2 October, 2010

The rain that we were supposed to have yesterday held off until late in the day and then rained all night. The seas quieted some then and the wind abated as well when it was raining. But any time the rain quit the winds piped up again as did the seas. At one time during the night the wind indicator registered a gust of 49 knots. Whew! We were sure it was getting up there because Eos was bouncing around a lot. Not the most restful night of sleep for us.

We thought today would have been a day to take off for the Cape Cod Canal and into Buzzards Bay but Bill is still not feeling the best. As it turned out we would have gotten there and then been stuck for several days anyway.

After a nap Bill decided that today was the day to replace the bottom bilge pump which meant taking up the floor and unhooking everything and then pulling the pump tower out of the bilge. After we got it out and while he worked on it I spent hours looking at the electronic charts, the Waterway guide and the blogs of others who have gone before us. It was time to put at least some semblance of a plan together on how to get from here on down the coast. It sure does take some research though with our size and depth and then trying to make time and also time tides and such. My poor brain was spinning at times.

With the weather delays that we have had we have decided to bypass the Chesapeake and keep going south. We are planning on coming back up the coast next summer so that we can take in some of the places we have had to and will have to bypass. We would like to spend sometime in NCY but we will have to see. We had hoped to be able to grab a mooring ball at the 79th Street Basin right there in NYC but the moorings are limited to boats of 40' or less. That is a disappointment for us. So we will be looking at staying at the Atlantic Highlands in Sandy Hook, NJ which isn't so bad since they have a fast ferry that takes you across to NYC.

We got an email from Wayne and Patie on Mirthin and they are still in Yarmouth, NS. They have been having the strong winds and seas up there as well. They don't expect to get be able to cross over to Maine until the middle of the week. The four boats in Booth Bay are taking off at noon today for their run down here to Provincetown, MA. I can't help but wonder how the trip is and will go for them as the winds are still strong here.

Bill got the bilge pump replaced and everything is working fine but we decided that it was too late and we were both too tired to wrestle the darn thing back into the bilge and get everything reattached. Just a little something to keep us busy tomorrow morning.

3 October, 2010

We woke up to gray clouds and continuing strong winds and bouncing boats even in here behind the breakwater. This has gone on long enough but we haven't figured out yet how to turn it off.

About 0900 we got a call from Changing Lanes. Nimea and they were just coming around the point to the breakwater. They had made really good time. We didn't expect to see them until around noon. They both grabbed mooring balls and crashed. I went out to the end of the wharf an hour later and discovered that Artful Dodger and Fire Crest were on moorings as well. So they all had made it on the same day.

We put the bilge pumps back in and put the floor back down and then took a little break for some light reading. About 1500 we got a call from Changing Lanes. They were launching the dinghy and we would see them soon. They came aboard and didn't look too bad after their overnighter. The naps helped, I'm sure.

We took off into town for a late lunch/early dinner. We found out why they made such good time. The winds built to more then they had planned on and they had following seas all the way here. The seas were so large that their and the other boats' auto-steering wouldn't hold the boats so they had all had to hand steer for hours. Joan decided it was a good thing it was at night so that they couldn't see the seas coming up behind them.

As we were returning to the boat we saw Louise and Jean-Denis as well as David. They looked tired but were certainly glad to be here. John and Joan and David came back to Eos for a while. The winds were gusting to 30 mph when they left to dinghy back to their boats. We took our spotlight up onto the wharf and shone it out into the moorings so they could see their boats. The trip back was actually easier for them then the coming ashore since although it was dark and windy the winds and seas were helping them.

The winds are still in the steady high 20s so it will be another rocky night on the boat. The weather doesn't look good for the next couple of days so who knows when we will get way from here. We are hoping that after this system gets through we will have several good days and we can get going and keep going for awhile.