New England Feast
10 July 2007 | Provincetown, MA
Dave & Lisa
"We harvested everything w/ the exception of the corn"
Our crossing from Cape May, NJ to Block Island, RI went well; we had calm seas most of the time with the exception of a lightning storm that blew through around 4AM. While in Block Island , we rented bikes and toured most of the island. We also visited with our friends on Trek who we met in the Bahamas. They rafted up to us for the night and we watched the fireworks together. The next day we headed to New Bedford, MA where the boat was scheduled for haul out and survey on Friday the 6th. After the survey, we were anxious to head over to Hadley Harbor near Woods Hole, one of our favorite spots on the Cape. We were so ready for a change of scenery; we broke the first rule of sailing, check weather prior to departure. I mean we are only talking about an eight-mile trip what could possibly happen? About 3 miles out, Lisa looked behind us and said "hey did you check the forecast before we left?" At that moment the coast guard broadcasted a severe thunderstorm warning for our area. We reefed the main and headsail and prepared everything we could think of. The winds hit and we were flying along at 9 knots with about 25-30 knots of wind. As the wind started clocking around, I adjusted accordingly, trying to keep the wind in front of us. Lisa suggested we pull in the headsail before things got worse. We managed to get it in just in time. Then the winds hit mid 30's with an occasional 42 thrown in for good measure. Lightning was cracking all around us; luckily there was no hail. We managed to keep the boat directly into the wind until is passed about 10 minutes in all. Nicole was pretty freaked about the whole thing, while DJ and Lisa stayed cool. It amazing that after a year of traveling this was out first real storm we sailed through. We had experienced strong winds a couple of times but nothing like this. The good news is nothing broke, but we did manage to loose our shoe bucket somewhere along the line. Somewhere out there are three pairs of crocs and two pair of sandals floating around. In Hadley Harbor, we caught up with our friends on Dream Maker who live on the Cape on their Voyage 440 and run charters on the weekends (see the link on this page for their website). We saw them last Fall while heading south for the winter. They are looking to head south in another year and were interested in hearing about the Bahamas from a cruisers perspective. Today we left Hadley and caught the tide through the Cape Cod Canal and had a beautiful sail to Provincetown. On Wednesday, we will be heading to the Isle of Shoals where we started the trip about a year ago. There are mixed emotions aboard Dream Catcher as we come full circle. What an adventure we have had! We have seen so many places and realized, there is no place like home. Just look at the picture. If there is ANYTHING in life that calls to you, answer the call. You will never regret it! Regrets come when you don't. Dream Catcher signing off.