Mystic Seaport Museum

Eager readers are still waiting to hear what Ellen and Moss have to say. So I will just post some photos from our day at Mystic Seaport Museum. We changed plans and crossed to Connecticut from Block Island on Friday, rented dock space at the museum, and spent the day checking out the sights. We've got to be off the dock in time for the 11:40am bridge today so no time to waste if we want to check out a few more exhibits at this extremely cool place.

Bascule bridge on the way up the Mystic River. Also transited a railroad swing bridge.

One of the workshops where little boats get restored. Love to see that Beetle Cat.

All the way up the Mystic River, the Seaport Museum is a treat.

The 250' long ropewalk was saved from destruction in the 1950s when this old-school method of making rope was made obsolete. The full-sized ropewalk was over 1000' long (which was the length needed to make 100 fathom ropes, the standard length).

The building smelled of tar and hemp and salt and wood. Fantastic.

Lemons to Lemonade

We have had a busy, fun, productive few days. On Monday we woke up to a bang and a hisssss. Turned out the hose to the second propane tank I installed last month had too sharp a bend in it and the kink was too much. Bang. Hissss. This is the lemons part.

Quickly shut off the tank and then cursed because tank #1 was empty…ran out the night before. What to do about a propanemergency in Woods Hole? First called Josh Olins to see if they were going to be heading anywhere propane tanks could be filled (tank #1 works fine). Then realized that we didn’t want to hustle back to Woods Hole from our anchorage because even if we left promptly, we would hold up the Olins Show. 

On a whim, we called our pal Matthew Layne who had intended to sail with us to Block Island but plans fell through. Turns out he was able to drop everything to spend the week aboard Cupcake on our way to Block. This is the lemonade part. His wife, our pal Dasha, drove him to Woods Hole, then took us all to the hardware store for a fill up, then to the grocery store for, well…

Fixing the propane, sort of.

Dasha thanked us for taking Matt off her hands, and off we went. Tuesday we had a delightful sail to Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon Island. Tacked out to Martha’s Vineyard, then back to Tarpaulin. Swam and relaxed.

Then on Wednesday we had another perfect sail from Tarpaulin, out to Martha’s Vineyard, and in to Cuttyhunk Island at the very tip of the Elizabeth Islands. (See what Ellen and Moss wrote for details.) More swimming, walking around the island, ice cream. Man alive it has been hot and humid.

First time we were able to dive on the anchor. It buried itself in sand within about two feet of hitting the bottom. Safe and secure, just the way we like it.

Today we woke up with the sun (which has been rising later and later) and set out for Block Island. It was a motorboat ride, then a sail for an hour or so, then a motorsail. We are anchored in busy busy Great Salt Pond and just got back to Cupcake after having hamburgers ashore with Matt and taking him to the ferryboat home. 

The last time Ellen and I were on Block Island was 24 years ago just after we were married. We haven’t changed a bit.

This is one of the spectacular views from Cuttyhunk.

Finally, anybody have any ideas about this unusual five-cylinder radial, air-cooled engine we spotted on Cuttyhunk?

Posting Maniac

Rainy afternoon, lots of time on my hands.

Today was a fun day in Woods Hole. After a decadently late wake up, I made Ellen her coffee while Moss and I had our hot cocoa. Then we got the boat squared away, drove Mr. Flowerpot (our dinghy) to shore, and met Josh and Naomi at Pie in the Sky, a wonderful and very busy bakery in town.

After our late breakfast we walked to the Titanic museum. Woods Hole is crawling with scientists, and some of them were instrumental in the creation of the deep sea submarines and unmanned vehicles that (among other things) located and dove down to the wreck of the Titanic in the 1980s. 

We also saw a brief video about an unmanned sub/drone that followed great white sharks to learn about their feeding habits. The sharks sneak up on seals, bite off their flippers so they can’t swim away, and then eat the rest of the seal. There was no video for the public of that gory business, but there was a sobering video of a great white attacking the sub.

Moss got to check out a model of the submersible Alvin. Lots of toggle switches in there. I could have stayed all day.

We then all had lunch aboard Cupcake and got to show off our little floating home, always a treat. And a particular treat when the guests are sailors who get it.

After taking Josh and Naomi to shore and saying farewell, we radioed the drawbridge operator to let him know we would need the bridge lifted so Cupcake could exit Eel Pond. The pass is very narrow, tourists with cameras line the sides, and a video of any piloting error would doubtless be posted on YouTube well before any insurance company or towboat could be notified.

Look carefully and you can see the yellow TowBoat waiting in the harbor, ready to rescue careless sailors.

We passed through without mishap and made our way through the Woods Hole passage under diesel power. The current was adverse, but not so strong that we couldn’t power through. The way it tugged that red nun 2A was pretty impressive. Lots of swirly current tossed Cupcake about. Visions of Scylla and Charybdis. 

After our wee odyssey, we had a quick sail to the lovely and peaceful Hadley Harbor where we will likely stay for a few days to enjoy the clean warm water and relaxing spot. It’s raining right now but we are snug and dry inside. Moss just finished some boat school math and is now creating a board game of some sort.

Woods Hole

One of the Cape Cod Canal bridges...Sagamore?

When people talk about wind against current and standing waves, what they are really talking about is rough stuff. We woke up early (again) on Friday to get through the Cape Cod Canal while the current was in our favor. Because no sailing is permitted in the Canal, we motored along in the grey fog. At the Canal sides, about every 100 feet there was a person fishing, miles of guys (didn't see any women fishing) standing on the shore casting and casting and casting. Didn't see anyone catch anything though.

As we exited the canal into Buzzards Bay, the wind was coming out of the southwest at 18 knots or so, right into our face. Because the current was still flowing through the Canal into the Bay, there was a pretty wicked chop. And standing waves.

For the uninitiated, standing waves are good-sized waves that stay pretty much in one spot as the wind pushes them forward and the current pushes back. It was pretty rough going for a while, some seas broke over the bow. A few broke over the dinghy on the bow. That's a lot of water crashing around on our girl Cupcake. (And once again, we left a hatch open. This time it was the forward hatch, under the dinghy. Collected plenty of water inside again. In our bedroom. We may have learned our lesson.)

Once we got past the big waves, we contended with a pretty bouncy ride from the Canal to Woods Hole. Fortunately our angle on the wind let us motorsail so we were able to cover some ground and get out of the mess relatively swiftly. Everyone aboard was very glad to enter the protected channel to Woods Hole where the sea settled right down.

The view from our mooring in Eel Pond, Woods Hole.

We caught the current well through the channel and made it to Woods Hole without any additional drama. Poached a mooring for an hour or so while we got ourselves organized, then went through the tiny little channel to Eel Pond where we are hanging on another obscenely expensive mooring. (Massachusetts, come on, give a sailor a break!)

Yesterday we got in touch with our Freeport friends Josh and Naomi Olins who are long-time Woods Hole summer residents. Josh gave us a quick tour of town, we went in to a Woods Hole Oceanographic lab where we saw some crazy fish in research tanks. Fish with legs, a mess of squid (technical term), urchins, dogfish, all sorts of stuff. No pictures. Why? Because we are still getting the hang of all the cruiser details.

After the lab we went to Josh & Naomi's house where we did some laundry. (Remember the wave? Salty sheets). And then spent a delightful afternoon at the beach. The water in Cape Cod Bay was 58 degrees (in Freeport it was closer to 68). But now it's in the 72 degree range. Fascinating. And we like the trend...warmer.

We were treated to a nice dinner ashore with three generations of Olins and then went to a lecture series held weekly at Woods Hole Oceanographic. This one was interesting for people holding PhDs in chemistry. For the rest of us, it was a competition to see who followed the drift of the talk longest. I fared poorly at maybe 10 minutes. But we all enjoyed hearing an enthusiastic and extremely intelligent expert speak about her research. (Don't ask me about electron transfer or ATP because beyond that, I really didn't even retain any of the terms.)

Then to bed. 

Today we will probably host Josh and Naomi aboard for lunch unless thunderstorms roll in. Then we will head to Hadley Harbor for a few days of relaxation at anchor while we figure out how to manage the next stage of the trip...long day to Montauk or break it up with a stop at Block Island.

Hallelujah! WiFi is HEALED!

Somehow, miraculously, the WiFi is better. For now. Here are some pictures.

Big yacht sneaking into the marina in Sandwich.

Cupcake, ready for business.

Moss working the signal flags at the Canal Museum.

Safety...

is our...

middle name.

One of the vistas you get for $103/night in Sandwich.

Sandwiched

Ellen authorized a late start so today we slept in until 5:30 before departing Scituate. Met a boat last night, they left 45 minutes before we did, so we spent the day pretending we were pirates trying to overtake them and capture their treasure. The boat was named Jade, appropriately. 

This is the treasure ship Jade. (Obviously, I got the wifi working again.)

After a few hours of glorious sailing, we caught them. Cupcake was in her element. Small craft warning, so we reefed the main and went charging through fairly flat seas in winds that probably didn’t get above 20 knots. At one point we saw 8 knots on the gps. Spent a good portion of the morning flying along at 6.1+. 

Downside? Between the humidity (it is in the high 80s here in Sandwich) and the cold water (50s!) moisture is condensing on the inside of the hull in all the dark dank lockers. Oh, we also overfilled both water tanks, it seems. So some of our homemade water found its way...everywhere durning the brisk excursion today. Fortunately we love drying everything we own and repacking it. Also, it’s a good thing Ellen has a ziplock bag fetish and puts just about all our stuff in those plastic wonders.

Anyway, we are at a crazy expensive dock in Sandwich, waiting for the current through the Cape Cod Canal to turn in our favor tomorrow morning. Hope to be in Woods Hole tomorrow mid-day to visit Freeport friends. Then we plan to anchor, finally, and relax while we wait for favorable weather for the trip to Block Island. About 16 years ago we spent some time in Hadley Harbor and are looking forward to stopping in that lovely spot. 

Went to the Cape Cod Canal Visitors Center and learned all about the big project. We have great pictures but I don’t know how to post them from this iPad. For some reason the WiFi on the laptop stopped working. Now I need to get myself a dongle. (Edit: it's working again.)

Cruising tip of the day: an hour by car takes a day by boat. 

Making tracks

We have truly begun our voyage. Covered a lot of ground in the past two days. After a really nice send-off in Maine with Matt, Sloane, and Cutler we awoke before the crack of dawn to get a 5am start on the trip to Isles of Shoals. Poached a mooring at Gosport Harbor. I'll let Ellen and Moss give details about that trip. It was a motorboat ride because the winds were light and the seas were flat.

Went for a swim in the super clean water in Gosport Harbor, took showers in the cockpit, had boat-pizza for dinner. I was asleep by 9pm.

Today we left Isles of Shoals at 5am, headed for Scituate. Again, I'll let Moss and Ellen provide the details. Both days we have seen some pretty special sea life.

I lived in Scituate in 1991 when I was working at my first job as a teacher at Hull High School. I told the launch driver this afternoon that it was one of the worst years of my life. Those kids at Hull were absolutely awful. If any of them are reading this I will be surprised because it would involve reading and it is also unlikely there is internet access in prison.

So we are going to check out the town tonight, have hot showers at the Satuit Boat Club because that is a perk we get with the mooring rental. This harbor is PACKED with boats. And it is crawling with kids sailing 420s for sailing camp. Very busy, very fun.

Last morning ashore

After two weeks of running around fixing things, buying parts, provisioning, visiting with friends and family, wrapping up my last few work obligations, we are now on the cusp of setting sail. Granted, we are only planning on sailing about three miles this afternoon, but it's a start. 

Our friend Matt Kanwit will meet us at The Goslings for the evening. He will have his kids aboard his Pearson and it will be nice to have a last-minute send off from a fellow sailor. It will also be nice to finally get off the mooring. I think we are growing things on our dinghy bottom because the water in the river is...nutrient rich.

The folks at Brewer's South Freeport Marine could not have been more accommodating, friendly, and just plain wonderful during the past two weeks. We have had the boat launched and hauled at Brewer's for years. We have used their services for some big jobs on Cupcake in the past, and we have always been quite pleased. The facilities are clean and modern and convenient: the shower/lounge/laundry facility is fantastic. All the staff, particularly the dockhands, always seem to be having a great time. Everyone walks around with a smile. The people at Brewer's really care about boats and boaters. If you are on your way up the coast of Maine, Brewer's is worth a stop. 

Yesterday we had Avery, a friend of Simon's, come aboard for a little bit of anchoring information and general cruising background. Avery is a senior in high school and is planning her senior project – a solo sail in Casco Bay and several nights alone on an otherwise uninhabited island.

It is exciting to see a person at the beginning of their love affair with sailing.

Several friends and relatives asked me recently about the genesis of my interest in sailing. When I was a kid, I attended a summer camp on Lake George in the Adirondacks. Every session of camp, I took the sailing skill class. And when my friend Ron and I were in camp together, we would go out on the water in a little O'Day Wigeon every chance we got...pretty much every day after lunch and after dinner.

Most kids chose the Sunfish or the Phantoms because they were faster. What I loved about the Wigeons was that, in addition to providing me time to hang out with Ron, they were real sailboats - with seats, a mainsail, tiller, centerboard, and jib. We spend hours learning how to play the inconstant lake breezes. More importantly, I spent hours dreaming of captaining my own vessel to distant shores. Oh my goodness! I get to start living that dream once again. Starting this afternoon.

In other, more mundane news, I put together a cork board for Moss. We've been saving wine corks all year, intending to use them as stoppers for messages in bottles. But last week I cut a piece of plywood for a base and glued the corks to it so Moss can hang pictures in her room.

There's no big trick to making a cork board, it turns out. Just get some corks, some wood, and some wood glue. Piece of cake.

Speaking of piece of cake, we were given a cupcake last night and I had every intention of eating it for breakfast, but we had to get to shore early so I could change the oil in the car before handing it over to Simon for the next three weeks. Didn't get a chance to eat my cupcake. But I did make the biggest mess of an oil change I have managed in years. Haste makes waste I guess.

All that land-dwellery will be a thing of the past in a couple of hours. First I need to wrap up the last loose ends at the office, wait for Ellen and Moss to finish the last provisioning, and then off we go. 

Cruising Tip of the Day: Sailors don't make plans, we have goals. That's why, when a friend of Ellen's called this morning to find out when we would be on Cape Cod this week, we couldn't say for sure. The goal is to get to the Cape in a couple of days, NYC in two weeks, Norfolk in a month, Hilton Head by the second half of October, and Miami by the first part of November, Bahamas by early December, then head back north again by some time in April or May, bound for Baltimore in time for a wedding in June 2019. But if we start breaking it down day by day, the whole plan quickly unravels.

Rookie Mistake

Continuing with yesterday's theme, despite the forecast of heavy rain last night, I left one porthole open. It was the one over the navigation station where we keep all our important papers (insurance documents, passports, charts, the works). More heavy rain today and tonight so I get to see if I learned my lesson or not.

This morning everything in the desk was soaked so I got to deal with that mushy mess instead of eating breakfast or making coffee for Ellen. I decided since I was going to the office today anyway (last day of work for a year!) I might as well take all the damp papers in and let them dry out in the air-conditioned aridity while I drive up to Rockland for court.

I also forgot my reading glasses, so I'm hoping I won't be called upon to read anything important. What are the odds?

Finally, the biggest casualty from the window incident was that our birthday card list got ruined. So anyone who was expecting a birthday card this year is going to be disappointed. If you were on the old list and want to be added to the new list (which we are starting tomorrow, I guess) send me your birthday.

Ellen and Moss decided they were happy to be left aboard Cupcake without a dinghy today. I don't think they are likely to get out of their pajamas...a day of boat school and art projects is planned.

Cruising tip of the day: close the windows when it's raining.

BONUS tip of the day: write in pencil because even if it gets wet, it won't run.

too gloomy

it has been rainy and foggy since sunday i am too gloomy to take pictures or use punctuation or capitalization