Kip, Kelly and I were sailing in company with Windeva, a Cheoy Lee ketch with wooden masts out of Falmouth, Maine. Her skipper was sailing solo to Scituate, Massachusetts, so we departed at the same time and stayed within sight of each other for the entire day. For the first several miles it was a challenge to stay visible to each other as the visibility through the gray haze and patchy fog was a mile or less.
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| Windeva |
The waves north of Cape Ann crashed noisily past us as we forced our way through them for the first hour, but then our course took us south and the course turn put the waves on our stern so we could surf them across Massachusetts Bay.
The rain was steady and heavy until the clouds thinned enough to see a lighter gray sky, but no sun, in the early afternoon. We could make out our destination, a lighthouse standing proud at the entrance to Scituate Harbor. On this day, the closer we approached, the less we could see the lighthouse! The fog was returning and threatening to make the harbor entrance a challenge to enter.
Fortunately, visibility was never less than half a mile which was plenty to make out the red and green buoys to follow them into the harbor. We topped off our diesel and water, then picked up a mooring for the night.
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| Kelly IV in Scituate Harbor |
The next morning the fog returned with a vengence and we could see no more than a quarter mile for the entire morning. We saw a sailboat and a couple lobster boats sneak past us in the dim gray haze, but no whales despite Cape Cod Bay being known for great whale watching.
Two hours out from Sandwich, the skies cleared and the wind filled in so we sailed (no motor!) the balance of the day, jibing our way to the eastern entrance of the Cape Cod Canal. The marina was filled with commercial fishing boats and charters and only a few sailboats.
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| Sandwich, MA dock |
In Sandwich, our dockmate was a Frenchman from St. Pierre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon), the island off the coast of Newfoundland that is still part of France. The three of us joined the crew from Dragon's Wing, a steel, junk-rigged sailboat that I had moored next to in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, for a drink and lots of great conversation and camaraderie.
The next morning was a great sailing day, bursting bright and sunny over us. Kip and I waited for the tide to turn so Kelly IV could ride the favorable current through the canal. With the strong current carrying us quickly to the southwest, we were through the canal in just over an hour! We made great time seeing our speed over ground exceed 8 knots for much of the canal.
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| Running wing & wing down Buzzard's Bay |
The breeze was aft of the beam so we set the main and genoa wing and wing, shut off the engine (yea!) and spent the entire run to Cuttyhunk Island under sail. We found ourselves heading southwest parallel to another sailboat just a mile away. As many of you know, when two sailboats are headed the same direction you have what we call . . . “a Race!” We had a reef in Kelly's mainsail, but only because we had seen a small tear in the sail that we did not want turning into a large tear. Our competitor had full main and jib so it seemed the other guy might win our “race”. Then we rigged the whisker pole which pumped our speed by a full knot or more and we slowly but decisively pressed our advantage and left our parallel sailboat behind us.
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| Our "competition" on Buzzard's Bay |
Cuttyhunk is a very rural island with 200 seasonal and 20 year around residents. We dinghied ashore for a brief walk, but took a detour when we were hailed by a sailing couple who had questions about our bright yellow Portland Pudgy. They invited us aboard from drinks and conversation which Kip and I enjoyed. When it was clear that twilight might keep us from our walk ashore, we climbed back into our dinghy and continued to the island. Once ashore, we walked across the island and viewed Martha's Vineyard from the eastern shore, then returned to Kelly to watch the evening's entertainment. An unattended anchored sailboat dragged and banged into an anchored cruising trawler before the harbormaster got control of her. We were on a mooring a couple hundred yards away and were too far away to help, but within view of much of the activity.
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| Cuttyhunk Harbor |
Amazingly, the next morning proved to be another terrific day of sailing. The wind had clocked to the east, but now our course took us west, so we sailed downwind jibing the mainsail from wing and wing to a port tack run. We were again swinging the whisker pole to keep the genny filled as Kelly bounded before the following waves towards Newport, Rhode Island.
It was clear we were headed to sailing's Mecca, as we passed more sailboats, sailboat races, and pleasure craft on the water than Kelly and I had seen all summer. While there were lots of sailboats in Maine, especially Southwest Harbor, the number of boats actually out sailing was much greater in Rhode Island.
Kip and I turned Kelly north along the west side of Conanicut Island, Jamestown, Rhode Island. Once inside Dutch Island we dropped the hook in Dutch Harbor for the week. We planned to visit Newport and the Newport International Boat Show (NIBS) and doing so from our own vessel, anchored for free, was great!
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| Kelly IV at anchor at Dutch Harbor |
The NIBS takes place over the weekend, September 15 – 18. Kip and I took the bus to Newport and played tourist, walking the docks as the boats were being jostled into place amongst the temporary docks set up for the show. Later in the day, the International Yacht Restoration School (http://www.iyrs.org/) provoked our interest when we took advantage of their workshop, set up so visitors could take in the wonderful aroma of wood being worked and shaped as the craftsmen restored the wooden yachts.
I have decided that Narragansett Bay will be the end of our cruising for this year. I spent much of today calling boatyards and viewing websites to select a yard for Kelly IV to spend the winter. We'll schedule her haulout for next week and spend several days getting her decommissioned so she weathers the cold New England winter and is ready to continue our cruise again next summer.
Kelly IV and I have now cruised 2477 nautical miles from Erie, PA.
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