Brilliant's Log 05-08

22-23 June: Cape May, NJ. Our plans to depart directly for Buzzard's Bay, MA were put on hold pending a better forecast. We took time for a walking tour of Cape May and nice seafood dinner yesterday. Today we've topped up the water tanks and are watching as a series of showers and thunderstorms pass by. Tomorrow it looks like we have a good window to head north. Our landfall in Mass. will depend on the time it takes us to sail the 200 or so miles.

Log 0 NM

24-26 June: Cape May, NJ - Block Island, RI. To go or not to go? We delayed our departure until late afternoon because of the higher than expected morning winds in the anchorage. Without a clear view of the ocean we just weren't sure what we were going to find outside, so waited until 1530 before we got underway. With our courage finally up, we rode a fair tidal current out of Cape May Harbor, turned northeast and set sails in 12-18kts of wind. The flat seas made for a very fast first five hours! As the sun began to set the winds decreased, but we were able to maintain 3-5kts of speed over the ground and kept sailing through the night. Uneventful night watches as we crossed the three major shipping lanes going into New York Harbor. The wind turned SW dead astern and decreased through the next day. We had been really enjoying the slow peaceful sailing, but by noon we found ourselves becalmed and reluctantly started the engine. While motoring, we hooked and landed a small (5-7lb) bluefish and by the time the fish was cleaned the winded started to fill back in. After an hour and half of motoring we had enough wind to sail again. Late afternoon, we were sailing wing and wing with the jib on a whiskerpole making good speed. Next morning found us still sailing, but now against the 1-2 knot ebb tide from Long Island Sound. The ebb slowed our progress but we made it to Block Island, RI by 1315 and anchored in the Great Salt Pond. The wind was a steady 10-15 knots with rain showers in the anchorage, so we decided not to go ashore.

Log 207 NM

27-28 June: Block Island - Cuttyhunk Island, MA. We spoke across the water with another boat near us in the morning. Bob Anderson on "Argonauta" on a Moody 419 (an older version of ours) and he convinced us to try Cuttyhunk Island, MA for our next port. The weather had improved a bit and we departed at 1030. We had a very gentle downwind sail in 5-10kts of wind. Our average speed wasn't much, but we were saving fuel. Arriving at Cuttyhunk Harbor at 1900 we found a spot to anchor in the very small and crowded anchorage near "Argonauta." Bob invited us over for cocktails and ended up serving us a very nice dinner. We swapped sea stories and discussed Moody Yachts until late. We said goodbye to "Argonauta" in the morning and went ashore to explore the quaint New England island. Very nice summer place, but as the weekend crowd arrived the anchorage became extremely packed. Why do we always end up at these spots on weekends?

Log 37 NM

29-30 June: Cuttyhunk Island - Onset MA. Another great downwind sail! We cleared the Cuttyhunk channel at 1030 and set full sails. Rigged the sails wing and wing, and didn't touch them until we arrived at the Cape Cod Canal four hours later. We had a good WSW 10-15kt wind all afternoon and caught the flood tide to help boost us along. We went into Onset, MA and had a bit of trouble getting a good anchor set. After the fourth try we finally had it into the thick mud. We were just in time to get our cockpit enclosure set, before the first rain shower hit us. In the morning we made a dinghy trip into the town of Onset to explore, take care of laundry and ended up having a great pizza at Mark Anthony's Restaurant on the main street.

Log 23 NM

1 - 2 July: Onset - Falmouth/Foreside, ME. Underway from Onset late afternoon to catch the flood tide through the Cape Cod Canal. Timed it right and made it through the 10 mile long canal in just over an hour. From the canal into Cape Cod Bay we had high hopes of continuing our good sailing record. The flat seas and light winds kept us sailing until midnight. Unfortunately, the wind moved behind us and was too light to keep the sails from flogging with the Atlantic swell. A forecast morning wind increase never materialized, so we ended up motoring the rest of the way to Maine. Only excitement on our overnight trip was a USCG thunderstorm warning over Boston and coming our way. With 15NM to Portland we ended up in a race with the storm. We now have a wireless broadband card for our computer that lets us get internet whenever we have telephone reception and it really paid off. We were able to go online and watch the storm's track on NOAA weather radar. The wind did finally fill in but with an hour to go we just used the sails to boost our speed a bit; we really wanted to stay ahead of that storm. We rounded Cape Elizabeth and the Portland Head Light, passed Fort Gourges and Portland's Eastern Prom, then across to Clapboard Island where we picked up a free open mooring ball. 26.5 hours @ 4.8 kts avg.

Log 127 NM