The Voyages of s/v Lucky Bird

21 August 2019 | Straits Marina, Mackinaw City
06 August 2019 | Village of Brockport
30 July 2019
27 July 2019
21 June 2019 | Wickford Cove Marina
20 May 2019 | Antlantic Yacht Basin
13 May 2019 | Homer Smith Marina, final Salty Dawg Destination
21 April 2019 | Frenchtown, St. Thomas V.I. Easter Celebration
20 April 2019 | Brewers Bay, St. Thomas VI
11 April 2019 | Nanny Cay Marine, Tortola, BVI
28 March 2019 | Green Cay Marina, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
25 March 2019
24 February 2019 | Jolly Harbor Marina, Antigua

Along the Way from the Chesapeake

21 June 2019 | Wickford Cove Marina
Robert & Alice Smith | Rainy, Uckky!!
We are in Wickford, Rhode Island, a town where we lived so many years ago. We are at Wickford Cove Marina on the hard to repaint LB's bottom and do some other small projects.

So let me tell you a bit about our trip from the Sassafras River, Chesapeake Bay non-stop to Wickford, R.I., I guess about some 300 or so kms.

We left the Sassafras River at about 0630 on Tuesday morning, June 18. We powered through the C & D Canal with the current into the Delaware Bay. No wind so we powered all the way to the mouth of the Bay. By now it was about 1830 the same day. We decided to push on to Rhode Island some 230 miles to the north. The winds were light and we started sailing. We had to sail due east out to sea due to the wind direction, not towards R.I. After a couple of hours I thought we could jibe and head toward R.I.

Nope, the winds shifted and we were sailing north but only along the New Jersey coast. After a couple more hours the wind quit, so on with the engine, once again. We left the main up to sort of help with our speed over the bottom, all-the-while we could see lightening to the south.

We powered onward toward on our desired course and the lightening got more frequent and brighter. Again, the main was still up helping us power sail so we decided to reef it in case the winds picked up and BAM!!! we were hit with a wind gust in excess of 35 maybe 40 knots. And then another BAM, as the wind drove Lucky Bird around almost out of control the mail sail out-haul blew apart and now the main-sail was flogging uncontrollably. We couldn't furl it because we could no long tension the out haul. I hollered as best I could to Alice to drop the sail to the deck. Fortunately when she release the halyard jam it dropped, but unfortunately the wind blew it into the water. I immediately put the engine into neutral and went outside to pull the sail aboard. Alice went and got some line so I could secure the sail to the boat. Wow, have you ever had to pull a full sail from the water in the dark with 30+ winds and rain? Not so easy dont'cha know.

Once the main was secured we moved on to the next task, securing the wildly flapping enclosure side panels. Pull them in, zip and snap each side and only then we started to feel more in control. Fortunately we were some thirty miles offshore and there were no boats around us, we turned on the running lights, the streaming light, the auto pilot, the radar and the AIS. We got LB settled down onto a reasonable course to Narraganset Bay and we rested.

We power/sailed in total fog using the two hours on, two off schedule for that night, the next day and our final night into Narragansett Bay. We saw lots of boats and ships on the radar and AIS but visually saw nothing. Visibility was less than a couple of hundred yards all the way. I've never used the radar as much as on this trip. We turned it on a couple of times each out at a range of 6 miles just to be sure there was nothing to put us in harms way. As we rounded Montauk Point, the radar was on continuously until Wickford.

Things happen on LB. Stuff ears out, breaks and simply stops working. It's to be expected when you work something as hard as we have for these 4,000+ miles of powering, and some pretty rough sailing.

For comparison, think about your home; water heaters give up, air conditioners stop working, toilets need repair, furnaces need cleaning and replacement. Windows need to be replaced, driveways need seal-coating, outside surfaces need painting, decks need staining and the list goes on and on, right? So the issues we face on LB are somewhat similar and I personally enjoy the mental challenges of figuring out stubborn electrical problems, or a fresh water leak, or the need to change the engine oil and filters, or when the auto-pilot failed or most recently when the main-sail got stuck and would not unfurl. This list on and we accept it as part of the cruising life.

We are blessed with a fabulous boat, I am blessed with a life partner who is truly my soul mate and with a family who supports us from ashore.

Comments
Vessel Name: Lucky Bird
Vessel Make/Model: 1990 Moody 425 cc
Hailing Port: Kenosha, WI
Crew: Robert & Alice Smith
About:
Alice and I have spent considerable time together on the water; cruising and racing on the waters of New England, the Caribbean and Lake Michigan.

Sailing is our passion and together we've been fortunate to experience the thrills, the camaraderie and the enjoyment boating provides. [...]

We seek the freedom, excitement and challenges of voyaging.

Lucky Bird's Photos - Main
This is our second journey south to the Caribbean. This time we've chosen to exit Lake Michigan and proceed south through the in-land waterway system to Mobile. We'll start around Labor Day and take our time exploring the history of middle America.
207 Photos
Created 28 July 2017
30 Photos
Created 12 July 2013
101 Photos
Created 17 July 2012
Bob and Alice return to Lucky Bird after spending the summer in Addison.
31 Photos
Created 4 December 2010
Heading into the Windward Islands and further south
108 Photos
Created 22 February 2010
121 Photos
Created 11 June 2009