2008 Cruising

9/1 to 9/15/2008

This is our log for 2008; the 2007 East Coast and other voyages are now in Prior Voyages.

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 09/16/2008

9/1/08 - Labor day dawn revealed clear skies and light winds. We left Pepperell at 7:50am for Gloucester MS. We sailed s l o w l y for the first few hours, motored the next two and had a screaming sail in 20 knot winds the last 3 hours. All in all it was a great day to be on the water. Again the wind was offshore and warm. We anchored in our familiar hole in Gloucester. The Harbormaster came by asking if we were there for the afternoon. When we responded overnight he ask that we move to the federal anchorage in town. We complied. It was a different Gloucester than we'd visited before. More congested but interesting in the traffic that passed us. Ruth prefers the old spot but  I kind of like the inner harbor anchorage. Ariel preceded us by an hour and went on to a mooring in Salem. For us it was been there, done that, so we are happier in the inner harbor. Buddy votes for the inner harbor too, she's been on a rip since we put her in the cockpit... talking up a storm. 9/2/08 - Dawn revealed a light high overcast with the sun breaking through. We had a quiet night in the Federal Anchorage in the Gloucester inner harbor. We rented a car from Enterprise at noon and ran errands. Ruth needed a Wal-Mart (16 miles away) for her meds, I needed fittings and wire to finish the hot water heater installation. We also need some miscellaneous provisions. By 3:30 we had everything back on the boat. By 5 I had the hot water heater running off engine water - yippee, no more heart stimulating morning wash-ups. Driving around here is a treat. WI does a great job of marking highways. Here you have to guess as the same road changes names at every turn, like LA. That said, with Ruth navigating and me preventing the car from getting crunched we made the trip without a wrong turn or dent. The road signs aside, the drive was pretty and interesting. It seems like you were deep in rugged Maine wilderness though you are surrounded by a large metro area. We found a nice cozy restaurant that served a mean pork tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes and a vegetable side. Add to that a scenic waterfront vista... yah, we at on Another Adventure. Fortunately we like the food and the cooks. 9/3/08 - Sunny, calm and clear. It was great having hot water this morning! Thanks to Kyle the laptop is purring along and we have e-mail and internet access again. We are adding a remote hard drive for a file pack-up system. I tried to find a way to advise Google of the threat on their site... couldn't find a link for reporting problems (Heads in the sand? Problems? We never heard of any problems.). After provisioning and returning the car we departed for Situate around noon. NE winds provided a nice ride in 5-7' seas. We motor sailed the last hour to ensure that we'd arrive in Scituate Harbor before 5pm. Going into the inlet was a thrill with the seas behind us... we surfed into the harbor with Ruth on the helm and me on the chart plotter - piece of cake. We picked up a guest mooring courtesy of Kenny G. We plan on staying through Saturday night as tropical storm Hanna is expected to pass through abut 2am Sunday morning. Should be interesting - our first tropical storm. We are keeping and eye on Hanna and Josephine. It could be an interesting trip south. 9/4/08 - A beautiful morning with a warm breeze off land. A quick weather check indicates we need to keep an eye on Hanna and Josephine. That said, we headed into town where we borrowed Taylor Tibbetts pick-up truck (HarborSide Wine & Spirits) as arranged by Kenny G. so Ruth could get to a lab for blood work. Medical care becomes a real issue when you are homeless. By Massachusetts law Ruth can't get the result of here blood work. It has to be faxed to the requesting doctor (WI) who will then send it to the MA doctor who will examine her. Hey, whatever works. Went to a wonderful little cafe called "Phins".  Had wonderful food, great ambiance and a little 8 stool bar for the after 5 local crowd a small restroom behind the curtains (yes, there was a door too) complete with white Christmas lights and lots of shells..  Kinda like a corner bar/restaurant from years ago.  Corned beef hash was fresh and crisp, home fries were crisp and the coffee was great being that Ruth was fasting for 12 hours and couldn't have any.  (No, she didn't flop around on the floor or anything)  We might go back again to check out the local scene on Saturday.  (Going for a short sail and dinner with Kenny G and Lesley on Friday)  Finally get to sail on their boat instead of next to it.  Should be fun!  Back at the boat I wired the new water heater and blocked the unit in place... installation completed, great to have hot water again! Next project.... 9/5/08 - Pretty morning, bright sun through light fog. First order of the day look in on Hanna and Ike. Right now Hanna is looking like only 36mph and rain while Ike has his heart set on Florida. Ariel is hanging in Boston and we're on a mooring in Scituate waiting for the first storm. Hopefully it will only be a rain event. We went sailing with Kenny G. and Lesley on Full Moon this evening. It was fun to sail another boat very different from AA. Though about equal in length, Full Moon weighs twice as much as AA and has a full keel with attached rudder. Additionally Full Moon is a yawl (two masts) versus AA's sloop rig (single mast). That said, I was surprised at how quickly Full Moon accelerated to 7 knots on the GPS. After the sail they took us to Lesley's favorite restaurant, the Watermill, for a great dinner. We always have an enjoyable time with the two of them. 9/6/08 - Heavy rain last night and this morning. Perhaps the outer rain bands of Hanna though it seems unlikely give the storm is in Virginia - due here 2am Sunday morning. What's with these 2am storms? We are about as battened down as we can be. Now comes the waiting game. Warm and humid all day. I finished putting zippers on a solar shade for Ariel and started a new turtle for our gennaker. I got the new turtle far enough done to strap it over the sail to provide additional protection in the wind. We've tied everything down, checked our mooring lines, put out our life vests and Buddy's small travel cage, got out my snorkel gear (yes, snorkel gear - for helming in strong wind and heavy rain), checked engine oil and fluids, fueled the dinghy... I think we are ready. All around the harbor boats are removing canvas, sails and checking lines. About 6 boats will be occupied so we agreed to monitor 9 and 16, watching out for each other. If the winds were forecast above 70 mph we'd be in a motel. 9/7/08 - There's got to be a morning after... Ours was a bright sunny morning with a 14 - 18 knot wind out of the west. We were lucky last night when the storm screamed by. For a short time we had SE 15 knot winds coming right into the harbor. It was getting a little rocky on the boat. About 2:30am I went to bed - the storm center should have passed as it had been a nonevent with 20 -25 knot winds. I heard some of the others on watch talking on the radio, disappointed that their adventure had fallen through. At 4:20am I was rolled out of bed by the roar of wind in the rigging. Our meter was steadily in the mid-20's with peaks in the high 30's. Luckily the wind had switched to the NW and was coming off the land - very little wave action. I stayed up until the wind settled into the low 20's and went back to bed.  I didn't know that Ruthie was quietly laying awake most of the time too as her "radar" was on. We went into town for some exercise and to restock the liquor cabinet. On our way in we checked Full Moon and bailed out her dinghy. The dinghy was on a ramp with water flowing over its transom - lots of rain in the storm. It was a beautiful afternoon and evening... a nice time to read and relax. Tomorrow Ruth will try to make an appointment to visit a clinic to get her meds renewed. Ariel intends to move from Boston to Onset Monday in order to transit the canal in favorable tides. We'll catch up with them somewhere in Buzzards Bay. 9/8/08 - We awoke to clear azure blue skies... it's like Hanna blew every cloud to Nova Scotia. I spent a good part of the morning working on our computer, backing up data to our new external hard drive. Now we have a second record of our data via the copy command; still have to get a complete back-up as the first attempt failed. Ruth worked and pursued her medical records as we were holding in Scituate in case she had to got to a clinic for more tests or a consultation. Her Doctor in Appleton was interpreting the blood work we had done last week. Great news for Ruth, she's off meds for diabetes and cholesterol - the blood work indicated that these were normal. Lesley stopped by on the water taxi about 4 . She was on a mission to clean the waterline on Full Moon. She planned on going swimming to clean the hull. I launched our dinghy and took her over to do the job from the dinghy; much less tiring. Took us about an hour to get the little amount of growth off. We talked Lesley into staying aboard AA for one of Ruth's great spaghetti dinners. As the sun was setting the water taxi came by to see if Lesley needed a ride back to the dock... we said our good byes and promised to keep in touch. 9/9/08 - A clear sunrise quickly gave way to overcast as a front is approaching from the west. We're headed to Plymouth  or the Cape Cod Canal today... on the road again. We left Scituate with a forecast of 13 - 15 knot winds on our nose - time to use the iron genoa (motor). The wind and seas kept building until we were seeing 30 knot winds and the spray was passing over the bimini... nasty. By noon we decide to get into Plymouth, making it a short day on the water. About 20 minutes after we'd secured a mooring Ruth called me out to look at the sky. B L A C K. The squall hit  20 minutes later. We saw winds in the mid 40's, higher than Hanna's peak! Fortunately is blew through in about an hour. After the storm we went to Plymouth to do a little beaching. It turned out to be really boring sow we took a walk through town for the exercise. We both enjoy Plymouth, it rocks... okay, bad joke... but it is a nice town to visit. Clean, picturesque and full of history. The water taxi delivered us to AA just as the sun set.  9/10/08 - Overslept and got a 7am departure. Sunny with 15 - 20 knot winds from the north, directly behind us. The cold front that passed through yesterday left a touch of fall in the air - jacket weather. We motor sailed to the Cape Cod canal averaging 7-8 knots over ground. We were in a hurry to make the canal transit with the current in our favor as you have to traverse in 2 hours or less - impossible for a sailboat if the current is against you. The current was with us and we made the 10 miles in less than an hour. We entered Woods Hole at noon, just prior to full tide, resulting in little current with or against us. From there it was a short jump to Edgartown, home of the rich and aimless on Martha's Vineyard. I wanted to visit the Mary Jo K bridge on Chappaquiddick but Ruth said that was old history. In Edgartown we took a mooring and watched for famous people... I think we were out of season. The only famous folks we saw were the Cherkasky's.  We took a short walk downtown with them, ending up at a seafood shack for drinks and a snack. Tomorrow we'll spend more time in this quaint upscale village. 9/11/08 - Very still this morning... the sun was out and puffy clouds lazed past above us. Ruth and I headed into Edgartown about 9, anxious to see more of Martha's Vineyard. After walking through Edgartown and admiring the well kept white houses we bought day passes on the VTA (Vineland Transit Authority) for a total of $9.00 for the two of us. With our passes we were able to travel around the island getting off and on as the schedule permitted. We visited West Tisbury (a store and some homes), the cliffs at Gay Head, several small fishing communities as we rode the narrow roads through the forest. We were both amazed at the amount of forest on the island. As we got inland the homes were less pretentious, some sitting on small clearings reminding us of old farms in northern Wisconsin. Along the way the drivers talked of various celebrity islanders, Martha, Letterman, Huntley and others. Some of the estates were mind-boggling. You'd have to have a Segway to check the rooms on a regular basis. The nice thing about visiting this time of the year is that the crowds disappear on Labor Day. We had no lines anywhere, prompt service everywhere and most of the moorings were empty. Dark o'clock is coming earlier every day. Ruth and I played cards in the cabin after the sun went down... I got beat up something terrible. There I was, down to my last... but that's another story. 9/12/08 - Still and sunny at dawn with a wisp of strata-cirrus clouds. Miles called about 6:45am to say he was heading to Newport. We left about 8am, jumped through Woods Hole to get favorable currents and headed west. What a great ride! Winds in the 15 - 20 knot range drove us through the seas at 7 - 8 knots over the bottom, 7 - 9.5 over water. By 3 we were anchoring behind Dutch Island; one of Ruth's favorite glass places. She made us each a bowl of hot soup before launching the dinghy and hitting the beach... they could have used her enthusiasm at Normandy. I laid low for the balance of the afternoon. Something I at last night gave me the New England quick step - must have been the peanuts in a shell. I ate shell and all while Ruth shucked the ones she at. Ruth enjoyed the beaches of Dutch Island, thrilled at finding another ancient glass stopped in the glass she collected. I got a SkyMate position update on Sampatecho, they were crossing from Halifax to Cape Cod, about midway. Had to be a very interesting trip given the winds we'd experienced on Buzzard's Bay. 9/13/08 - Saturday the 13th drifted in with gray skies fog after a night of strong winds. I talked to Bradd on the cell phone. Their trip had been a nasty one... in fact they were just approaching land. The high point of the trip had been a visit by a large pod of whales breaching, blowing and slapping their tails. I told him it was the traditional New England welcome for visiting Canadians. He said he thought the Coast Guard's live fire exercises in the same area was their welcome. Hmmmm, live fire in the critical habitat area... whale on the menu? Ruth went glassing again while I did a few boat chores; working on a small engine coolant leak at the new water heater, replacing a gasket on a water fill deck fitting, tying off and bagging the gennaker after measuring for repair tapes... little stuff that needed doing. Next I need to drop the genoa and do a few stitches, measure for new leach tapes and UV covers... got to keep those engines in shape. I talked to Rich Wellman, we'll be moving to a mooring near their home to await Sampatecho. We went for a walk (Ruth ran out of cigs) in Jamestown last night. We were looking for a restaurant to celebrate Ruth's recent sales but gave up as nothing appealed to us. That said, it's a nice village and we enjoyed the time on land. 9/14/08 - We went to bed with a beautiful 3/4 moon lighting up our vista... we awoke to gray, wind and rain. Mr. Yuk must have come through last night. Ruth was having her coffee in the cockpit and called for me to come up quickly. She pointed out a deer standing in the trees along the shore of Dutch Island. It watched us watch it for a while, got bored and walked into the brush. Rich & Carol called to see what time we'd be over to watch football and have supper. We figured 2 hours for the 14 mile trip... wrong - as we rounded Dutch Island we found 30 knot winds on the nose against the tide (wonder what happened to the 13 - 15 forecast). We spent the next 3 hours in steep 6-8' seas, strong winds, fog and rain (not to mention plague, pestilence... you get the idea - not fun). After that is was great to pick up the mooring in the pond, load our wash in a carrier and ride with Rich up the hill to the Wellman's. Another couple was there from the catamaran Twocan, Gene and Charlene. We had a great evening watching Favre and the NY Packers, I mean Jets, lose and dining on Carol's fantastic lasagna (about 2 tons per slice). We returned to the boat late to see Sampatecho laying at anchor about 100 yards from AA, kewl. They must have had a nasty day of it having come from Onset, MA to Point Judith, RI, the length of Buzzards Bay. 9/15/08 - Another morning after, you could almost hear the tune drifting across the pond under clear sunny skies. Still windy, but with the sun and no rain the wind seemed like a friend. We had an enjoyable day with Rich, Carol, Bradd and Maeve... lots of catching up on the activities of the respective boats over the past few months. We even got some shopping done along with a macro survey of a 44' sailboat. Dinner at the Wellman's capped the day. Doesn't get much better. We talked to Miles, seems like RI is the home of boatyard blues. A couple of simple tasks he wanted performed are dragging out... Monday we'll learn when they can move again. Frat brother Bill Rhode is only a couple of days behind us. They were in the Salem area a day of so ago. Hope they catch up - haven't seen Bill since college graduation, say 4-5 years ago?

Click on the photos for an 8" x 10" view. Use Back to return to the site. Light marking Gloucester inner harbor Harbor entrance, note old bottom paint factory to the right (red building) Gloucester inner harbor mooring field Entrance to Scituate harbor viewed from AA cockpit - yup, that's the ocean Looking west into the Scituate harbor SW view, Coast Guard station Hanna visits Scituate Hanna's biggest surprise from our perspective was how fast she traveled from Florida to Massachusetts. By the time she got here she was a weary tropical storm, battered by regular encounters with the coast. We didn't know what to expect so we watched her progress every couple of hours. We've hunkered down for a half dozen Nor'easters during our coastal cruising so we had an idea of what 60 knots of wind was. Hanna was forecast to be in the 35 - 73 knot range. When Hanna hit at 4:40am she was reportedly in the 40 knot range with gusts reported in the 60's as she crossed Long Island sound; we didn't see anything that high. The biggest two differences we noted versus Nor'easters was that Hanna came through in hours whereas the Nor'easters last 2 - 3 days and Hanna was warm, not cold. Our first tropical storm - fortunately she was gentle with us. Lesley and Barry head out to scrub Full Moon Guess the owl was a bust Ruth glassing the Vineyard The Gay Head light, MV Ruth by the Gay Head cliffs After Labor Day the birds own the Vineyard beaches Ruth returns from assaulting a beach Great to see Sampatecho anchored near us again. Been a long time!

Visit earlier portions of our 2008 voyage...

Boca Raton to Miami, FL - Jan 1 to 15, 2008	Miami to Key West, FL - Jan 16 to 31, 2008
Key West to Marathon, FL - Feb 1 to 15, 2008	Marathon, FL to Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 16 - 29, 2008
Norman Cay to Georgetown, Bahamas - March 1 - 15, 2008	Georgetown to Royal Island - March 16 - 31, 2008
Royal Island to Green Turtle Cay - April 1 - 15, 2008	Green Turtle Cay to Fort Pierce - April 16 - 20, 2008
Fort Pierce, FL to Savannah, GA - May 1 - 15, 2008	Savannah, GA to Norfolk, VA - May 16 - 31, 2008
Norfolk, VA to Deltaville, VA - June 1 - 15, 2008	Deltaville, VA to Cape May, NJ - June 16 - 30, 2008
Cape May to Point Judith, RI - July 1 - 15, 2008	Point Judith to Gloucester, MA - July 16 - 31, 2008
Gloucester to Acadia to Portland - August 1 - 15, 2008	Portland to Gloucester - August 16 - 31, 2008