Plymouth to Falmouth
August 16, 2013- Plymouth to New Bedford
The original idea of sailing to Wood's Hole flew out the window when we learned that Wood's Hole is not a big spot and there are very few moorings and no anchorage there. Since the winds were whipping up past Fresh Breeze on the scale, we kept her nose in the wind and the waves and slogged our way back to New Bedford. At least that harbor was somewhat protected. We needed fuel anyway and WH had zero fuel docks. As we got close, we decided to take a slip and rest some. It gave us an opportunity to learn more about the city and its history. What a history it has! New Bedford was, as mentioned earlier, the whaling capitol of the US. Several city blocks now form a National Park commemorating that and there is (wait for it) a whale of a museum on the subject. I ruined my feet walking over to it. As it also turns out, Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick did not sail out of Nantucket. He lived for a while in and sailed out of NB.
August 18, 2013 - New Bedford to Falmouth
The weather was fair today and wind light most of the day. We want to see Nantucket, which poses two possibilities as to course. We could whip down the bay to Cuttyhunk or sail to Wood's Hole and through the canal into Nantucket Bay and Falmouth on the southern shore of Cape Cod. Cuttyhunk was reported to be completely sold out (no place to dock or anchor over the weekend) so we chose the latter. It was only 12 miles to WH and again right into the wind. We got to the channel past WH and through the Elizabeth Island chain at near slack tide. The IPhone app said we would be opposed by a .9 know current by the time we got there. Wrong! I dropped the last of the dilithium crystals in and could only manage 3.2 knots passing the world's preeminent ocean research harbor. Once past, things eased a bit and we made Falmouth Harbor at 1420. Again, all the moorings were taken and no anchoring in the harbor. Took another slip. We caught up with S/V Rigel that left Solomons Island with us on May 18. We think we will sail to Nantucket tomorrow. Meanwhile, it is raining here for now.