We left Marblehead early on Friday in pretty dense fog. Out we went dodging the lobster traps and actually found a favorable wind so on a beautiful sunshiny day we were able to sail for six hours. One thing we have found is that when the marine forecast says the winds will be 10-15 knot with gust to 20 we know it will be much more . Our top gust was 31 knots and the wind averaged 25 knots. We can live with these winds but they certainly build up big waves. We sailed until the last two hours when we had to motor sail through 25 knot winds and big waves. We headed for a marina that is just inside the Cape Cod Canal and were glad to tie up to a dock. Our luck seems to be that we are always beaten up in the last two hours. It's so wonderful to arrive at our destination and finally relax
....rum helps here. We had a wonderful dinner at an incredible restaurant attached to the marina.
The Cape Cod Canal takes us from the Cape Cod area to Buzzards Bay off Rhode Island. It has a strong current of up to 3 knots so one has to hit it just the correct time to have the current going with you thru the eight mile canal.
We left our marina about 8:00 AM and whistled through the canal going about 10 knots per hour. Unfortunately when we exited the canal we had headwinds of 20 knots blowing against 3 knots of current so it was another wild hour and a half of big short choppy waves beating us to death. After we survived this it was clear motor sailing into the wind. Hurricane Gonzolo contributed huge swell on our way but despite conditions that resembled a washing machine we had a great day and ended up on a mooring at Newport, Rhode Island about 5:00PM.
Being a great Americas Cup fan Newport was the scene of the Cup for 150 years before the Aussies took it away in the 80's. The boat right next to our mooring was Columbia which was the first of the 12 Metre designs and won the cup in 1958. There are also a few other Americas Cup boats here including Weatherly (the 1962 winner of the cup) and others. Tomorrow we head for Long Island, NY on an overnight as we are getting a little behind on our a schedule. John blames it all on Maine and the lobster traps!!
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Our Tuesday (maybe it was Monday, it's sort of hard to keep track!) Portland was for me a great break....I didn't wake up till 9:00 AM and I asked John if we should enquire about the marina and being John he had been up at daybreak, registered with the marina, got us codes for the gate, done his laundry at the coin wash and arranged for help with our problem with the boat. Probably the only reason I don't get fired is that crew is hard to find!!
Meanwhile John and a friend in Nova Scotia had figured out what was wrong and got everything working. I lazed about, did my laundry and read my book while he was doing all the work. John heard about a huge marine store downtown and couldn't resist going for a visit. He was like a kid in a candy store.
I also introduced John to Uber the taxi service so we both used it succefully...it had only started in this area a week and a half ago. I think he's hooked on it.
The next day we left trying to get as far as we could go. We ended up in Portsmouth, NH at one of the most luxurious marinas I have ever seen called Wentworth on the Sea. John went up to find if there was a grocery store nearby and came back with the keys to a courtesy car that was part of our $50 overnight charges...what a deal! John being John and Brian being Brian off we headed to the West Marine store! It's like going to Costco where you always buy things you don't really need.
John got a surprise call from Dixie and she was in the area and going to meet us for dinner. So we met at a restaurant downtown and then she came and spent the night with us. When we boarded, John rushed on ahead of us and was madly trying to clean up the boat....we really don't make that much of a mess?
Wednesday we headed out early to try and make as much distance as we could and ended up in beautiful Marblehead MA. It's a huge harbor with about 2000 boats moored in it. We were fortunate that the Harbor Master let us tie up to his dock which is right in the heart of town. What an amazing town where the houses close to the docks are all +300 years old and incredibly we'll taken care of. A real early New England town. The dock master told us of a great restaurant up the street where we had one of the best sea food meals I've ever had. (Kelly the picture)
We woke up ready to head south but after looking at the weather decided to stay here another day. This was a good call as soon after it started to blow and the rain poured down, so much so they initiated a flood warning. So, what to do. I went back to bed until noon while John was in his element doing all sorts of maintenance and repairs......what a nice guy he didn't even wake me up to help! It poured rain the whole day so we just hunkerd down in the boat. Tomorrow we leave early heading to a marina at the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal.
Meanwhile John and a friend in Nova Scotia had figured out what was wrong and got everything working. I lazed about, did my laundry and read my book while he was doing all the work. John heard about a huge marine store downtown and couldn't resist going for a visit. He was like a kid in a candy store.
I also introduced John to Uber the taxi service so we both used it succefully...it had only started in this area a week and a half ago. I think he's hooked on it.
The next day we left trying to get as far as we could go. We ended up in Portsmouth, NH at one of the most luxurious marinas I have ever seen called Wentworth on the Sea. John went up to find if there was a grocery store nearby and came back with the keys to a courtesy car that was part of our $50 overnight charges...what a deal! John being John and Brian being Brian off we headed to the West Marine store! It's like going to Costco where you always buy things you don't really need.
John got a surprise call from Dixie and she was in the area and going to meet us for dinner. So we met at a restaurant downtown and then she came and spent the night with us. When we boarded, John rushed on ahead of us and was madly trying to clean up the boat....we really don't make that much of a mess?
Wednesday we headed out early to try and make as much distance as we could and ended up in beautiful Marblehead MA. It's a huge harbor with about 2000 boats moored in it. We were fortunate that the Harbor Master let us tie up to his dock which is right in the heart of town. What an amazing town where the houses close to the docks are all +300 years old and incredibly we'll taken care of. A real early New England town. The dock master told us of a great restaurant up the street where we had one of the best sea food meals I've ever had. (Kelly the picture)
We woke up ready to head south but after looking at the weather decided to stay here another day. This was a good call as soon after it started to blow and the rain poured down, so much so they initiated a flood warning. So, what to do. I went back to bed until noon while John was in his element doing all sorts of maintenance and repairs......what a nice guy he didn't even wake me up to help! It poured rain the whole day so we just hunkerd down in the boat. Tomorrow we leave early heading to a marina at the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal.
Dixie and a friend arrived on Tuesday Round noon to pick up our ripped sail so we all joined the trip to Rockland Maine where the sailmaker was located. We arrived at 2:00 PM and he said he would have the sail repaired by 5:00. We toured the town, picked up the sail at 5:00 and were on our way to a very special restaurant to celebrate John and Dixie's anniversary. The restaurant we went to called (I'll get the name later) is supposed to be one of the ten best in North America? After a wonderful meal we headed back to Bar Harbor for the night.
The next day we headed off to Southwestern Harbor which was going to be an easy sail of 30 miles in light winds but turned out to be motoring straight into 25 knot winds and huge waves. The biggest problem was trying to dodge the lobster pot buoys while the sun reflected off the water amid huge waves. We finally arrived in the setting sun. We vowed never to arrive anywhere so late again....somehow the next day we forgot our lesson. Something to do with sleeping late in the morning!!
Now we are at Thursday and we leave late but it will be a nice sail, decent winds and sunshine. True, for the first two hours until the winds blew up to over twenty knots and the waves were at least eight feet and we were going directly into them. We took many, many waves over the front of the boat washing back to the cockpit. Every time we hit one of these huge waves it would stall us so progress was slow. Since we realized we would not make our intended destination we found an inlet that would partially protect us. I keep forgetting to add that in these huge waves we still needed to maneuver around all the lobster pots.
Our little inlet also had lobster pots and wind so we anchored in the back end but had to keep watch in case the anchor let loose so chalk it up to another 4 hour watch night. It's amazing how a glass of Rum makes you forget all the problems!!!!
The next day we headed off to Southwestern Harbor which was going to be an easy sail of 30 miles in light winds but turned out to be motoring straight into 25 knot winds and huge waves. The biggest problem was trying to dodge the lobster pot buoys while the sun reflected off the water amid huge waves. We finally arrived in the setting sun. We vowed never to arrive anywhere so late again....somehow the next day we forgot our lesson. Something to do with sleeping late in the morning!!
Now we are at Thursday and we leave late but it will be a nice sail, decent winds and sunshine. True, for the first two hours until the winds blew up to over twenty knots and the waves were at least eight feet and we were going directly into them. We took many, many waves over the front of the boat washing back to the cockpit. Every time we hit one of these huge waves it would stall us so progress was slow. Since we realized we would not make our intended destination we found an inlet that would partially protect us. I keep forgetting to add that in these huge waves we still needed to maneuver around all the lobster pots.
Our little inlet also had lobster pots and wind so we anchored in the back end but had to keep watch in case the anchor let loose so chalk it up to another 4 hour watch night. It's amazing how a glass of Rum makes you forget all the problems!!!!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
I think I left off as we were leaving our hurricane hole. We headed off for Boothbay, about an 8 hour trip again into a heavy wind and big waves....so obviously no sailing. We sort of wonder why we are in a sailboat...oh we'll!! Our good old Yanmar desiel keeps trustily (is that a word?) working away. It's great to be with John as he checks the engine hourly along with whatever else he's down below looking at. I don't want him to find out on my boat I only check things like that once a month or so!!!
Boothbay is another gorgeous port with boats everywhere and huge houses lining the shores....and of course it has our enemy the lobster trap everywhere. We found a marina with a restaurant so all was well. We went in for dinner expecting to order a giant lobster dinner only to find out it was a Turkey buffet with all the old folks from town.....I keep pretending that I'm still 40 years old!
Off we went Sunday with plans to go 20 miles out to try and get beyond the lobster traps and do an overnight run to the Cape Cod canal. Even when we were 25 miles from shore there was still the "enemy." We came to the conclusion that when it got dark we would not be able to see any of the traps so we decided to change our course so we would be in a harbor by dark. But as our luck seems to go all of a sudden the alternator and the tachometer quit. So back we headed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where they have boatyards for repairs.....but the problem was that the last two hours of our trip would be in the dark. Our, or should I say John's solution was for him to stand at the front of the boat holding a search light while I steered through the traps. He would shine the light on the traps so I could see them and if I was getting to close to one that I hadn't seen he would use an air horn to warn me. Everything worked like a charm and we got into a marina with repair services.
Boothbay is another gorgeous port with boats everywhere and huge houses lining the shores....and of course it has our enemy the lobster trap everywhere. We found a marina with a restaurant so all was well. We went in for dinner expecting to order a giant lobster dinner only to find out it was a Turkey buffet with all the old folks from town.....I keep pretending that I'm still 40 years old!
Off we went Sunday with plans to go 20 miles out to try and get beyond the lobster traps and do an overnight run to the Cape Cod canal. Even when we were 25 miles from shore there was still the "enemy." We came to the conclusion that when it got dark we would not be able to see any of the traps so we decided to change our course so we would be in a harbor by dark. But as our luck seems to go all of a sudden the alternator and the tachometer quit. So back we headed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where they have boatyards for repairs.....but the problem was that the last two hours of our trip would be in the dark. Our, or should I say John's solution was for him to stand at the front of the boat holding a search light while I steered through the traps. He would shine the light on the traps so I could see them and if I was getting to close to one that I hadn't seen he would use an air horn to warn me. Everything worked like a charm and we got into a marina with repair services.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Our beginning
I was invited by John Apfeld to help move his sailboat, a Freedom 39 from Mahone Bay Nova Scotia, near Halifax to Florida. Of course I jumped at the chance. I was told our journey would take approximately 6 weeks. John and Dixie, his dear spouse and I have done trips similar to this before so I knew this was a no brainer.
I arrived in Halifax on Monday September 29th and stayed at his gorgeous home in the beautiful Annapolis Valley for several days as we prepared the boat for the upcoming trip. Our plans were to sail down the coast of Nova Scotia and cross the Bay of Fundy to Maine. In our previous trips we had never sailed down the Maine coast so this seemed like a great opportunity to leisurely explore coastal Maine.
After preparation our plans were to set sail Friday night and spend two nights sailing to Bar Harbor Maine. If you are an experienced sailor, one of the rules is to wait for a good weather window. The marine weather report for Friday night and Saturday was for winds of 25 to 30 knots and 10 to 15 foot waves....so guess what we did....stayed on the boat at the marina and hoped Sunday would be better.
In the meantime the Town of Mahone Bay was having their annual Scarecrow festival. All the businesses and homes on the Main Street have figures dressed in all sorts of exotic costumes on their front lawns. Even though it was cold and rainy there were huge numbers of visitors.
Sunday started out with heavy rain, fog and high winds so we just hunkered down for the day thinking we would probably set out on Monday. About 4:00 in the afternoon the weather window started to look more promising so we decided we would head out. After getting everything ready we left the dock at 5:30 heading for Bar Harbor, Maine. What this meant was a 90 mile trip down the coast of Nova Scotia and then rounding Nova Scotia and sailing a 120 mile stretch across the Bay of Fundy to Maine.
Everything was going well for the first two hours until it got dark and we found that our red/green navigation lights weren't working. We kicked ourselves for not checking this before we left but what to do....head back or try to improvise. This is where I am glad to be sailing with John, he always seems to come up with great solutions to problems. So he was able to rewire the lights and all was well again....anyway for a while. I think what John and I are finding is that as soon you solve one problem another one pops up.
The winds were blowing at about 20 knots but we were doing well so John took the first watch of 4 hours so I went off to bed. It wasn't very long before I was rudely awakened with John shrieking we've got a problem...get up and help. Apparently one of our battens had ripped from the sail. So we were able to retrieve it and back to bed I went. You guessed it after about another hour of sleep John was bothering me again...this time it was a little bit more serious...the main sail had ripped up at the top so we had to get it down and stowed. We got the foresail up and the motor going and continued
on our way. We were still only about 30 miles from our start. So back to bed I went....but by this time I couldn't sleep. So after tossing and turning I finally got to sleep. John being John decided to stay on watch for longer than his turn so I didn't have to start my watch until just before the sun came up.
In the meantime John got on the sat phone and asked Dixie to find someone who could fix our ripped mainsail. One of Dixie's many, many great attributes is she is able to research and find the best person who could solve our problem and as usual she found a sailmaker who could repair our sail as soon as we could bring it to him.
The rest of our trip to Maine was pretty uneventful....the winds died to nothing so we motored on with incredible sunsets (add pictures here!) and under clear sky's and a full moon. We arrived at Bar Harbor at 8:30 am Monday morning and quickly cleared Customs.
Bar Harbor Maine is a real tourist town. The big event this time of year is the people coming to see the fall colors of the trees. When we arrived there was a huge Princess Cruises ship disgorging 3000 bodies into the town. It was hard to walk down the streets there were so many bodies. Being purist sailors we turned up our noses at this nuisance!!! In the meantime ((I like that phrase) Dixie and a friend were driving on their way to meet us and take the sails to our sailmaker who is a couple of hours away. This may sound like I'm getting old and giving too much detail but if you are interested (even if you are not!) we went out to dinner on the early bird special and had a lobster dinner for $19.
There are many lobster fishermen here and the price of selling their lobster has been very low. Last year they were getting only $2.20/lb but this year it has gone up to $5.00/lb. I forgot to mention that on coming into Bar Harbor for 20 miles out there are lobster traps with their floating buoys everywhere. One has to keep a constant lookout for the buoys and man oeuvre around them so you don't hook one on your prop. John is not too impressed with all these tiny bobbing floats!
I arrived in Halifax on Monday September 29th and stayed at his gorgeous home in the beautiful Annapolis Valley for several days as we prepared the boat for the upcoming trip. Our plans were to sail down the coast of Nova Scotia and cross the Bay of Fundy to Maine. In our previous trips we had never sailed down the Maine coast so this seemed like a great opportunity to leisurely explore coastal Maine.
After preparation our plans were to set sail Friday night and spend two nights sailing to Bar Harbor Maine. If you are an experienced sailor, one of the rules is to wait for a good weather window. The marine weather report for Friday night and Saturday was for winds of 25 to 30 knots and 10 to 15 foot waves....so guess what we did....stayed on the boat at the marina and hoped Sunday would be better.
In the meantime the Town of Mahone Bay was having their annual Scarecrow festival. All the businesses and homes on the Main Street have figures dressed in all sorts of exotic costumes on their front lawns. Even though it was cold and rainy there were huge numbers of visitors.
Sunday started out with heavy rain, fog and high winds so we just hunkered down for the day thinking we would probably set out on Monday. About 4:00 in the afternoon the weather window started to look more promising so we decided we would head out. After getting everything ready we left the dock at 5:30 heading for Bar Harbor, Maine. What this meant was a 90 mile trip down the coast of Nova Scotia and then rounding Nova Scotia and sailing a 120 mile stretch across the Bay of Fundy to Maine.
Everything was going well for the first two hours until it got dark and we found that our red/green navigation lights weren't working. We kicked ourselves for not checking this before we left but what to do....head back or try to improvise. This is where I am glad to be sailing with John, he always seems to come up with great solutions to problems. So he was able to rewire the lights and all was well again....anyway for a while. I think what John and I are finding is that as soon you solve one problem another one pops up.
The winds were blowing at about 20 knots but we were doing well so John took the first watch of 4 hours so I went off to bed. It wasn't very long before I was rudely awakened with John shrieking we've got a problem...get up and help. Apparently one of our battens had ripped from the sail. So we were able to retrieve it and back to bed I went. You guessed it after about another hour of sleep John was bothering me again...this time it was a little bit more serious...the main sail had ripped up at the top so we had to get it down and stowed. We got the foresail up and the motor going and continued
on our way. We were still only about 30 miles from our start. So back to bed I went....but by this time I couldn't sleep. So after tossing and turning I finally got to sleep. John being John decided to stay on watch for longer than his turn so I didn't have to start my watch until just before the sun came up.
In the meantime John got on the sat phone and asked Dixie to find someone who could fix our ripped mainsail. One of Dixie's many, many great attributes is she is able to research and find the best person who could solve our problem and as usual she found a sailmaker who could repair our sail as soon as we could bring it to him.
The rest of our trip to Maine was pretty uneventful....the winds died to nothing so we motored on with incredible sunsets (add pictures here!) and under clear sky's and a full moon. We arrived at Bar Harbor at 8:30 am Monday morning and quickly cleared Customs.
Bar Harbor Maine is a real tourist town. The big event this time of year is the people coming to see the fall colors of the trees. When we arrived there was a huge Princess Cruises ship disgorging 3000 bodies into the town. It was hard to walk down the streets there were so many bodies. Being purist sailors we turned up our noses at this nuisance!!! In the meantime ((I like that phrase) Dixie and a friend were driving on their way to meet us and take the sails to our sailmaker who is a couple of hours away. This may sound like I'm getting old and giving too much detail but if you are interested (even if you are not!) we went out to dinner on the early bird special and had a lobster dinner for $19.
There are many lobster fishermen here and the price of selling their lobster has been very low. Last year they were getting only $2.20/lb but this year it has gone up to $5.00/lb. I forgot to mention that on coming into Bar Harbor for 20 miles out there are lobster traps with their floating buoys everywhere. One has to keep a constant lookout for the buoys and man oeuvre around them so you don't hook one on your prop. John is not too impressed with all these tiny bobbing floats!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Dixie's 50!
Thanks to our cruising friends who have shown me that age is completely relative! Here's to Larry and Sharon, Don and Diane, and Dick and Liz who have inspired me and shown me that age is only what you make of it. My new goal is to celebrate my 80th on the water!!
Mr. Wonderful managed to pull off a suprise birthday party for me here in Stuart, even when up until the day before we planned to be on a beach in the Bahamas. I had a wonderful birthday luncheon and brought home the most gianormous birthday balloon bouquet I have ever seen (still floating around in the boat) - and lovely pink and white carnations!
Yes, I am now half a century . . . I don't feel any different, and I sure don't act any different.! Now its just time to "own it" Dixie is 50!!
Dosn't sound so bad after all.
Thanks to my boys for their renditions of Happy Birthday,
and all my wonderful family and friends
for your calls and songs and wishes.
For those of you dreading turning 50 - don't; it's GREAT!
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| 50 yr old Grandma's get to use the Rockers! |
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