Heading up the East Coast

Monday, June 24 - We started the day with researching for our trip in Maine, I’ve be been researching destinations I think we may want to go to and this morning researched a few marinas on the New Hampshire/Maine border. We left Manhasset Bay, NY at 11:30 a.m., later than we wanted to as we were waiting on the pump out boat. The wind was high at 25 to 30 knots and gusty. Once out in Long Island Sound we pulled the sails out part way and had the wind off our port stern on a broad reach, almost to a beam reach, and we were moving along nicely at 6 knots. We turned the motor off at 1:00 and sailed the next 4 hours between 6 and 7 knots, at times reaching 8 knots when the gusts were high. As we approached the location where we wanted to anchor the wind picked up to 40 knots! Kevin turned the boat to put the wind behind us to pull in the jib, followed a short time later with the mainsail. We anchored around 5:30 in Connecticut between Penfield Beach and Fairfield Beach.
Sail time: 4 hours
Motor-sail time: 2 hours
Total time: 6 hours

Tuesday, June 25 - We pulled out the mainsail while still anchored as we were pointed into the wind, then the anchor was pulled up at 8:03 and we were off to our next destination, Old Saybrook. The wind was blowing 10 knots or less and shifting on either side of the boat a lot, this made using the jib tedious and we pulled it in and out several times. Finally around 11:00 it stabilized at 15 knots and we were able to pull it out on a beam reach. We progressed along the rest of the day at 6 knots and were able to get up to 8 knots with the current as we approached New London, CT, having decided to bypass Old Saybrook. We lowered the sails as we entered the Thames river and anchored in the Thames at 5:40 p.m. We were by a General Dynamics facility that built submarines and if you were there at the right time you can see one coming or going. Unfortunately we never saw one. We were also close to a train rail that was very active and loud! I think it ran at least every hour and maybe every 30 minutes in the afternoon rush hour. Luckily it did not run at night and down below the noise wasn’t bad.

Wednesday, June 26 - we went ashore to Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock for lunch. I had a lobster roll and Kevin had fish and chips. It wasn’t as good as the one I had in Provincetown, Cape Cod when we went there with the kids in 2018. We drove by Tracy and Erwin’s boat that they keep at the dock in front of Captain Scott’s. Unfortunately they are in Nashville now so we didn’t get to see them. Then we went on a long walk around New London, walking through the wharf area with all the restaurants and into the historic district. The historic homes were nothing but shacks in the 1980’s and were scheduled to be torn down when a bank invested in the area and rebuilt the homes preserving them for future generations. Most were originally built circa 1840’s. We went back in the evening to have a drink at the Social restaurant. On the dinghy dock we met Barb and Mark from the Catamaran anchored next to us. They used the laundry room that day which was reserved for those on city mooring balls, however our boats are too big for the spaces and she convinced the person to give her the code, which she then gave to us! That night there was a large rainstorm that we were not prepared for and the cockpit was soaked through in the morning. Kevin woke me at 4 a.m. to help him remove the plug from the dinghy to drain the water out, which fortunately we raised out of the water when we got back from the restaurant.

Thursday, June 27 - In the morning we did some laundry, there were 2 small washers and one dryer. We were not able to get everything washed and did not have enough quarters to finish drying the second load, mostly towels, so they finished on the lifelines. We pulled anchored at 1:50 p.m. for a quick trip to Stonington, CT where we will meet my cousins for lunch tomorrow, arriving at 5:00. It took longer than usual as we stopped for another pumpout and the first place had someone tied up to the dock cleaning his boat. I’m not convinced that was where the pumpout was. Anyway we went to a different place which was better as that one had dockhands so I didn’t have to jump off the boat!

Friday, June 28 - It’s June and we woke up to 61 degrees!! This is why we sail north for the summer! We spent the day with my cousin Gretchen and her husband Scott, they are so fun, I love being around them! We had lunch at Dog Watch Cafe on the water then went to Stonington Yacht Club for drinks. Scott grew up in this area racing sailboats, as did their kids, they currently live in Darien, Ct. and spend summers in Rhode Island.

Saturday, June 29 - We woke up to another cold morning, I’m loving it but it does make it hard to get out of bed! After a quick breakfast we were on deck preparing to leave. We left the dinghy in the water overnight as Kevin needed to check that the anchor chain was not wrapped around an “anchor area” bouy, and release it if it was. It seemed to be just under the chain so Kevin lifted the chain over it to get it to float away from the boat. I then pulled the anchor up and had to remove seaweed from the chain as I pulled it up. I unknowingly pulled it up too far so that we were no longer anchored (in my defense I had no idea how much Kevin had already pulled up). The problem with that was Kevin had to pull the dinghy up while the boat was moving and I was steering. We were on our way by 8:30. We pulled the sails out and turned the engine off at 8:53. By 9:30 we were on a close haul starboard tack with winds coming out of the south-east at 20 knots and we were sailing at 6.5 knots. We continued to sail most of that day on that course, occasionally winds sifted a bit to the east putting us more on a close reach, and varied between 17 and 22 knots and we kept our speed to 6.5 knots for most of that time, except at 11:00 the winds slowed a bit and we turned the motor on for about 50 minutes, turning it off again at 11:53. The water was a bit bumpy and between that and healing my stomach was a bit uneasy after lunch. It was cloudy and felt very cold, AccuWeather said 67 degrees but that’s on land, it felt closer to 60 on the water. Around 2:30 we turned NNE into the Sakonnet River and that slowed everything down. Winds were now behind us from the SSW at 10 knots and water much calmer. Our speed slowed also to less than 4 knots and the jib floundered. We pulled it in at 2:45 and turned on the motor, keeping the main out. We motor-sailed up the river to the mooring field in Tiverton, Rhode Island. As we passed the breakwater walls there was an immense current caused by deep water meeting shallow water, I was on the bow getting the lines ready when Kevin yelled for me to get low, I look up and there is a mass of whirlpools in front of me! Once past that the water calmed however in the mooring field the wind picked up to 25 knots, never a dull moment securing mooring lines. I did succeed with getting both lines through the ball without any help this time. We turned the engine off at 4:25.
Sail time: 5 hours
Motor- sail time: 2 hrs 45 min
Total: 7 hrs 45 min
The evening remained windy, you could hear it howling and the water was pounding into our stern. We went to bed at 9:30 and I was fearful it would be a fitful night with all the noise but I slept like a log! I did wake up to rain once but fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 8 am!Lue lisää