We left Cape May in a light Northeasterly that was forecast to go east and southeast and for once it did what it was supposed to do. We sailed up the coast of NJ and then cracked off to a heading for Block Island. We were able to sail all day and night, but in the morning the wind went light so we motor sailed on in to Block. We found the Great Salt Pond to be fairly busy but with plenty of open space and anchored to wait out a frontal passage. It gets really crazy at the Fourth of July and we had experienced that one too many times so we were being cautious. The crowds seem to bring out the worst in human nature.
While there we ran into old friends Diane and JP of St Pete and had a nice visit with them. They are headed to Maine on a cruise this summer with a group of friends on their PDQ catamaran. Block seems to have gotten less friendly to cruising boats as they have restricted the dinghy dock and forced many to pay exorbitant prices for the harbor launch for transport. We didn’t even go ashore, as we are just common folks.
The next morning with a clear fore cast, we were off to Onset, Mass, one of the friendliest places around. If someone on the street doesn’t say hello, it’s unusual. On the way our main halyard gave up so we needed to get a replacement, not as easy as I thought in Onset. No place in walking or bus distance had what we needed, so we ordered one and had it delivered to the local marina, which was kind enough to allow that. Meanwhile, I went to work trying to do an exorcism on the instrument network and autopilot. We have built this network over a long time adding and subtracting items. Over that time some gremlins have crept in which have been causing us headaches with the auto pilot. Unfortunately, since it was done piecemeal and over time, I never made a wiring diagram of the system. That was a big mistake. I traced all the wires and pulled out some network cable not being used and reconfigured the system a bit, and now it seems to be working OK. We still get an occasional alarm, but it seems to be of no consequence. At some point I am going to need to really pull everything apart and get it completely sorted out. We got to the grocery, bought some things at the Ace hardware and had our mandatory pizza at Marc Anthony’s.
Once we got our halyard, we pulled anchor and headed over to Provincetown on the 4th and anchored just east of the breakwater with front row seats for the fabulous fireworks show. The next day we went in for a walk on the wild side, had a great fish sandwich for lunch and frozen yogurt for desert. We had to wait out another frontal passage and then came up to Gloucester for a look see.
We have wanted to stop here for some time but just have never done it. What a delightful town. We went in for a quick walk around yesterday when we arrived, but plan to spend the day seeing the place today. Tomorrow we are off to Portland for more sightseeing. We are thinking of spending some time in Maine before heading to the Maritimes, since the weather is a little stirred up now. I’ll put some pictures in the gallery when I have time. By the way the picture in this post is where they first formulated Copper antifouling paint for boats.