Weather:
Sunday: Sunny, then cloud, 15C, Wind SW 5, sea 1m
Monday: Cloudy, 11C, Wind W 25-35. !
Photo: Dusk at Pepperrell Cove
After our great night at BYC, we got underway early the morning of the 18th and motor-sailed to Pepperell Cove, not far from Kittery, Maine. We found a mooring and then went ashore for a walk, stopping at the local school playground. We found a football lying on the ground and Steph soon had the art of throwing spirals down pat!
Today brought decidedly foul weather. Rather than sail across a little further up the coast we opted to wait out the strong westerlies that have been blasting through here all day...the anemometer hit 37 knots, with sustained winds of 25 kts, and if the wind turbine spun any faster I think we'd have been readying for takeoff! It could have been worse, of course...at Mount Washington, it was -6C and snowing with fog and 50 knot winds.
Apart from a marathon session of Mexican Train Dominoes, in which Steph won an unbelievable nine straight games, we spent the day getting rocked at our mooring, and trying to stay warm by baking cookies and a cake. The wind howled through the rigging, and the boat shook when strong gusts roared through the cove. Judy and I each poked our heads above deck maybe once each to make sure the dinghy was still attached to the boat, and the boat attached to the mooring. We beat hasty retreats down below, where everyone else complained that the warm air in the cabin had just been sucked outside. We also did some passage planning for our Bay of Fundy crossing. Of course, we want to take advantage of fair winds, the right tide conditions and reasonably behaved seas in order to round Cape Sable Island and Brazil Rock with as little fuss as possible, but nature doesn't always cooperate that way, and this week appears to be no exception. There appears to be a weather system that will pass just to the southeast of NS on Wednesday and we don't want to run into it, especially when the tidal currents are trying to shove ur heads s up on the rocks. After working out the speed/time/distance equations, tide times, and weather forecasts from several sources, we have decided to head up to Portland and jump off from there, which will also take us a little closer to Yarmouth should we feel that we need to sit out any bad weather that would make rounding Brazil Rock problematic. Marblehead racers know exactly what we are thinking, and I find that this crossing makes the Gulf Stream look simple in comparison.
Once in Portland, we hope to top up the diesel and water tanks, and then we'll call the Canadian Coast Guard to file a sail plan (a concept the USCG does not seem to be overly familiar with). While it is always smart to leave a plan with friends or family in case one is overdue, there's a certain amount of comfort knowing that the CCG also has your plan and contact information, and is diligent about following up.
Our final ETA in Halifax is still up in the air, but my best guess is Monday afternoon, a little later than our initial guess of a weekend arrival. We plan stop to visit sailing friends in Bridgewater and Lunenburg, so we hope we will have a straight sail around Cape Sable Island and then tuck into either Shelburne or Liverpool to have a rest before continuing up the coast. In the meantime, we are really excited about a two-night crossing in 4C temperatures watch-on watch-off, dodging lobster pots and hoping that the f-word (f*g) doesn't make an early appearance...
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05/17/2008, Marblehead, MA
Photo: All dressed up and somewhere to go!
With the girls having dressed Semper V overall with flags to mark the Opening Ceremony and Commodore's Ball at BYC, we got ourselves gussied up for the event...first time I've worn a blazer and tie since we left home!
The Opening Ceremony just before lunch was short and sweet, with the National Anthem, cannon shot, Blessing of the Fleet, introductions and Commodore's remarks all dispensed with in less than a quarter-hour. New England clam chowder and apple crisp were served afterwards, and we had a great chat with the Commodore at his table. Judy and I found it noteworthy that in his opening ceremony comments, the Commodore made reference to the state of the economy and that BYC would have to pay particular attention to its finances. (We flipped through the Boston newspapers and found plenty of articles about the poor economic state of the US, with several prominent economists predicting worse to come. The listings of foreclosure sales were plentiful, reflecting the trend we have seen all along the coast.)
Later in the evening, Lisa and George and BYC friends Mike and Liz paid a social call to Semper V, after which we proceeded ashore to enjoy a fabulous dinner and then great dancing at the Commodore's Ball. The girls stayed on board and amused themselves with Mexican Train Dominoes and a movie, and they were both asleep by the time we repaired onboard just after midnight. It was a great comfort to know that with the boat alongside at the BYC dock and in plain view, they could come and get us if there were any problems, and vice versa. As for ourselves, we needed the exercise on the dance floor! The first two weeks back at the gym in Halifax are going to be brutal, methinks....
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05/16/2008, BYC, Marblehead, MA
Photo: Marblehead
After a three-hour motor in calm conditions across Massachusetts Bay yesterday, we arrived in Marblehead and the Boston Yacht Club (BYC), a home-away-from-home for Squadron sailors. We popped up to the bar and bumped into Lisa and George from the RNSYS, who came down to Marblehead to attend the Commodore's Ball: they also were the courier service delivering Judy's dress from home for the occasion as well, Judy and Lisa having worked out the logistics for the delivery last week by e-mail when Lisa first advised Judy that the Ball would be taking place during our port call!
Spring is coming in bits and pieces it seems along the coast in New England; Newport was in full bloom, it felt like fall in Connecticut, and the trees were just starting to bud along the Cape Cod Canal. Actually, it feels as though we have been sailing into Fall our whole way up the east coast. It's just one of those little mind tricks; having missed Winter and snow, and having had an extended Summer down south, it feels like we should be going into Fall rather than Spring, and the feeling is reinforced by the steadily declining temperatures as we head north. However, here in Marblehead, the air is perfumed with the scent of the lilac trees in full flower, cherry blossom petals are swirling everywhere, and there is plenty of gardening activity...it is definitely Spring! Perhaps our noses are keener for having spent so long in a salt air environment, but we can smell the flowers everywhere in town, and the girls are stopping at practically every lilac tree we encounter to inhale the fragrance.
Marblehead signifies to us that we are in the homestretch of our voyage. Through our previous visits here as participants in the Boston-Halifax Race, and with the fabulous hospitality of the BYC and its members, it is easy to feel very comfortable and close to home here. Still, when walking around town the maze of twisting, one-way and narrow streets can challenge even the navigationally-gifted; the town planner must have been narcotically-inspired when he laid out the roads. But it all adds to the charm of the place, and we have been enjoying leisurely strolls admiring the many preserved and restored old homes, and poking our noses into a few shops and, for the girls, bookstores. I finally broke down and bought them a copy of the Sailing Dictionary, a.k.a. "The Fine Art of Getting Wet and Becoming Ill While Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense" book. Our walks are now punctuated by giggles and snorts as the girls flip through the pages whenever we stop somewhere for more than fifteen seconds.
Back on the boat, we have dug out the charts for the Bay of Fundy and the Nova Scotia Coast which are once again seeing the light of day after their stowage deep in the recesses under the starboard aft bunk back in October....sigh. We are keenly watching the weather forecasts now, and evaluating our options as to whether we leave from Marblehead or head up the coast in short hops until the seas calm down and we get some south-westerly winds filling in to send us on our way across the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy. We are expecting some strong westerlies, up to 25 knots, which we hope will serve to flatten the seas down from their current 9-11-foot wave heights. However, we all know that if you don't like the weather, wait a minute, and the forecasts have been changing from one broadcast to the next.
The girls are definitely excited that we are getting so close to home, and I predict they will have acute cases of "channel fever", particularly once land is sighted. Steph has already compiled a list of Things I Will Do When I Get Home and Things I Will Miss/Won't Miss. I'll post it along with everybody else's when we get home!
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