Newport, RI - 25 Mile Sail!

Hi it is me Matt. Today I had breakfast and I went swimming. Then we left Cuttyhunk. The water was rough and I got seasick. It got calmer and we keep sailing all the way to Newport. Grandpa and Nana tried to find a toy store but it was closed. Then we had tacos for dinner.

On Monday morning, ice was a priority! The refrigerator is kaput! However, we still have the insulated freezer and refrigerator as well as the ice chest we took along for use when we had guests aboard so all we needed was ice. Well, Cuttyhunk doesn't wake up until around 11:00 am so we took off without the ice, hoping everything would stay cool enough until we arrived at Newport.

The winds were great today off the aft starboard quarter and we sailed the entire 25 miles to Newport. One crew member got sick (Matthew) when he paid too much attention to his Gameboy but he felt better once he used the aft swimdeck! As we neared land, the seas calmed and we glided on. We had called ahead to reserve a mooring at Jamestown but was told the cost would be $75/night - rather high! With that we headed for Newport instead and picked up a mooring for $45, still high but less high than Jamestown. The ride into town on the launch is now $6 per person roundtrip, also rather high since we have to make multiple trips with Lance. There were the typical super yachts in abundant evidence.

I first called the Newport dealer for Alder-Barbour and he said me might be able to get to me sometime next week! Big help he was! In calling the Alder-Barbour national rep later I learned that the unit I have was designed 20 years ago and is no longer made. He's to give me a call back on whether they can braze an adopter on the coil in the freezer so I can reuse that part. Otherwise, it's a custom made new unit! Oh the pleasures of boating.

Tomorrow we're headed for Block Island since Matthew likes to swim off the back of the boat about as well as anything and Block is excellent for that. We plan on anchoring out instead of getting a mooring.

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CuttyHunk - We Explore and Matthew Swims

Hi it is me Matt. I had a great time today. First I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Then I hopped off the boat. I swam for a long time.Then we went in the dink to the beach in shallow water. I made a sand castle too.Also I swam in the water. We had lunch and I SWAM 3 MORE TIMES. We went a shore and got some fish. It was good and I played my gameboy and that brings us to the end.

I think Matthew was in the water more than he was out. When he wasn't at the beach, he was swimming off the back of the boat. The cool water temperatures of low 60's didn't seem to deter him. I never got in but Ann waded in a ways at the beach.

I spent most of the morning redoing the mast tensioning and finally got it straight to my satisfaction. I bought local swordfish (fresh, never frozen) and we grilled it off the back of the boat, perfection! Shortly thereafter, we saw the most brilliant sunset I've ever seen. Everybody in the anchorage was on the bow of their boat watching the display!

While Ann and Matthew were doing dishes, they said they heard a grinding sound for a short period. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Later that night I got some ice out of the freezer and noticed that the frost had disappeared from the cooling coils, humm.... I could hear the fan running on the compressor but couldn't hear the compressor itself. I unscrewed the cover and found that the compressor was not running. It was getting electricity since the fan was okay and all the fuses were likewise in good shape. We're headed for Newport tomorrow and we'll need a new compressor I'm guessing. The grinding noise Ann heard must have been the compressor giving up the ghost! Oh well, the life of sailing is filled with adventure...

Hi It is me Matt.Dad drove me to Marion to meet Nana and Grampa.Dad left at 7:oo AM. We took off and sailed.There were some big waves.It was fun.We saw a lot of birds. After all the big waves the boom fell or with a loud noise. It was scary, but we fixed it. Then we got to Cuttyhunk Island..I also started my model of the U.S.S. Missouri. and then we had dinner. the end

As you can tell from Matthew's blog, we had an adventure today. At first the adventure was the sailing with 10 to 15 kt winds and 2 to 4 ft waves (wind against current: short, steep waves). After awhile it became obvious that we would never make Cuttyhunk at that rate since the wind was exactly out of the direction of Cuttyhunk (what else is new?) So we pulled in the head sail and turned on the iron genny. With that "sail change" we made 7 kts towards Cuttyhunk although not without occasionally taking water over the bow and some pretty good splashes. Matthew enjoyed the spray and splashes!

All was well until we neared Cuttyhunk and decided to take in the mainsail. I noticed that the roller furler was rather stiff, unusual since it's always been an easy pull in the past. Looking up I was astonished to see the boom on the coach roof, free of the mast! Seeing something so unexpected, you're a little dumbfounded for a few moments before your mind re-engages. Once it did, Ann and I went forward (engine in idle on autopilot) and Matthew stayed in the cockpit. I called for a screwdriver and Matthew went below to locate one. A couple of the lines had to be released and Matthew did that from the cockpit, he was a big help. Meanwhile, Ann and I were wrestling with the boom in the waves and wind, trying to reattached everything and finding got it cobbled together after about 20 minutes of tossing about.

Once in Cuttyhunk harbor, I reattached everything correctly and tried my hand at finding out what went wrong. It seems that the boom is held in place on the mast by a single pin with a set screw. There is a place in the pin for a cotter pin but it was missing. Either is fell out or it was never put there when the mast was replaced in June. We were lucky that the pin and associated washers stayed on deck and didn't wash overboard! Replacing that pin would be an airmail effort from Florida and today was Saturday!

Well, everything is back in place now. I put a ring cotter pin through the hole in the pin so it will not fall out again!! Meanwhile, fog has returned and we can't even see the shore and Cuttyhunk is a small anchorage! We plan on staying one more day before heading west to Newport, RI. Such an adventure is sailing...


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Marion, MA - Matthew Arrives!

We left Sandwich in a fog, factually speaking (sometimes we're in a fog when there's no fog!) I thought we had escaped the fog when we left Maine, not true! The canal is eerie when there's dense fog. However, we have AIS installed on our GPS chartplotter which showed the location, speed, direction of travel of all large ships out to 15 miles ahead. So we knew what was coming enabling us to get over on the side of the channel before it loomed out of the fog. The canal seems awfully narrow in the fog when a very large ship passes you.

We motored to Marion and found it's packed with boats! There's supposed to be an anchorage area but it's not very big if it exists at all. They had some sort of regatta planned so they were almost sold out but we got the last mooring available ($40/night). Matthew arrived shortly after 9:00 pm. We took the launch back out to the boat in a full moon, a beautiful sight, a good omen for the rest of the cruise.

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Sandwich, MA - At the Cape Cod Canal

Today was another motoring day with a little misty rain mixed in. However, the seas were calm and we averaged 7.5 kts as we headed south to the canal. We had planned on picking up Matthew at Sandwich but instead he'll board at Marion, MA, tomorrow's destination.

We're at the Sandwich Marina ($2.00/ft) which is run by the town of Sandwich. There's no place to anchor so you have to take a dock. We ate at Seafood Sam's which was pretty good and reasonably priced. We happened to walk in right after a bus full of tourists arrived! However, the wait was relatively short, they had their act together. They had no waitresses, you ordered your own meal and then you were handed a "lobster" that lit up when your order was ready for your pick up. A clam dinner was only $8.99.

There was a visitor center that was geared to kids but also informative on the canal history and how it's run. We spent almost an hour going through it. Then it was back to the boat for some much needed cleaning to get ready for our new crew member tomorrow.

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Scituate, MA - the Satuit Boat Club

Finally, a full day of sailing, all 25 miles of it from Gloucester to Scituate. The wind was steady from the east so we had a broad reach all the way down the coast. We had intended to stay at the Scituate Harbor Yacht Club but upon entering the harbor we were met by the boat launch from Satuit Boat Club who had a mooring available ($35/night) so we followed him in. It turns out he's a diver and he described that having 10 feet of visibility was a good day but still enjoyable in seeing what was going on below. He wore a 7 mm thick dive suit which is quite warm but needed for these cold waters. He told of diving at one spot and, wouldn't you know it - a lobster pot was about 15 feet away and the owner came roaring along in his lobster boat which annoyed the diver somewhat. The lobsterman asked if he was a professional diver to which he replied, "No, just as a hobby". The lobsterman then asked if he could dive to get a rope off his propeller! I thought lobster boats were immune to such things (cage around the prop) but I guess not. He offered to pay but our launch driver declined to accept. Then he was offered three lobsters which he could not turn down! A good day for diving.

We needed groceries so he offered to drop us off at the town dock near a grocery store and he came back to pick us up later. What a friendly club! Ann prepared a chicken dinner and we relaxed on the back of the boat.

On Thursday we plan on getting to Sandwich at the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal. Monique will meet us there with Matthew in tow. He's really looking forward to once again spending some time on the boat. He has to return by Labor Day weekend since he starts school the following Tuesday. One of his assignments from school is to restart his own blog which I'll publish each night.

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Gloucester, MA - Where "Perfect Storm" happened

Gloucester is first and foremost a fishing village. Huge fishing vessels come and go all the time. At one point on the way in we were surrounded by six shrimp boats dragging lines. They were about a mile apart so we were okay but I steered clear of them just the same. The first thing you see coming up to Cape May where Gloucester is located was the twin lighthouses. I don't know why they have two, it would seem that one would be enough. The harbor itself is quite compact and densely populated with fishing boats. We had reserved a mooring ($25/night) since Gloucester is one of the few places that accept reservations for a mooring. By 4:00 pm all the moorings were gone. We saw one lobster boat go by that was VERY popular with the local seagulls (see photo). You had trouble seeing the boat it was so covered with gulls.

After eating out several nights, we grilled lamb chops on the back of the boat - back to basics on the food! It's been a little rich the last few days. We never tire of the sunsets since we seldom see them back home due to the high trees all around. Tomorrow we're on the move again with a good forecast, perhaps we can sail, we've motored the last two days due to light winds.

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