East Coast Travels

7/30 to 8/14 2007

We're planning on cruising with Laureen and Miles for a while once we get Ariel ready to rumble, seeing the ports of New England that we've read about in sailing magazines for years.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 08/20/2007

7/30/07 - T-storms late last night, nothing very violent. A nice deck wash. Sunny and humid this morning - it's going to be another scorcher. Ruth wanted air conditioning, told it so and turned it on. It worked. Well, not quite that simple but after the captain turned on a seacock he'd closed while cleaning the strainer a couple of nights ago it worked. Dah! I took off our bimini to start work on the new one only to learn that boat gremlins had hidden the line I needed. So, back on with the canvas until Ruth had a chance to buy more. Thwarted on that project I went to work sanding the teak handholds on the deck - last of the unfinished teak. Miles is waiting for his boom vang. I talked to the manufacturer and he told me how it goes together and his suspicion that it had been over pressurized with nitrogen in Newport, damaging the seals. Suggested we ship it back as a warranty repair. The local shop said they'd have it done in the afternoon, then called to say tomorrow afternoon (No seal kit in stock). 7/31/07 - Today was sunny, hot and humid. The seals didn't arrive for the vang so Miles and I set out to redesign his outboard motor lift. The one that came on the boat was not strong enough to bear the weight of the motor. After a few measurements and trials we came up with a new system that allows him to stow it on the stern pulpit or on the side of the arch. We went off in search of a fabricator and found one with the assistance of the yard. Quote tomorrow. 8/1/07 - Another hot sunny day... sure are ready for some cruising. Ruth is still fighting her cold though I think she's decided to share it with me. Quantum took Ariel's headsail back to re-cut it, returning it in the evening. The local shop threw up their hands so the vang is going back to Oshkosh for rework - we're heading out without it. Sooo, Miles and Laureen treated us to dinner out... celebrating tomorrow's departure to head NE and explore. Harrah! I have a couple of parts to draw up in the morning so Miles can procure them and get his engine hoist in place. Other than that Ariel is in pretty good shape - they're down to enhancements. I sanded some more on AA's teak today. A couple more weeks of weathering and sanding and I'll be ready to recoat it with Cetol. One thing for sure, I'll never use Amazon oil with their acrylic top coat again. It sands off like gum eraser... nasty stuff. 8/2/07 - Ariel is pretty much ready to go. We spent the morning cleaning up our boats, returning the car and paying our marina bill... Ariel kerchung, AA kerching... and pushed off the dock for some real cruising. First stop Dutch Island for some major glassing. It was great to be on the water and moving toward new destinations. There are still little projects on Ariel, but that's typical as you settle into a boat and a life style. Heck, we're still making changes to AA and it's been 4 years. Next stop? Cuddyhunk. 8/3/04 - Starshine (from Cove Haven) joined us at Cuddyhunk. We entered the inner harbor to find it packed! A sardine couldn't have found a mooring. We anchored against the lee of the island for the night. No problem, the wind was to be out of the SW all night and all the next day. Miles and Laureen went to the island returning to report there were a couple of restaurants, tourists, and beach. What you see is what you get. I stayed on AA with Ruth as the flu she had "gathered" had hit me pretty hard. I running about 4 days behind her symptoms - she was sleeping all day, freezing and sweating just a couple of days ago. My turn - we share! 8/4/07 - We motored, then sailed from Cuddyhunk to Red Brook harbor in the company of Starshine and Ariel. We took a mooring for the night to avoid North winds. Ruth was the captain today... I spent most of my day coughing and sleeping. We hope this goes away soon! 8/5/07 - A beautiful morning! I feel more alive than I have the past two days though I still have a deep cough. Ruth is in bed with her cough (relapse) so my respite may be short. At least one of us is able to care for the other as this beast runs its course. Ruth and I are coughing so much our boat sounds like a whooping crane nest... we're afraid Buddy will start imitating our cough so he can be part of his flock. Miles and Laureen decided to dine ashore and explore - they've been advised to stay clear of AA for the duration. AA moved to the dock after lunch to pick up fuel and get pumped out. In 15 minutes we had fuel... we waited 1 1/2 hours for the pump out. The DNR pump out boat was offloading, a two hour process due to the slowness of the facility. When our turn came we found it could only pull 2 gallons out of our tank - nothing more. It's a catch-22 situation. By law you pump out (unless you are a big city) while the pump out facilities are inadequate. I guess we'll nip this in the bud - quit eating, ergo, no problem. We left Ariel at Red Brook to do some exploring and get out of the mooring field. Rounding Bassetts Island into Buzzards Bay we headed NE pass Wings Neck, Wing Cove to the mouth of the Pocasset River where we anchored for the night. Ruth took several pictures of one of the several sailboat races we saw along our short jaunt. A great meal of char-broiled steak, mashed potatoes and mixed garden veggies finished the day. I think we're starting to recover. 8/6/07 - We had a smooth night at anchor though the whooping cranes kept us up much of the night. Today started still and sunny, quickly turning to windy and gray as a front moved in from New Jersey. We hung around the boat doing small chores and looking after business. You boaters know regular inspection is a must. I found a missing cotter pin that was allowing one of the pins retaining the vang (boom support) to work out. That would have been a major issue under sail. Also found a vang line chafed partially through - fixed the cause, time to replace the line. I also designed and made two parts to solve a line snarling issue that has plagued the vang since the boat was new - kewl. At noon a flotilla of police and towboats came by with a small pleasure craft in tow on air bags. The rocks around here are unforgiving - you want to have your charts out all the time. About 1 the winds picked up from the SW, normal for here. They continued to build to 25+ knots - not normal and the warm front moved in. We're in a weird spot, tucked into the lee of shore. About 100 yards out from us spray is breaking over a daymark on a rock while we have 1 foot waves - dumb luck! The rain comes in waves followed by periods of mist. Hey, it's a free fresh water rinse! Ariel called to see how we are doing. Actually our water is smoother than they are experiencing in the mooring field. Ruthie washed windows, etc. in the rain then washed her hair in the bathroom (head). Gotta love that rain! Buddy and Ruth are ranting at each other - it's like a jungle here. Ruth's making new toys for Buddy and s/he's going nuts picking thru them. 8/7/07 - Woke up to the results of the warm front... cool, humid, light fog (haze). We're  still hacking but we generally feel better - this is a nasty bug. Ariel should join us today or tomorrow for the trip thru the Cape Cod Canal in the morning. Tides run over 5 knots and you have to go with them as you are allowed 2 hours to traverse the canal... no stopping, no turning, no lane changes - it's a busy canal with a mix of ships and runabouts. Ruth and I laid low again all day... feeling a little better but not wanting to mix with people and not having the stamina to do any exploring. We slept and sat around reading and watching boats and ships go by. Our internet We're using a Sprint CDMA EVDO broadband pc card for communications. It has been great. We've had at the worst dial-up speeds in far outlying areas to speeds rivaling cable when we are in more populous areas. The card does draw juice so we use it most when we have the inverter on. That's the cost of stronger signals. What we find fantastic is the fact that we have not had a day in coastal waters when we have not had a connection. What a difference from our loop trip! 8/8/07 - Again we awoke to light fog - about a half mile visibility. At 7:30 Miles called to say they were weighing anchor to join us. They did about 8:30am, bring light rain with them. The wind was topping 30 knots as we pushed into the seas headed for the Cape Cod Canal. The tidal current was with us and we quickly reach 10 to 10.8 knots over ground, flushing through the canal in about an hour. We met only a couple of small boats during the trip though we watched large ships pass through on prior days. The fog cleared early afternoon and became a great day to sail. We headed north along the coast under headsail alone... we didn't need anymore sail area in the blustery winds to maintain 6-7 knot speeds. In less than 2 hours the light appeared marking the channel to Plymouth. We threaded our way along the narrow channel in between the sand spits. There was no place to anchor, moorings had been place in the narrow spots the chart recommended. We followed Ariel to the inner harbor and took a mooring run by the yacht club. We are near the Mayflower. Cool! Miles and Laureen went to the club for drinks and to see a little of the town. We sick souls stayed on AA and listened to a very good rock band... yes, Plymouth rocks. Later we dressed up so Miles and Laureen could visit us safely. No cooties here! 8/9/07 - We did the tourist bit. The Mayflower and accompanying displays were very interesting. I cannot imagine 65 days on that vessel with about 130 people (30 children) in stormy seas not seeing daylight unless you were a working sailor. These were real believers! Onboard the Mayflower we got to talk to several of the Pilgrimes. They were in costume and in character - knowing only what they would have known at the time of landing. Ruth asked one if they had kids aboard for the crossing. With a look of puzzlement our guide responded "No Madam, I don't believe I recall any goats aboard." When she rephrased her question to "children" he responded, "Oh yes, we had 30 children onboard." Ruth tried to get him out of character and he never missed a beat. We toured town, had lunch and visited the museum before I pooped out. Relapse time! Miles and Laureen forged on while Ruth and I returned to the boat so I could go to bed - fever, chills, hacking. Ruth still has a slight cough but seems to be beyond the rest of it. Told her next time she goes to town gathering... forget the viruses. 8/10/07 - Got an e-mail from Chuck Morrell (he crewed during our run from the Great Lakes). He's rented out his house, stored the car and is headed East in his 42' sailboat. Enjoy your voyage Chuck & Bonnie! I also caught up with Jubilee, learning that they had completed the upper portion of Lake Michigan and were headed for the north channel. Under constant drizzle and in zero wind we motored the 17 miles to Scituate, MA where Ruth's friend Kenny G had reserved two moorings for us. We arrived about noon and settled down for a quiet afternoon in the rain. Kenny G swung by about 4. What a cool time. Miles and Laureen came over and we talked sailing, anchorages and destinations. By the time Kenny left we'd agreed to sail to Marblehead with him the next morning. It should be great sailing with a "local". We headed out via harbor shuttle boat to Mill Wharf, the restaurant Kenny had recommended for lobster. The lobster was fresh and the food delicious! 8/11/07 -  We sailed to Marblehead in a 3 boat flotilla. It was a lazy day, 2-3 knots over the ground. Actually it was nice to sail just to sail. We were shocked to learn our electronic charts ended just north of Scituate. Fortunately we have paper charts of the area and were traveling in a group. Even better, Kenny had a spare NT chart that he loaned us for the balance of our time here. Thank you Kenny! Kenny had mooring for us in Marblehead... Marblehead... wow, like that's a sailing Mecca. We toured the town, had drinks on Ariel and went on to dinner at the Corinthian Yacht Club - a great meal and a fun night. We crashed a wedding and Lesley convinced a couple she'd known them years ago. It was unreal... like Julia Roberts in a movie script. Precious! Hey, what more can I say - it was awesome. Way to go Lesley! Got an e-mail from my writer friend Joe... we are only 2 miles from his house. We have to go back to Scituate, but will return Wednesday to see him.  8/12/07 - A beautiful sunny morning in Marblehead. We had breakfast on Full Moon, Kenny's beautiful 43' vessel. He and Lesley had coffee and Danish out - what a pair! Our little flotilla then motored back to Scituate so Ariel can be re-fitted with her vang. Then we'll likely split with Ariel going to Boston and AA heading back to the Marblehead area so Ruth & I can visit with aspiring author Joe & his wife Evelyn. We've corresponded about our writing for years yet have never met. 8/13/07 - Raining when we got up, cleared about noon. We hung around Scituate waiting for information on Miles vang. In the meantime Ruth did the wash and shopped for groceries. Miles and I came ashore and took the ladies to O'Malley's for a late lunch... phenomenal chili! The vang arrive late in the afternoon... mounting it tomorrow. 8/14/09 - Cool and sunny morning. The vang was delivered, whoops, removed, recharged and re-installed (had to take it back and recharge it). We said good-bye to Ariel and headed for Misery Island. Miles & Laureen are headed to Boston for a couple of days. We are headed to Beverly tomorrow to meet Joe. Enroute we motor sailed as the wind was weak. Our engine belt broke so I had to replace it with our spare. Fortunately the wind picked up and we were going just as fast without the motor. 2260 hours on the belt - not bad! We are anchored behind Misery Island, an uninhabited rock. The tides are 9.5 feet - as Ruth observed a drop that much would pretty much wipe out half of Lake Winnebago (what would that reveal?). We got a mooring at the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly for tomorrow night.  On the radio we faintly heard Ariel checking into Boston. Tried to reach them but we were too far out... far out!

Cuddyhunk with the harbor in foreground Looking on Cuddyhunk from our anchorage A character tug in Red Brook Harbor Ariel on a mooring in Red Brook The closer boat is behind and closing fast The lead catboat knows he's being stalked..  guess he's not in the catboat seat anymore. Heh heh, Bad Barry, bad, bad, bad! Coming home the hard way-and expensive tow-boat way - you don't wanna do dat!                        Buddy gets to pick new toys from the parts bag RR bridge marks Cape Cod Canal - West end Light at Plymouth approach Ruth & Barry dressed to receive guests Mayflower, just off our mooring Day's end at Plymouth - that's all pilgrim Ruth & Laureen with 90' Mayflower Looking forward, passenger hold Imagine 102 people crammed in here for 65 days Kenny G and his beautiful gal Full Moon - a world class vessel Marblehead crew Kenny, Barry, Ruth, Laureen, Miles, and Lesley Why kids shouldn't sail - they have too much fun!

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...