the work.
There was ample time for us, a lavish lunch and dinner and conversation, as the AP (aka the 'bad boy'), did all the steering. My daughter, just like her mother, devours entire books under sail.
All that was heard for miles around us on the Gulf of Maine, was our laughter.
Waaay,... off the rhumb line after a day on a single, long port tack, we took our second tack of the trip onto starboard, and headed back into the coast, some 50-60 miles away.
The Southerly breeze had filled in gradually throughout the day and this photo (above) reminds me we were 80NM from home.
The head wind continued to build as CHRISTMAS galloped into the setting sun to the West.
It was a peaceful night as boat speeds settled in around 6 knots heading SW. I stayed up on watch(the kids sleep like rocks under sail). The GPS showed us way wide of our rhumb line, again. I didn't care, we enjoyed letting the boat sail her best. The sounds on a boat at night under sail, are enjoyment enough.
We held our second tack until daybreak. Time to cook! Our full breakfast at dawn was beautiful. Sailing and good food are a family component.
We were all energized, including the Southerly that was kicking up with a Cape Cod Bay vengeance that now, included just enough Westerly, to put us on our destinations bearing.
We hit the Cape Cod Canal at the peak of the ebb and it sucked us through in no time.
What a lesson in sailing we had. This trip was the longest - in miles - of any we had made previously. But it was also the shortest in time elapsed from home to Buzzards Bay. Batteries dead, fuel tanks full, that night we enjoyed the dead sleep (anchored in Onsest), that follows a one night passage.
Fully recovered and anchored inside Cuttyhunk, my son went sailing.