2010 Log
7/16 to 7/31/2010
This is the current period of our log for 2010. At the bottom of the page are links to this year's pass weeks; our earlier voyages are in Prior Voyages.
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Updated on 07/21/2010
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7/1/10 - July! Wow! My first task each morning is checking our power after each night. Today we were down 52 versus our normal 75 amp-hrs thanks to a strong wind all night. We had a lot of fun at Bob & Judy's cottage after a quick run to Stop 'N Shop for provisions. We had lunch and supper there; in between we went swimming in the fresh water lake and did a little sailing on a sunfish. The day passed too quickly. Returning to AA we had to be towed by Bradd as our water pump finally totally died. Tomorrows job is to remove the engine from the dinghy and replace the pump. 7/2/04 - 10 - 15 knot winds from the NW, a perfect day for Sampatecho to head to Nova Scotia. Ruth decided she wanted to join them later so we stayed while they left. Our mail package hasn't arrived yet... we are somewhat off the beaten path in Chatham. We'll have to wait for it to get here before we can leave to rejoin Ariel. I can't get the lock off the dinghy engine. When I installed it last year we bought a very good one and I packed it with grease to keep it from seizing. Guess that didn't work. I think I'll need a skilled crook to get it off. Our work around will have to be another dinghy under the engine and doing the rebuild while the engine is on our dinghy while it is hanging on our hoist. Hmm, found the right key to the dinghy engine lock. That sure helped. We put the engine on the rear pulpit and disassemble the lower unit. It went fairly smooth with Ruth's help. After installing the new water pump kit (the old one didn't look worn though a couple of shaft seals were bad) we cleared the engine water line with a barbeque skewer and a big squirt water gun ($1.00 at the Dollar Store). We also used the water gun to flush the water passages in the block. After we had it all back together we put it on the dinghy and started it... surprise, it worked. 7/3/10 - Another beautiful morning. Buddy and Barry are up, coffee's perking, most of the world is up and kicking (teasing Ruth, she's not a morning person). We went dinghy exploring (actually we wanted to see if our repairs held up). To get to the inner harbor we passed under the wooden draw bridge and followed miniature buoys through a fleet of moored motorboats and a few shallow draft sailboats. The one hour notice for the bridge lets the bridge tenders get to the winches so they can hoist the span. Bob picked us up to spend the afternoon swimming at the shack (their term). It was great! They are fun to be with and interesting to talk to. Judy's broken arm was giving her a lot of pain yet we had to gang up on her to keep her from going to a ball game - wanted us to see some future major league stars. 7/4/10 - Happy 4th! While Chatham doesn't have fireworks several of the wealthy summer folks apparently don't know that. We watched a display over the water that would rival Appleton's... it was only one of 5 we could see along the shoreline. The time delayed echoes bouncing around the harbor sounded like we were surrounded. We left the harbor in 20-25 knots of wind; two reefs in the mainsail and a 50% headsail. With the wind at about 40 degrees apparent we tore up Chatham Roads. Then the wind slowed and we shook out the reefs and went to a full headsail. Then the wind slowed and we turned on the engine. The auto pilot need about 100 nudges and 5 failures over a 2 hour period before it kicked in and worked flawlessly for the next 4 hours. Go figure! About 4 hours into our trip the breeze shifted and became a wind again. By the time we reached Vineyard Haven we had 20-25 knot winds again with occasional gust to 30. A little of everything today. We anchored behind Brad and Alice's boat, Aurora. We'd talked by phone earlier and learned it was Alice's birthday, an independence lady. 7/5/10 - Last night was all about fireworks. Ruth was afraid we wouldn't see any as a few locals fired off a few just as dusk settled in. Then the show began... about 4 villages east of us started hour long shows, to the ESE Nantucket joined in trying to outdo the others. South of us Edgartown put forth a valiant effort; but the honors went to Falmouth just north of us. Their show started a little later than some - when it was darker. We watched in awe as hundreds of rockets exploded in reds, blues, magenta, greens and gold. I think more gunpowder was expended last night than was spent in the entire Revolutionary war. With all the booming Buddy must have thought parrot season was opening. We're anchored just outside the harbor at Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard. Ferry traffic is non-stop, tourists and locals traversing to and from the mainland. We went into Tisbury for a couple of grocery items and a visit to West Marine for a new gas regulator for the grill. Struck out on the regulator but score a copy of the July issue of Cruising World. I checked to see how they had used parts of an article I sold them. The editor noted they were using some of the material as a sidebar. Actually they published a page and a half of my material with only one blip. I have no idea where they came up with the Calumet Harbor I mentioned being on Lake Winnebago rather than at the southern tip of Lake Michigan (there actually is a Calumet Harbor on Winnebago but I never mentioned it). They did a good job with their articles on the loop and Loopers. Brad called from his job to invite Ruth and I to dinner. Around 5:30 their 7 year old twins rowed over to say we should bring what we wanted to drink and come over. It was precious watching them row the dinghy, one on each oar. It was unbelievable to see how grown up they've become since I last saw them at Ame's Point. We had a pleasant evening, the twins adopted Ruth while Alice, Brad and I talked about their travels. I'm impressed by the miles they'd put on at sea as they came down the St Lawrence to Nantucket, then jumped from there to Soper's Hole, Tortola, BVIs. Very impressive for first time cruisers! 7/6/10 - Sunny with a little hot weather haze. I went into town and visited the boatyard where Brad is working. They are rushing to finish a wooden 45' sailboat the owner is building for himself. It's a beautiful boat - it's not often you get to see the boat a builder would create for his family. Alice and the twins came over to see Buddy and visit Ruth. It was fun watching them react to a different vessel. I talked to RayMarine today and got a listing of 3 dealers on the New England coast that may be able to resolve the autopilot issue. The tech offered a couple of suggestions: disconnect the rate of turn gyro and test; have the device that detects rudder load checked as it may have failed (I can't find this device on their website, our manuals or our boat). We had Alice, Bradd and the twins over for dinner. Ruth was thrilled to spend time with the twins. While she and Alice entertained them Bradd and I had a chance to talk about the boat he's working on and an article I'm starting on the boat I helped build. As usual the evening went too fast. 7/7/10 - Hot and hazy as the sun rose. A little bit of a breeze kept the boat comfortable. Ruth sez it's time to get moving to somewhere. With those explicit directions I'll plot a course. First I have to find Ariel. We spent some time researching the best way to get to Wal-Mart in Falmouth, finally deciding that leaving tomorrow early for a slip in the town marina was the quickest and most economical. Last night the twins hid our lizards (they've been with us since we had our Hunter on Lake Winnebago). We found one on the forward port window but had to give up and call twin power to find the other. They'd hidden it in the refrigerator (Ruth had guessed freezer but couldn't find it though in retrospect Henry had given her three clues). Smart kids! 7/8/10 - Hazy early, but clear by 8am. Off to Falmouth for the day. We had a nice short sail to Falmouth, arriving about 10am and stopping to fuel and pump-out. Then we moved to the village dock where we had a slip reserved. By noon we were at Walmart, having lunch at Subway while we waited for our meds for the next few months. On our way back to the boat we stopped at West Marine, scoring only the parts to repair the grill; no charts and no C-Map chip for our GPS. Back at the boat Ruth headed out to do the wash while I washed salt off AA and polished stainless steel. We experienced some phenomenal customer service today. Ruth learned that C-Map (the makers of our navigation chips) was located a town away from Falmouth. We've been trying to find a map chip for Nova Scotia for the past two weeks... so she called them asking if they had the chip, and if they had any idea how to get it to us. They said yes and yes. Around 6pm a beautiful young lady appeared on our dock with said chip in hand. 7/9/10 - Hazy morning, looks like we could see a little rain today. We couldn't get in the schedule of the Falmouth tech so we scheduled with Navtronics in Kittery for next Tuesday. Still trying to get on top of our autopilot. That noted, the autopilot decided to go to work at noon today after a couple of hours of prodding. We had a nice leisurely sail to Onset, arriving in time for me to take a nap. Ruth set up our TV for a movie night. 7/10/10 - Brother Karl's birthday today. Happy Birthday! I hoisted anchor at 6:30am to catch the current through the Cape Cod Canal. Nailed it and we did the 10 mile canal in under an hour. We motored and did a little motor-sailing as we headed north. We found ourselves passing through a northbound sailboat race. The western sky was darkening and radar showed heavy rain bands headed our way as part of a front. We decided to duck into Scituate though we knew Kenny G was tied up for the weekend. Got on a mooring just minutes before the sky burst. Heavy rain with surprisingly little wind. It just poured and poured. Our deck should be rinsed by now. 7/11/10 - Sunny with just wisps of high altitude clouds. Miles called, he was getting ready to pass through the canal, about a day behind us. If he make the run he hopes to he'll be about 2 hours behind us tonight. After an enjoyable visit with the Golden Dragon (Kenny G) we tossed off the mooring and headed to Gloucester. As expected the wind was light and on the nose, so we motored the 25 miles anchoring in the outer harbor. Miles and Laureen joined us about half an hour later. We had dinner on Ariel, catching up with each other's travels since Port Washington. 7/12/10 - Woke to pea soup fog; the dirty gray type. After a short consult with Miles we decided to go. Great fun! The Autohelm crashed continually for the first 2 hours, drifting off course and leaving me confused with 100 yard visibility. Juggling the compass heading, watching radar and watching for boats and lobster pots is not fun for a single task mind. Ruth got up when I idled to a stop, I just couldn't do it alone. Especially after a boat crossed our bow slapping us with a 4' wake; I'd seen only the radar blip. Once around Cape Ann the boat traffic thinned out as did the pots. That said I passed between two buoys to find they both disappeared. Hummm? A little later I saw a blip coming down our course line. I sounded the horn and turned 20 degrees to port. There was no reaction from the blip. When radar put it abeam of us a white 100 foot plus motor yacht steamed by at 12 knots, sounding his horn after he'd passed. Guess the fog had put him to sleep or he's just use to people getting out of his way. Our chart plotter crashed 5 times shutting down the radar each time. It's a real rush running in fog with no chart and no radar. Each time we have to go down to the master, reboot the system, turn the radar back on and reset the course line. The fog lifted as we approached Portsmouth, NH... then slammed down like a stage curtain. We felt our way to the anchorage, seeing a lot of lobster boats on the radar. I was on the bow wearing one of our headsets, talking Ruth into the anchorage. I saw Ariel, then I saw the cliff under the fort. We anchored there temporarily, moving when the fog lifted. It was a long 35 miles! Oh, the two lobster buoys? They popped up at our bow when Ruth backed down on the anchor. They were toggled (tied together with a long tether) and must have done the bolo bit on the front of the keel; riding there for 3 hours. 7/13/10 - Woke again to dense fog. Miles had intended to leave early for Portland but delayed hoping the fog would thin. It did a little so they headed north. We could hear boat traffic on the river next to us but never saw a boat. Just before lunch we moved up to Kittery Point Yacht Yard so we could have our autopilot checked. Visibility was still about 100 yards until just before we came to the boat yard where it cleared. Good deal! John from Navtronics and a Raymarine pilot expert reviewed the system and my log. Their conclusion was that the brushes in the actuator are worn, dusted and sticking. This was likely missed in the Fort Lauderdale bench test due to the unit being jostled while being handled before the test. The remedy is to send the unit to Raymarine, a two week turnaround. That will have to wait until it either fails completely or we return from Nova Scotia. 7/14/10 - It rained like there would be no tomorrow last night. Listening to it in bed I could picture pairs of animals lining up for the ark. We headed out in light fog, about 1 mile visibility and mist. Again the wind was light and on the nose, the waves 3 to 4 feet high; the perfect recipe for a sloppy motorboat ride to Portland. At 5pm we anchor a short distance from Ariel's mooring. Ruth wanted pizza (and cigarettes) for dinner so we took the dinghy to Peak's Island, stopping at Ariel for planning. Miles indicated they would be heading out tomorrow for Boothbay Harbor - he's in a hurry to get to Northeast Harbor and on to Nova Scotia. We have a package to pick up for Sampatecho at Northeast Harbor Saturday or Monday Great pizza for supper, we'll have to remember the deli at the grocery store on Peak's makes a great pie! 7/15/10 - Ariel headed north in early morning fog. Ruth wanted a down day so we stay at Portland. Mid-morning the fog cleared so we could enjoy our view of Portland and the islands. Ruth and I read most of the day; we were both finishing dynamite books. When the tide went out she went glassing and I did a few maintenance chores on the boat. 7/16/10 - AA was underway by 7:20am under gray skies and a light SW wind. We motor sailed 35 nm to Boothbay Harbor, arriving at 12:30 after getting lost once and having to backtrack (we'd actually gone by Boothbay. It's easy to do with all the fingers of water that make up the coast here. It was wildlife day, we saw 5 Minke whales and 7 seals along with our assorted duck, loons and gulls. One of the whales was pretty good sized (I wouldn't want to have tangled with any of them). At Boothbay we fueled and picked up a mooring in front of Ariel. Then we went into town and provisioned for our run to Nova Scotia. We have two stops before we get there but neither is a good place to provision. Our obligatory fog moved in at 4pm, I'd sure missed it. Ruth and I played cards with me winning the first three games and Ruth the second three. Took her a little while to warm up. 7/17/10 - Bright and sunny this morning. We were moving by 7:15 in light haze, about 3 mile visibility. Ariel had left about 30 minutes earlier. We motor sailed the first several hours. Our Autohelm woke up with us and behaved itself most of the trip - surprise. The last 1-1/2 hour we sailed toward Pulpit Harbor while I grilled cheese burgers for lunch. Today we saw two whales and 1 seal along with the sea birds. Kind of a quiet day. Haze hung along the shoreline, giving the illusion that the land was floating above the sea. Very pretty! At Pulpit we anchored in 30 feet of water, expecting to loose 10' and gain 1 in the next 12 hours. Then we settled into relax mode while we waited for our lobsterman. He showed up about 4:30pm. Ruth and I took the dinghy over to buy 6 lobster. He said he'd drop them off a little later and he did, 15 lbs of lobster for $65.00. Miles and Laureen came over for a lobsta fest dinner... it was great! Ruth steamed them to perfection! 7/18/10 - What a gorgeous morning! I had the anchor up by 6:45, headed out of Pulpit Harbor. We rounded the north end of the island enroute for the Deer Island Thoroghfare and on through Casco Passage to Mt Desert's Northeast Harbor. We saw a small whale and a couple of seals. Not a lot of sea wildlife as it was lobster float day and we had to keep a close watch for them. Coming out of Stonington our speed dropped to 4 knots and the rudder became hard to turn. The current was pulling us toward a rocky shoal so I kept the power on and held our heading until we got to open water. Then I slowed and shifted to neutral. Ruth watched behind us, "There's a float she called. There's another... and another." We'd picked up three traps without seeing any of them - that's with two of us on watch! Miles must have snagged at least three, clearing them quickly by turning and backing down. He has cutters on his prop shaft that are designed to shear lines that try to tangle the prop. That noted, coming into Northeast Harbor he commented it felt like they had line wrapped on the prop shaft; I think we could be in same situation. While we strive to avoid all floats, the killers are the pots with a float and toggle both on the surface connected by line. I think you have a 50% probability of snagging those suckers if you get within 30' of them. A diver confirmed that Miles had acquired a float and some line. It was quickly cleared. I missed the diver so we may still have a souvenir of Maine. 7/19/10 - The barometer crept up a little last night presenting us with a clear blue sky this morning. We read part of the morning before going into town to pick up two packages from Cruising Solutions. Found the post office closed from 11:30am to 1:30pm so we walked town and explored shops. Cute little town but you can see where several stores have burned down over the years and not been replaced. They have done a nice job of landscaping the areas that were abandoned. At 1:30 we got one of the packages, the first one shipped is the one that hasn't arrived yet. We'll have to wait and see if it comes tomorrow. By two it was cloudy and sprinkling occasionally. 7/20/10 - The second package didn't arrive today either. We talked to Bradd and he said tell the Post Office to send it back if it ever arrives (it passed through the clearing center one day away 4 days ago). The weather forecast said this was the day to go to Nova Scotia so we headed out a little after 10am for Shelburne, 158nm away. The wind was light and variable so we motored all day and all night. Dense fog came and went about 3 times. Enroute we had something playing under us part of the trip. Our depth sounder recorded bottom at about 560 feet; then something would be under us rising from 80' to 6' (that's only 6" below our keel) before diving back to 30'. This went on for over and hour. Whale? Or just a school of fish? Ruth and I went on 3 hour watches for the night. As the sun set and we approached Cape Sable the temperatures started dropping - air and water. Water got down to 41 degrees F while you could see your breath. The fog closed in to about 100' visibility... we were flying by radar. 7/21/10 - Early morning watches suck when its wet and foggy. It's really disorienting to get up and stagger into a world with no visual reference. By the end of your watch there are lots of things to see; the problem is none of them are real. Radar plotted a lot more boats than I would have expected - mainly commercial fishing boats searching for fish to net. I woke at 7am to a beautiful day. Ruth had brought us safely through the last of the fog and into a stellar clear morning. Wow, what a difference a watch can make. We were in Shelburne by noon, eating Ruth's porridge and waiting to clear customs. Things went smooth (hey, Canada knows how to do it) and after refueling we moved out to anchor, discovering that the cold we had compromised our anchor windlass control and we couldn't lower the anchor by power. |
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wooden draw bridge at the head of Stage Harbor
Everyone's coming to town
Chatham is lush and filled with flowers, very pretty
The 4th, the birth of a new nation. We've been traveling the 13 original colonies the past few years, seeing places we read about in history class.
Even elaborate netting won't deny a gull its perch
Ruth liked these windows set ablaze by the sunset
Star of India, - owned, maintained and sailed by a neat couple in their 80's. She was up the masts earlier in the day checking fittings. They sail her almost daily.
These unlighted hard-to-see poles are a fish trap designed to lead fish from shallow water to a deep water enclosure (trap)... this is miles offshore
7:30am in Vineyard Haven Harbor and ferry traffic's on the move
Twin powered dinghy
Close quarter maneuvers as Henry and Amelia approach AA
The lizards get reacquainted after their twin experience.
One of the dozens of boats anchored near us in Pepperell Cove, Kittery, ME. Miles and Laureen left for Portland in this soup. Of course we did the same thing the day before.
The light keepers house at the entrance to Portsmouth, NH
Doubling as a rescue station it once housed two lifeboats, remnants of the rails can still be seen
The sailboat is relying on AA's dinghy for power as she returns to her slip after loosing her engine; Barry's a frustrated towboat operator
Island life would be more difficult without regular ferries... you'd wait less time for a ferry here than for a bus in Appleton
This ferry carries trucks to Peaks and cars to islands not served by the larger car ferries
We're not lost Our update may get a little sporadic shortly as we'll be dependant on WiFi hot spots once we get to Nova Scotia. Our SkyMate position reports will be posted daily as always. |
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