by Judy Handley | Aug 19, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 285, Year 7: Back Home in Eel Pond
Date: Sunday, August 19, 2012
Weather: Cloudy with Sunshine Peaking Through, Fluky Winds
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
What fun we had this morning watching, and then joining, the parade of boats
going out of the Nantucket Harbor and into the Nantucket Sound for the last
race of Nantucket Race Week 2012. We picked up the two anchors we had down
and moved closer to the action. Once we were in a position to see all the
action up close, we put down an anchor so we could relax and watch the show.
And it was a grand show. Many powerboats, large and small, had gathered at
the entrance of the channel to watch the show as well. So it was a crowded
harbor which added to the festive mood. First, the Rainbow Fleet paraded
by. These are tiny little boats with colorful sails. Then the two tall
ships, the Pride of Baltimore II and Lynx, had their exchange of cannon
fire, and then led the parade of antique boats headed out to race. When
most of the boats were in the channel, we pulled up anchor and joined them.
We didn’t stay to watch the start of the race, as we decided we had seen
enough and should head home. The wind forecast was not great and the winds
did end up to be fluky. We had good wind to start, then no wind, then good
wind, and then very little wind. Sails went up, came down, went up again,
and came down again. So our trip home was a mix of sailing and motoring.
It was a cloudy day, but the sun kept trying to shine through the clouds, so
at least it wasn’t dreary. We entered Eel Pond at the 5 pm bridge opening,
had Happy Hour on Windbird, and then Alan and Helaine treated us to dinner
at the Captain Kidd. Thank you, thank you. After dinner we walked around
town and then spent a quiet evening on Windbird. We’ve had a wonderful few
days with Alan and Helaine and hope they will return more often to sail with
us. It was great fun.
by Judy Handley | Aug 18, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 284, Year 7: Enjoying Nantucket
Date: Saturday, August 18, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain
Location: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Today was a bit of a lazy day, but quite enjoyable. We had heavy rain in
the very early morning. The rain then subsided, but it remained overcast
all day. We hung out on the boat all morning while Mark and Alan worked on
our GPS issue. They actually found the problem. The connector to the GPS
in the cockpit is so corroded that one of the pins is no longer connected
and on the inside of the boat, the USB to serial connector to the computer
is also faulty. The system now works with the help of a little aluminum
foil, but we will still need to buy a new GPS because our current back-up is
no longer functional. We will use our current one as the back-up and the
new one as our main unit. So progress was made and then we headed to town.
We had a lovely lunch and then went to the Nantucket Historical Association
Whaling Museum. Mark and I were there a few years ago but it is the kind of
place you can return to many times. We watched a new hour-long film by
documentary filmmaker Ric Burns. It was really worth the watch as it gave
us all a new appreciation for this “elbow of sand” as Herman Melville once
described Nantucket. Before he ever visited this island, he wrote about it
in Chapter Fourteen of Moby-Dick, written in 1851. “Nantucket! Take out
your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies;
how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone
lighthouse. Look at it-a mere hillock, an elbow of sand; all beach, without
a background.” An island that made its fame as the whaling capitol of the
world has now reinvented itself as a mecca for tourists. But hearing about
the tenacity of its early inhabitants made us all appreciate this special
little corner of the world just a little more. After leaving the museum,
the heavens decided to dump a little moisture upon us, so our tenacity was
challenged. We trod through the cobblestone streets of Nantucket as we made
our way back to the dinghy dock. The rain kept falling and we arrived back
at Windbird soaked to the bone, just in time to see a ray of sunshine. As
luck would have it, the rain ended as we boarded the boat. We then shed our
wet clothing and enjoyed a quiet evening aboard.
Tomorrow morning there will be a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the
War of 1812. Two tall ships, the Pride of Baltimore II and Lynx, a
reproduction of the original Privateer Lynx built in 1812 in Fells Point,
Maryland, will cross the starting line for the 40th Annual Opera House Cup
Regatta with cannons and artillery firing. We’ll try to position Windbird
to watch but not get fired upon!!! The Opera House Regatta is a race for
classic wooden boats and we’ll hope to get a glimpse of these beauties as
well before heading back to Woods Hole. We’re hoping for favorable winds
for a great sail home.
by Judy Handley | Aug 17, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 283, Year 7: Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket
Date: Friday, August 17, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, Beautiful Sailing, Wind SW 10-15
Latitude: 41 17.372 N
Longitude: 070 04.927 W
Location: Nantucket, Massachusetts
We motored out of Vineyard Haven this morning and found very little wind
waiting for us out in the Sound. But once we got to the end of
Chappaquiddick, the wind filled in and we had a beautiful sail the rest of
the way. As we neared Nantucket we watched the various fleets of boats
racing. Each grouping raced in their defined areas and just about the time
we were ready to head into the narrow channel leading into the Nantucket
Harbor, the first fleet finished racing for the day and headed in as well.
Add to that the ferries heading out and you have a bit of craziness in that
channel. Alan was at the wheel and he did a great job of getting us in
safely. Then we had the challenging task of trying to figure out where to
anchor. The mooring field here is huge and it was totally full. We were
pulling the dinghy behind us and forgot to pull it up tight. So at one
point we got it caught on a mooring ball and had to untie it and let it go.
By the time we headed around to try and pick it up, it had loosened itself
and was floating closer to us. So pick-up wasn’t a big deal. But at that
point, I decided to call the Harbor Master and get some instructions on
where we might find a place to anchor. We got our directions, found a spot,
and put down two anchors as suggested by the Harbor Master’s office.
There’s a lot of eel grass here and we were told that plow and spade anchors
don’t hold very well. The suggestion was to put out a Danforth anchor. We
don’t have a Danforth, but we do have a Fortress which is designed just like
a Danforth but is made of aluminum so that it is light weight. We have
carried that Fortress around the world and never used it, so this spring we
disassembled it and stored it away. Well, this afternoon we dug it out and
put it out as well. We think our spade dug it right away and we probably
didn’t need the additional anchor, but better to be safe than sorry. After
the hour of anchoring activity, it was after 5 pm. We decided that rather
than fighting the winds and heading into town for showers and then dinner
that we would stay on the boat and shower and eat here. We are supposed to
get rain tonight and possibly tomorrow as well, but we will go into town in
the morning to do daytime explorations of the island. There are LOTS of
extra people here for Raceweek, but they will be out racing all day, leaving
the town to the normal number of tourists. On Sunday we will head back to
Woods Hole. The wind report is mediocre, but we’ll hope for a little
miracle and some nice winds to blow us back home.
We have had a number of equipment failures on this trip. It is almost like
all of our electronics have decided to retire at one time. I’ll write a
more detailed description of the problems once we are home, but I’ll just
list the issues here. And by the way, short does not equal cheap. Each of
these issues is quite costly.
GPS is not receiving communication from Mark’s computer, so we don’t have
electronic navigation except for the display on the GPS. This meant digging
out the paper charts and parallel rules so we could plot our course today.
Radar display screen has malfunctioned. The unit works but we can’t see
anything on the screen. This makes the radar useless.
Display screen on the single-sideband radio no longer works. This could
mean replacing the radio. Ugh! That is really expensive.
by Judy Handley | Aug 16, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 282, Year 7: A Day on Martha’s Vineyard
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, But No Wind for Sailing
Latitude: 41 27.723 N
Longitude: 070 35.641 W
Location: Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
It was a beautiful day from start to finish but we had to motor across to
Martha’s Vineyard instead of sailing. The wind was less than five knots and
that just wasn’t going to move Windbird. So on went the engine.
Regardless, we are back on Martha’s Vineyard for the first time this
cruising season and my question is, “Who was Martha?” I just Googled that
one and found that in 1602 an Englishman named Bartholomew Gosnold named the
island. He found the island covered in grapes and had an infant daughter
named Martha. He also had a mother-in-law named Martha who helped finance
his explorations. So from one or the other or both came the name Martha.
We arrived at 11 am and spent the next hour doing this and that on the boat.
Then we went ashore, bought all-day bus passes for each of us, and took off
for the old fishing village of Menemsha. We had crab cakes and lobster
rolls for lunch and then took off on a rather long walk to a place called
Beetlebung Corner to catch a bus out to the cliffs of Aquinnah. It was my
idea to walk and I thought it was about a mile. But by the time we got
there, Mark, Alan, and Helaine all assured me it was a bit longer. But we
made it, caught the bus, and arrived in Aquinnah. This area of Martha’s
Vineyard was called Gay Head prior to 1998, but was then named Aquinnah to
reflect its Wampanoag Native American heritage. There are breathtaking
views, but also lots of busses, tourists, and tacky souvenir shops. Yet it
is worth the stop just to see the view and look at the colors of the
beautiful clay cliffs. When we were at the lookout area, a young boy was
looking through the telescope and exclaimed, “Those people down on the beach
are naked.” His father didn’t believe him and said he wanted to look
through the telescope. As soon as he did, he exclaimed, “Well, they are.”
The beach is called Jungle Beach in honor of its wild, unclothed visitors.
The exchange between father and son was very funny, but they both kept
looking through the telescope! When we turned to leave the lookout area, we
noted the island offshore. Mark thought it was Nantucket, but I said, “No
way.” It just wasn’t in the right direction. After checking and rechecking
Google Earth on their phones, Mark and Alan had to agree that is was not
Nantucket but a little island known as No Man’s Land. I’m going to have to
do some more research to figure this one out.
Even though we didn’t get to sail today, it was a beautiful and enjoyable
day. The weather ended up to be sooooo much better than predictions a day
or so ago. Predictions for tomorrow look great for a sail to Nantucket, but
then you never know how things will really turn out. We have high hopes.
by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 281, Year 7: Welcome, Alan and Helaine
Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Rain and Thunderstorms
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our good friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg arrived this afternoon from New
Hampshire. It is wonderful to have them here. The last time they visited
Windbird we were in Whangarei, New Zealand, and we spent six wonderful weeks
exploring New Zealand on land with them. They slept on Windbird before and
after our land trip, but we did not sailing. We are sure hoping to do some
sailing in the next few days, but the weather really isn’t cooperating. The
20 percent chance of rain for today turned into lots of rain in the morning
and thunderstorms tonight. Tomorrow could also be a wet one, but Friday
looks clear at this point. Then the rain returns on Saturday. At this
point we are planning to sail or motor to Martha’s Vineyard in the morning
and do a little exploring on rented bicycles. We’d love to bike over to
Chappaquiddick to a Japanese garden I read about, but we’ll just have to see
if the weather cooperates. Then on Friday we plan to sail to Nantucket. We
called the Harbormaster there this morning and he said that the moorings are
full but the anchorage has only five boats in it. So we should be able to
find a spot for Windbird.
I got a great photo of Alan and Mark in the cockpit this evening doing trip
planning. Alan was on his computer but Mark was using the Eldridge Tide and
Pilot Book. Using this combination, we discovered that Alan’s new
computer-based tide and current program appears to be completely off. So
he reverted to his old software that that meshes with Eldridge’s. Tomorrow
we will see if Eldridge’s matches the exact conditions.
by Judy Handley | Aug 14, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 280, Year 7: Still a Cruiser
Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
We live on a boat, so we are liveaboards. But I don’t think I’ve made the
transition from full-time cruiser to liveaboard. The main way I know this
is because I still prefer to do my laundry in a bucket rather than in a
washing machine. For the past two days, I have been doing lots of laundry
at the town dock. My bright orange bucket from Home Depot is hard to miss,
and it is really interesting to watch the reaction of people when they see
I’m doing laundry on the dock. It is interesting that men will speak to me,
but women look and then turn their heads. I don’t think I look scary, but
they look at me as if I am. Then I think of all the photos I took as we
traveled around the world of women washing their clothes in a stream. I
guess I look like those women to the people in Woods Hole. But that’s okay.
My sheets and towels smell fresh and clean and other than the water, the
only resource I am using is my own energy.
Mark had an infusion of Zometa (Zoledronic Acid) today. Mark has high
calcium levels in this blood due to a parathyroid problem. The calcium is
coming from his bones and the Zometa is a bisphosphonate that will help keep
his bones strong until the parathyroid issue can be brought under control.
He will have another infusion in six months and hopefully by that time the
parathyroid issue will be under control and he won’t need more of these
treatments. So far, so good. He has had no side-effects. So all is well.
Heather, Jed, and boys picked Jed’s father up at the airport in Boston at 1
pm and arrived at the farm in Boothbay, Maine, a couple of hours later.
Heather called late this afternoon to tell us they had arrived and all is
well there as well. Mark and I talked to Alan and Helaine on the phone this
afternoon and decided that they should come ahead tomorrow and we will make
our sailing plans tomorrow night after they arrive. We have tentatively
planned a four-day sailing trip to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, but late
tonight we discovered that this is race week in Nantucket. That means it
will be very crowded in Nantucket harbor. We plan to call the harbor master
early tomorrow morning to see if there might be room for us. But one way or
another, we will be leaving here on Thursday morning for a little sailing
adventure. We might just have to go wherever the winds blow us.
