Well, I am WOEFULLY BEHIND in updating the blog. Let me try
to bring everyone up to date on the remainder of the shakedown cruise. So, when you last heard from our heroes, they
had just arrived in Block Island after a successful offshore passage from Delaware
Bay. Our stay in New Harbor at BI was
short but nice. Rob, a Towboat US Captain, was nice enough to hook us up with
tokens for the public showers at The Oar. The Oar is a wonderful local bar,
with good food, great drinks, and a festive atmosphere all summer. The showers
are a different story. I was surprised to step out of my coin operated shower,
after a brief but reasonably warm cleansing, only to realize as I toweled off
that the waiting line for the restaurant can SEE STRAIGHT INTO THE SHOWERS. Glad
the shower was warm, so there was no shrinkage. The ladies didn’t have quite
the same experience, but were not impressed. Enough whining about showers. The
water in the harbor was incredibly clear. I could watch the anchor almost all
the way to the bottom, and we were anchored in 30 feet of water! Not bad at
all. We anchored next to an old Army tug that has been a fixture in the harbor
for several years. Cary and I had a swim, cold but satisfying, and Tricia made
a wonderful dinner. We were up early the next morning and underway for
Wickford.
The trip to
Wickford should have been uneventful. But it wasn’t. I had opened the dodger
window so we could see through the morning dew. As we came around the point at
North Shore, the wind came up from the quarter. Cary says “Hey Dad, isn’t that
the boat hook that you put in the end of the boom last night?” Yes, it was, and
it was about to fall out. As I tried to pull the boom in to retrieve it, we
accidentally jibed. The mainsheet caught the dodger window and ripped a seam.
And, of course, the boat hook sank out of sight. After cursing my own
stupidity, a common occurrence, we
headed up West Passage into Narragansett Bay. I noticed the sky to the
west looked dark, and checked the WX radio. NOAA was saying strong thunderstorms
and potential flash flooding were imminent. We took the opportunity to duck in
the lee of Bonnet Shores and take down the sails. After a brief squall, which
we were glad to face without sails, we were able to set the jib again as we
came under the Jamestown Bridge. We reached into Wickford Harbor doing 9 kts
under jib alone. We were met at the harbor by my best friend and classmate,
Capt Pete Andrews, owner of Safe Sea Marine Rescue Services. Pete and I go way
back to middle school days. He is also a member of Wickford Yacht Club and had
secured a guest mooring for us for our stay. WYC was WONDERFUL. The steward and
commodore both made a point of welcoming our family, and invited us to a BYOB
cookout on Friday night. The showers and facilities were brand new after
Hurricane Sandy and were excellent. Pete and his wife Susan, and the children
Sarah and Will took us to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant at the corner of
W Main Street and Post Road (where the Irish Pub used to be). The Andrews hospitality didn’t stop there.
Pete’s parents, John and Sally Andrews, let us use their washer and dryer, and
loaned us the SafeSea Clown Car (see pic). This enabled us to run errands to
West Marine, the Wickford Marine Consignment Shop, and other places to complete
projects and reprovisioning. We also were able to get the dodger repaired at
Oaklawn Canvas. Nice job and a same day turn around. Susan, Tricia and the kids
had a nice day at Scarborough Beach while I worked on the boat. After a long,
relaxing stay, we departed Wickford to points north.
“Let me
explain, no that will take me too long, let me sum up.” We went to Padnaram,
anchored out for the night, found nothing of interest in town in the morning
and left. Went to Marion, took a Beverly Yacht Club mooring for the showers,
walked into town, girls ran in the morning, and left. Went through the Cape Cod
Canal in dreary weather, and came out into Massachusetts Bay with 20 kts on the
nose to get to Marblehead. Decided not to beat our brains out all day, and
tucked into Plymouth Harbor and took a public mooring on the outside of the
harbor for the night. It was OK, but a little exposed. Anchorage at Duxbury
looked dicey. After a quick harbor tour to sight Plymouth Rock, we set out
early the next morning for Marblehead. Sailed alongside a beautiful schooner
most of the way. Decided when we got their to take a mooring at the Jubilee
Yacht Club in Beverly. Just inside Salem and Marbehead. Cousin Chris and Jen
were there to greet us. They also us loaned us Aunt Joan’s Subaru. Cary and
Ginny took student tours at Harvard and MIT. They also used wifi at JYC and
Chris’ house to start on the Keystone Home School Course which had arrived at
Chris’ in Manchester. We went to the Schooner Races in Gloucester and had a
nice lobster dinner on the hill overlooking the harbor.
We sailed
from Beverly to Mystic in one go. We went through the Canal in the dark, and
had some excitement off of Point Judith.
I was on watch and had been monitoring a large commercial ship hovering
off Montauk. I noted a pilot boat headed that way. As I put 2+2 together, the
ship got up a head of steam for the West Passage. A quick call to Tricia and we
were able to tack and stay out of his way.
Mystic was
very nice. We stayed at the Seaport and Museum. Offseason has 2-fer-1, so we
stayed Friday and Sunday nights. We spent Saturday night anchored off Fishers
Island. If you haven’t been to Mystic Seaport lately, as I hadn’t, it has grown
and changed dramatically. There was so much to see, and such friendly people,
we really enjoyed ourselves.
From Mystic
we sailed to Duck Island and anchored behind a breakwater. In the morning,
before dawn, the tide had changed and we were dragging. As we got underway in a
rush, the engine overheated and we hurriedly made sail and tacked out of the anchorage
into a brisk breeze. We were not ready for sea, and all hell broke loose below
as we heeled over and plunged into the steep Long Island Sound chop. By the
time we got things under control, we sailed down to Bridgeport and stayed at
Blackwater Harbor Yacht Club. I had never heard of it, but it was very calm
inside the harbor.
From
Blackwater, we sailed down to City Island, NY and took a mooring with the City
Island Yacht Club. Very nice, and friendly. Great WIFI. The steward even drove
us to the market to get groceries. We stayed an extra day to wait for the right
wind at Sandy Hook.
Up early,
we motored through Hells Gate into New York Harbor and on to Atlantic
Highlands, NJ on Sandy Hook. The holding was soupy muck, so we ended up taking
a mooring. The fuel dock was not “sailor friendly” but we survived.
We had a
BEAUTIFUL sail from Sandy Hook to Cape May. We never did less than 8 knots,
solved some mechanical and electrical problems on the fly and had fun. We got
to Cape May so early, we decided to keep going and motored up the Delaware Bay,
through the C&D Canal and down to Still Pond for a quiet night at anchor
before sailing the rest of the way to Kent Island to complete the shakedown
cruise. Whew! One more quick leg in the morning and we were home in Shipping Creek.
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