We've been trying to take advantage of the good weather - sunny every day and relatively light winds - to move along in our quest to get to the Annapolis boat show which starts in a week. We have had some long days but we have also had some great sails. After we left Biddeford Pool, which was our last stop in Maine, we went straight past New Hampshire to Annisquam, Mass, which is at the entrance to the Blynman Canal which short cuts through Cape Ann to Gloucester.
We had been thinking of staying in Gloucester as we have done in the past, but when we got to Annisquam it looked nice and we talked to a guy on a nonsuch who was drifting past us in the channel under sail and he suggested we pick up a yacht club mooring there instead of going to Gloucester. Although the price was a bit steep we decided to splurge and we even took advantage of their swanky 23 foot launch to get to shore and back instead of taking the dinghy down. The people there were really friendly and we went for a walk around gaping at the huge 'beach houses' and rocky walls. It is a quiet place as far as roads go - a couple of times we saw people just walking down the middle of the road and the speed limit seems to be about 10 mph - so we were glad we stopped. We had an added bonus when we got back to the boat, as a band was playing for a wedding reception on the deck of the club and it was such a calm night we had music for our cocktail hour, dinner and rocking us to sleep.
The next morning we woke up to very thick fog so we decided to delay our departure a bit. Finally we got tired of waiting and the fog had burnt off a little - we could see about 200 yards - so we set off creeping through the canal with me on the helm and Dave watching the chart, going buoy to buoy as boats and the shore appeared around us. We got out of the canal okay and then the fog got thicker! We weren't properly prepared and at one point Dave was turned around looking at a big boat that had appeared out of the fog behind us and when he turned around we were about a boat length from a big navigation buoy. That could have been bad! Anyway, I went down and got our other radar reflector and our fog horn, which I blew regularly until the fog burnt off about an hour later and it turned into another lovely sunny day. Because of the delay we weren't going to make it through the Cape Cod canal as planned, so we decided to go into Duxbury Bay near Plymouth, Mass. We anchored in the big bay near Clarke's Island and didn't even take the dinghy down to go and explore the long sandy beach nearby. When we talked to Vida that night she said we needn't bother to go and try to find Plymouth rock, as it is only as big as her dining room table.
Monday we got up and set off to go through the Cape Cod Canal. Dave had got the currents just right as we were doing over 8 knots over the ground as soon as we got to the canal. The top speed we saw over ground was 9.4 knots. When we got to the west end of the canal the railroad bridge was down so we had to wait about 10 minutes which Dave did by pointing up into the current and matching the boat speed to the current speed so we just stayed where we were. Soon we were on our way again and we decided to head for Cuttyhunk Island, which is south side of Buzzard's Bay. The wind was right for sailing and we had lots of time, so we had a beautiful sail across Buzzard's Bay. It was so nice not to be listening to the constant drone of the engine and to be sailing. We anchored in Cuttyhunk harbour early enough that we could take the dinghy down and row into shore for a walk around, which was fun. Island culture everywhere is quirky and interesting. We saw the Cuttyhunk Electrical station, which appears to be a CAT diesel generator, and a whole bunch of signs saying Joe's garage, Joe's shop, Joe's boatyard, so either there are a lot of Joes or Joe is an enterprising fellow!
Tuesday we set off early again heading for Fisher's Island, which is in Connecticut, just south of Mystic and New London. It is a swanky island with lots of huge homes and we had stayed there a couple of times on our last trip because it is not too far out of the way and quiet in the off season. Again we were able to sail part of the trip, which was nice, but the wind died eventually and then came around on the nose, so we had to motor. The last couple of hours were a bit of a long haul, but at least we could ogle all the big mansions as we went along the shore of Fisher's Island. We also got to watch a couple of 12 meter sailboats sailing up behind us, and one of them came into Fisher's Island right behind us and dropped their main right beside us in the harbour. When we woke up the next morning they had already left.
We didn't go to shore at Fisher's Island but it was a lovely evening and we sat in the cockpit gazing at the stars for a while after supper. The weather has warmed up enough now that our standard uniform has been reduced so that we don't need rain pants anymore, we only needs boots and toques first thing in the morning (I have had my socks and shoes off a couple of times in the afternoon) and we are often in t-shirts in the afternoons, and the butter in the cupboard is finally softer than the butter in the fridge, so we are defnitely getting further south, even though it feels like we mostly go west. In Buzzard's Bay the tides were only 3 feet, which was a big adjustment from 10-12 feet in Maine, but now that we are in Long Island Sound they are back up to 6-8 feet again.
Yesterday we left Fisher's Island heading for Port Jefferson and it turned out to be a really long day. At first we were flying across the bottom in calm seas with the current, but soon the current turned against us, the wind was on our nose and we were crashing into the waves doing about 3 knots across the bottom for a few hours. Not fun. Eventually the current and wind calmed down and the last couple of hours were much smoother, but we got into the harbour and anchored just before sunset so we were cutting it close. Again it was a beautiful night to eat in the cockpit under the stars - a welcome treat after a rough day (literally and figuratively).
Travelling thousands of miles at 5 knots is a slow process and over the past week it has felt a bit like we are boat bound, but I am hoping after another week, once we get to Annapolis, we will be able to slow down and do some exploring and land activities. I tend to mind not getting to land more than Dave does and I am really missing regular yoga workouts. I keep reminding myself to enjoy the journey but the reality is that some days are better than others. The good thing is that a bad day can turn into a good day pretty quickly. We were definitely happy to see the last of the Maine lobster traps and although we still see some traps from time to time for the most part when I spot something floating on the water it turns out to be a bird.
All of the projects that Dave worked so hard on this summer have paid off. The fridge is awesome and I actually have to take meat out to defrost because it is frozen solid, so that is a bonus. We really like having all of our instruments in the cockpit as both of us can look around when we are navigating in tight spots. Having the new radio in the cockpit and with AIS is great, and as well as helping us determine whether some of these big ships are going to run over us it can be fun to see who is around and how fast they are travelling. Although we don't have a sender to broadcast our position, some other cruising boats do, and when we were travelling with Passage it was cool to be able to see how they were doing when they were ahead of us.
After we stop in Huntington to visit Vida our plan is to head through New York to Sandy Hook and then down the Jersey Coast and up the Delaware Bay into the Chesapeake Bay to get to Annapolis by next Friday. Of course this is all weather dependent and the best laid plans of mice and men... So we'll see how it goes and report in the next blog. I am hoping that I can get some photos uploaded this time if I can get internet in Huntington so wish me luck.
For those of you who have left comments, I am getting them by email, but haven't quite figured out how to reply yet. Thanks for all of the support and hopefully soon I will be able to get back to you.