Sailing Into the Storm With Gail and Phil September 2017 - Part I

This is about our thwarted cruise back in September:

Well here we are on the boat again. We had a great elaborate plan to make it down through the canal down to Cuttyhunk, to Martha's Vineyard and maybe even to Nantucket, but this annoying thing called a hurricane has intervened. 

No not Harvey, that made such a mess of Houston. And not Irma that giant scary storm that devastated the Caribbean and hit Florida but could have been so much worse. No, I'm talking about Jose, the irritating little storm that has been meandering around in the Atlantic for what seems like weeks, twirling around in a circle, heading here, heading there. Now it seems to be slowly making its way northwest. It probably won't hit the east coast, but it might. It may make for a tropical storm, or it might not. It most certainly is going to create some really big seas, and those we must avoid as much as possible.

Our plans keep changing. Plan A, plan B, plan C. Today we just came down to Salem, MA. We loaded the boat, ate lunch at Sea Level, fish tacos for me, Lee and Phil, and a lobster roll for Gail. A small storm blew through so we stopped at the Custom House and took a short tour. Did you know that before the income tax was created in the 19-teens, Custom Houses were the main source of income for the United States government? Did you know that before ships became too large for this harbor, Salem, MA provided 9% of the governments income through Custom House fees? Did you know that Nathaniel Hawthorne once worked as a clerk at the Salem Custom House? Well, now you do. Just think, all the years we have been sailing out of Salem and we have never been in that building before. The House of Seven Gables is right next door to the Marina and we've never been in there either. We're terrible.

Right now the weather for Saturday though Monday looks okay, but Tuesday says "possible tropical storm warnings". We don't want to be far away if that comes to fruition. So we think tomorrow we will sail to Scituate. And then we'll just have to see.

Saturday.

Well our plans have changed again (plan D?). Last night in the middle of the night I lay there worrying. Even in a safe harbor, if the ocean has 9 foot swells, it's going to be very uncomfortable on a boat. There will probably be 3 foot swells in any harbor, and most places will stop running their launches in that sort of weather. Add possible tropical storm winds to the mix and we have realized that we need to go home until this blows over.

I feel bad for our friends. We've planned this vacation with them for a long time and I know they are disappointed. But it's out of our control.

Instead, today we motored over to Marblehead and got ourselves a mooring for the night. Then we went over to Great Misery island and picked up a day mooring. We ate our lunch and then took the dinghy into the island for a hike.

This was really fun. It's one of those things we've been meaning to do for a long time but for whatever reason it never worked out before.

The island is really beautiful, and it has some interesting ruins as well. We discovered more beaches and coves that boaters hang out at on the other sides too. 

On the way back to Marblehead some really pea soup fog socked in. It was bad enough that we turned on the AIS and I stationed myself on the prow of the boat with our fog horn, emiting a loud blast every 2 minutes. We couldn't see a thing. 

As we drew closer to Marblehead we could hear other fog horns from other boats. Suddenly there we were right in the middle of a race! What a strange thing! I know racers can be pretty hard core but this seemed ridiculous, and dangerous too. I mean they couldn't even see their marks! We skirted around the activity and before too long we were on our mooring. 

Plans for tomorrow are up in the air as well. We can safely stay out until Monday, but don't want to range too far away. We'd like to go to Manchester-by-the-Sea but the yacht club is not sure they'll have any moorings available since everyone is staying close to home. Once again we'll just have to wait and see.

The one positive note is that the marine forecast is moderating just a little. So although the tropical storm warnings are still there, and the intense seas as well, they seem to think they will diminish rapidly. So we'll cross our finger that by next Friday it will be safe to venture out once more.

Sunday.

We wake to the most amazing fog. Marblehead is just totally socked in.  So we take our time. There's nowhere to go and nothing to do anyway. I go ashore with Lee, Phil and the dogs. I take a shower and then we go to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast sandwiches and muffins and coffee. We go back to the boat and go down to the pump out station, get pumped out and load up on water. Still very foggy. Finally we head out of Marblehead Harbor and start to head back to Salem. There are no moorings to be had at Manchester-by-the-Sea. As we get close to Winter island suddenly the fog lifts and it's bright and sunny. There is even a bit of a breeze. Maybe we can at least go for a little sail? But no. There is still fog over by the islands and Marblehead. We wait to see if it will lift, but instead it starts to sock back in. Oh well!

So, now we're home, waiting it out. It just depends how long Jose takes to pass us, and how high the wave height gets, and how quickly it diminishes. We're hoping we can get back out on Friday and cruise for 5 days. The forecast changes day by day. What happens next is anybody's guess.

Monday - Wednesday 

Well we're not on the boat. Monday our friends went to Boston, walked the Freedom Trail. Tuesday we hung out, making pies and applesauce. Today a movie (Dunkirk, very good!) and trip to Arlington to get sushi from Torero. We're making the best of it. Friday is out, seas are still forecast to be 8-9 feet. Now Saturday isn't looking good either, still 5-6 feet. Right now Sunday is 2-3 feet. 

Sailing Buzzards Bay August 2017 - Jamestown to New Bedford, Onset, Scituate and Home

Sunday.

We wake to beautiful fog. Even the Newport bridge is gone. We take our time eating breakfast, walking dogs, getting ready. When we walk the dogs we see the beginning of the Fools Rules Regatta, an annual event in Jamestown where people build sailboats on the shore and then sail them down the beach. The construction materials are pretty creative! 

We head out of the harbor into peasoup. Lots of boats coming back in, and we decide it's prudent to do the same. We waste some time looking at pretty boats in the Newport Harbor and then try again.

It's very foggy for awhile, but we have the AIS on, and there is some visibility. Finally it begins to lift, but then we are confronted by another conundrum. The marine forecast for Buzzards Bay said waves 2 ft; these are easily closer to 5, or more, rolling swells about 6 seconds apart. They aren't scary, the boat handles them just fine, nobody is getting wet. But boy o boy this is not a good day for anyone prone to seasickness!

I volunteer to make lunch. I've never been seasick, and I think I'll be fine. Wrong! It's warm down below. I open a couple hatches but even so ..... I'm making tuna salad from the tuna we had for dinner last night. I chop up the tuna, go uptop for a break. Chop up celery, another break. Throw on some mustard and mayo, chop a little onion. Give the bowl to Beth and ask her to mix it up. Cut up a tomato. Hand up some chips and bread and get out of there just in time....that's the closest to seasick I've ever been. I now understand the stories I've read where everyone gets sick on a boat. 

Back up in the fresh air I stare at the horizon and sip a coke. Gradually my stomach returns to a state more resembling normalcy. Eventually I can even eat a little lunch. Whew!

Lee looks at the marine forecast again. Aha! We were actually in Rhode Island Sound, not Buzzards Bay, and the forecast there IS for seas 3-5 ft and a small craft advisory. We later speculate that if we had known the real forecast we would probably have changed our plans. Ignorance was sort of bliss...I guess.

Once in the shade of the islands, and truly in Buzzards Bay, the seas do moderate. Between the swells and the lack of wind it is after 6 when we finally pull into New Bedford. The dogs get a short walk, we all take showers, eat dinner, and collapse into bed. Sailing through swells like that all day is just exhausting. You don't realize it but you are doing isometric exercises all day, just to stay upright!

Monday.

Pleasant uneventful day. A little wind, no waves. We actually can put up the sails! The current from the canal helps us along too. We pull into Onset at 2:30, much better than yesterday!

I've decided to do my run this evening. We need to leave Onset at 9:30 am tomorrow to be at the beginning of the ebb tide into Cape Cod Bay. This way I don't inconvenience anyone else and I get my third run of the trip in so I'm ahead when its time for our next cruise in September.

This run is the first of 6 weeks of hill repeats. Last year when I did these I hated them and dreaded them every week. This year I'm not looking forward to them but I decide I need to have a different attitude. Yes they hurt, but they are supposed to. A minute and a half of 90% effort, then rest for 4 minutes, repeat. It's not fun, but the end results are great, and a couple of weeks from now my hill climbing abilities will be much improved. Hang in there!

Tuesday.

We are heading out of Onset and into the canal right around 9:30 am. It makes so much difference if we time our passage properly. It only takes a little more than an hour to pass through the canal.

Back in Cape Cod Bay at first we are still pulled along by the ebb. We even raise the sails and try to motor sail. The sun is shining, the wind dies. It's warm enough that I put on my bathing suit top.

Then clouds start to gather, the wind builds and it cools off. By the time we pull into Scituate it looks like rain and I've changed into a sweater. What odd weather! It's quite windy but it never rains and we have a nice evening ashore. We try a new restaurant (for us), The Gallery. Sliders, tacos, small plates and a delicious peppery Pinot Noir. Tomorrow we head back across Massachusetts Bay, back to Salem, and home.

Provincetown July birthday sailing trip

Friday, July 18th is a sunny beautiful day with no wind, but we put put up sails anyway and motor sail. It's great to have a working autopilot finally. Autopilot makes sailing a lot less tiring for old folks. You can pretty much let the boat steer itself, although someone still has to be on watch. The autopilot wouldn't know if another boat suddenly decided to cut in front of us!

Scituate is still a cute little town. We walk the dogs and stop for some ice cream. We have a dinner on the boat of shrimp, pasta, and salad. Beets and lettuce are from the garden, but no tomatoes yet.

The next morning is still, foggy, windless. It is time for our new sailing adventure, across Cape Cod Bay to Provincetown. We turn on the AIS so we won't run into a freighter, but not the radar since we really don't understand how to read it yet. We are out in deep water, no rocky outcrops so there is very little danger except for other boats and the fog starts to lift anyway. With the GPS we always know where we are and like good sailors we always double check things on the paper charts too. We are learning!

Provincetown is on the the outermost point of Cape Cod. We thought perhaps we would be out of sight of land for a bit on this part of our journey but actuallly we can always see land somewhere, either behind us, to the south along Cape Cod, and eventually Ptown itself.

As we approach Ptown we see a huge fish blow steam skyward and leap through the water. A whale! We watch it leaping over and over. Today is Lee's birthday and this is the best birthday present he could possibly ask for. We see several more whales before this day's sail is through. Lee takes a video and several pictures.

Ptown harbor is huge, but kind of wide open. There is a seawall, but unfortunately our mooring is not behind it so we we are in a pretty bouncy location. On our first time into town we take the dinghy but Flyers has such a good launch service that we decide to just take the launch instead for the rest of our stay.

Saturday at Ptown is a hoot, boy is it a "LGBT friendly tourist destination, with a thriving gay community". We are a distinct minority but we are not alone. We walk the main drag, hike to a hardware store to get a part for the boat shower, stop for ice cream. There are lots of dogs for Harper and Cosmo to greet, lots of people that have to pet a Westie.

In the evening we get dressed up and take the launch into town for dinner at Johnny's Hideaway. It's a good restaurant and hard to get a table so we end up sitting at the bar. This turns out to be really fun, with good bartender/waiter and interesting people sitting beside us. We have lots of fun talking to Frank and his boyfriend from Philly.

On Sunday morning I go for a run through town and along the Cape Cod National Seashore. It's a beautiful run, I almost wish I was running farther! I meet Lee and the dogs on my way back and decide to take Harper with me for the last part of my run. She hasn't run with me in awhile but she is really gung-ho except for the last 5 minutes or so when she thinks that's enough! It's so funny how she catches right on that the beeper tells us when to run and when to walk.

Monday it's time to sail back to Scituate. It's a cloudy day with not a lot of wind. At about 10 miles out we think we should be able to see the south shore, but we can't see a thing. It gradually dawns on us that we are surrounded by fog! It happened so slowly that we just couldn't see it, or just didn't know what to look for. Another thing to learn I guess, the Many Faces of Fog. But unlike the fog we hit on our sail to Cuttyhunk , this time we are prepared. We have AIS, which allows us to see any other boat with this equipment. We go ahead and turn on the radar, but it's old and sort of funky, although it does show us some things. Lee plans on replacing it next year. And we have an excellent GPS, which clearly shows where we are, and which way to go. It's nice actually that we are out in the middle of Cape Cod Bay, and that Scituate harbor is uncomplicated, with an easy approach. We see their seawall, and the buoy that marks the entrance, when we are about 100 yards away. Even the harbor is completely socked in, but the launch service leads us straight to our mooring ball, so all is good.

This time we decide to use the Scituate launch service to go ashore. Well silly us! It turns out that their launch service is also excellent and they have comfortable showers to boot. This makes this little town even more of a favorite sailing destination than before.

We go ashore that evening and eat dinner at a restaurant called Riva's. Another good meal, and we sit outside on the patio so the dogs can join us. They are so good, sitting quietly under the table while we eat our meal, even with another dog not so well behaved a couple of tables down. A couple of small bites of potato chip don't hurt, either.

The next morning it's bright and sunny, and gee, it's my birthday, I go for a run along the shore while Lee walks the dogs. We grab a breakfast sandwich at our favorite coffee shop and then head back to Salem.

There is a little wind so we put out the jib, mostly for show. The slowly rolling seas make for a rhythmic motion to our trip, a little TOO rhythmic for my tastes. I don't normally get seasick but this sort of slow rolling sea means that it's better for all concerned if we stay out of the cabin in the fresh air.

As we approach Marblehead it appears to be kid sailboat racing day. There are clusters of small sailboats everywhere, racing from point to point. I'm a little envious of these children, learning to sail when they are so young that it will be instinctive for them, unlike me, who has to really think about what she is doing!

It's good to be home, where my flowers and veggies are going gangbusters, and I'm slowly trying to catch up on various tasks. I have a new turtle out in the yard, and new Westie flip flops too. Not too shabby for a 62 year old woman!