All Hands On Deck   Adventures on land and at sea

The timing couldn’t be better. We pulled into the Housatonic River and picked up a (free!) Housatonic Boat Club mooring yesterday afternoon. This morning, the rain began. We’re in for a couple days of solid rain.

The past two jumps down the sound have been uneventful. We left Mystic expecting 15-20 knots and were prepared with our solent. Of course the wind hovered around a gusty, shifty 10 knots or less. We sailed with our full main (gasp! so long since we’ve hoisted it all the way!) and full working jib. It was actually very pleasant sailing but we kept getting headed and eventually the wind pretty much quit completely. We motor sailed with the main up the rest of the way to Duck Island Roads. I actually selected Duck Island Roads as a potential stopping place when we last transited Long Island Sound. I found it in the pilot guide but it kind of sketched us out and we weren’t nearly as confident in our anchoring as we are now. Lee really wanted to give it a try this time and it split the distance between Mystic and Stratford perfectly.

We pulled in around 3pm, anchored in 10 ft. of water just off a waveless beach lined with houses and next to a marina entrance. Shortly after arrived, we set off in search of showers and ice. We hadn’t showered since Montauk and our ice was getting low. The channel entrance actually led to quite a few marinas as well as a yacht club, town dock, and eventually a restaurant dock back past a road bridge. We toured the entire harbor in the dinghy before settling on fancy marina near the entrance. We couldn’t find the town dock so we just tied our dinghy in a discreet location and explored the boat yard. The marina offices were closed, so no one could sell us ice, but we were excited to find the really nice bathrooms open. I got all ready to get in the shower, turned on the water, and waited for it to heat up. It never did. They had turned off the hot water for the winter : ( Lee came to the same realization and we met outside, determined to satisfy at least one of our needs. We gave up on showers but set off in search of ice again.

After docking by the launch ramp and asking in an ice cream parlor (I would have had ice cream but it was like 40 degrees outside) we ended up at a seafood restaurant. The bar tended proceeded to make fun of my pajama pants but offered us a pint-sized bag of ice. We graciously accepted it even though it wasn’t nearly enough and finally headed back to the boat. So ended another transient sailor adventure.

We explored Westbrook, the town on shore from our anchorage, in a chilly run the next morning. Then we continued down the sound to Stratford, CT. We stopped in Stratford in the spring and visited Lee’s friend Conor and his wife Kristen. They hooked us up with the Housatonic Boat Club, a club with quite a bit of character that rented us a mooring at very little cost. This time Conor got a hold of someone at the club who said they were closed down for the season but we could pick up any mooring we wanted. Yay for free moorage! There aren’t any facilities but it’s sure a convenient location.

Conor picked us up from shore last night and we all went out for Thai food (after Lee and I finally got our much needed showers). Not only did Conor and Kristen drive us to Stop and Shop to get ice, they also generously gave us access to their house as a refuge from the rain today. We’re getting things done online and doing a little laundry while our hosts are at work. Thanks so much you two! You have no idea how much a few hours in a house is appreciated by us grungy sailors.

Manhasset bay on the south end of Long Island, just this side of NY city, is our next stop. Right now it looks like we’re not sure whether to leave tomorrow or Saturday.
Since I have nothing particularly dramatic to report, I thought I’d throw in another video! This one is from the Maine-Newport sail.

Quoting myself, very late on Friday night.

One of the handful of pictures I took before things got crazy on Friday.

Where do I even begin the account of our sail on Friday? We left Newport at 5 am. It was cold and dark. It got windy as the sun came up. Then it got windier, and windier.
By the mid-afternoon we were cruising along at 7.5 knots or so with a triple reefed main and our solent. The wind was still increasing and the waves were sizable. Pirat was cascading down one and into the next with water crashing over the boat and our anchor thrashing in the bow roller. The wind continued increasing so we decided to reef the solent. I kind of lost it at this point and Lee took control, making the decision to heave-to, collect ourselves, and then tie in the reef. We accomplished that, then hove-to again so Lee could get the reef ties in the rest of the solent, securing the baggy foot of the reefed sail.
We got Pirat back on course but it wasn’t long before even the triple reefed main and reefed solent seemed like too much. The wind was gusting above 30 knots and the waves were getting HUGE! I didn’t know what to do, which freaked me out. Lee was equally befuddled. Should we take down the main or the solent? Should we put up the storm jib? We were about to take down the solent when I decided the main should be the one to go. That was east to take down, since most of it was reefed away already.
As the sun began to set, I cowered on the floor of the cockpit and Lee stood at the helm with a worried expression on his face. Every other gargantuan wave seemed to thrown Pirat up, down, and sideways. Gust-wave combinations conspired to bring the boat farther over on her side as the rigging howled and the rudder squeaked (yes, the rudder squeaks). We were heading into the farthest offshore part of our passage, the part where the coast makes kind of an elbow at NY city. It seemed like the waves and wind were only going to get more extreme as we got farther from land and a night of fear and uncertainty lay ahead. Pirat still felt overpowered with the reefed solent. We didn’t know what sail combination would be right and we were feeling timid about making a headsail change to the storm jib in the dark with the vicious waves.
It was time to make a decision. Lee figured our options were to keep going or tack and head for the coast of Long Island, about 20 miles away. We’d be sailing all night and most of the next day if we kept heading for Cape May. Most of that night would be spent 30 miles or so off shore. With the wind and waves building beyond what was forecast, we were overwhelmed. Or, as Lee said at one point, “over-our-headed”. We tacked.
Tacking did not improve the conditions at all but at least we were heading towards relief. I opted to cower down below for a while and Lee joined me eventually, seeking relief from the relentless cascades of water. Luckily, we can use the AIS on our new VHF radio to keep an eye on any approaching boats down below. the AIS had already helped us avoid some big ships earlier in the day and it made staying below decks possible in the rough weather. Lee popped his head up once in a while to see if there was anything to see.
It wasn’t long before something else happened. All of a sudden, I heard a loud whirring sound prevail over the howling wind, slapping rigging, and creaking boat. “What’s that sound? Is that the wind generator?” I said. Lee opened the hatch, now completely sealed to guard against waves finding their way down below. The sound instantly got 10 times louder. It was the wind generator. It had gone into Spinning Wheel of Death mode because of too much wind. The motor that provides resistance, generating energy and keeping the generator spinning at a reasonable speed, had shut off. Lee tried to brake the Death Spin with the wiring down below but that didn’t work. He thought maybe the connection on deck had just come loose so he donned his bike helmet and went up to check. Why the bike helmet? When the generator enters Spinning Wheel of Death mode it reaches speeds high enough to put a dangerous amount of force on the blades, potentially causing them to shoot off at whatever is in their path, be that boat or human.
As funny as Lee looked in his red foul weather gear suit and bike helmet, I couldn’t laugh. I was scared to death that he’d be injured on deck. He made it back and the connection was fine. He wanted to go grab the generator’s tail with the boat hook and lasso the thing but I wouldn’t let him. That seemed like a good way to get decapitated. We both resigned ourselves to spending the next few hours down below, hiding from the wind generator. We were afraid to go on deck to do anything with the sails, even though the wind was increasing rather than decreasing.
We ate some trail mix and pita bread. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Maybe it was the exhausting day thursday (more on that at some point) and the 4am morning and maybe it was the hours of shear terror taking their toll. I laid down on the lee bunk and fell asleep instantly. Lee monitored things for the next hour and a half as Pirat careened towards Long Island. I awoke when we were a few miles off and reluctantly got ready to go back on deck.
We formulated a plan: 2 miles out, start the engine, take down the solent, motor into a gap between two fish trap areas shown on the chart. Anchor in about 25 feet of water, just off the beach. We had also been considering an inlet nearby but it looked sketchy and we weren’t able to point to it sailing upwind towards the shore so that option was out. Heaving-to just offshore was also an option, but anchoring seemed like a better choice. Anchoring is something we can do well.
Lee and I executed the plan. The wind had decreased to 20-25 knots and the waves were insignificant compared to their offshore brethren. Still, anchoring was quite a challenge and Lee pulled it off masterfully. All we could see onshore were lights, from houses we assumed. Lee went after the wind generator with his helmet on again. He hooked it, turned it around to stop the spin, and tied it up with w sail tie. We monitored our anchoring job to make sure the boat was holding but were in our bunks at midnight.

Lee and his nemesis the day after their battle.

I slept. I don’t think Lee did much. In any case, things much better in the morning, although we felt rather stunned and defeated. We sat around talking about what we should have done and what we would do now. After getting a taste of real, serious sailing we were having second thoughts about our plan. At the hight of the chaos the night before we’d vowed we’d give it all up if we could instantly end what was going on then. The “get me out of here now!” feeling took over. In the morning, we were out of the scariness but felt like we’d had a close call and barely made it out.
We motored up the coast of Long Island, since were were closer to the North end, and docked in Montauk for the night. The harbor was depressing but we got Pirat washed off and all evidence of the previous night’s wreckage erased.
Yesterday we left Montauk for Stonington, CT back on the mainland. We almost couldn’t get off the dock, actually. The wind was holding us onto it from directly abeam and no amount of reverse or forward, even against a dock line, would get us off. Lee pulled out the throwing anchor, heaved it off the bow, and it held after a few tries. He managed to pull the bow far enough away from the dock (while I moved fenders around on the stern) that I could drive off in forward. Yay throwing anchor!

Pirat, all clean but pinned to the dock in Montauk.

The sail was a short 16 miles but the wind cranked from around 20-30 knots. We did a little experiment: starting with the storm jib, finding out we couldn’t point (duh), adding the double reefed main, and then eventually going down to 3 reefs. The storm jib rocked! It was so tiny but we moved along at 6-7 knots close hauled.
We pulled into Stonington and anchored at sunset. This morning we motored down the Connecticut coast a few miles to Mystic, where we weaseled up the river, through a couple bridges that had to open for us, and past the Mystic Seaport historical village. We anchored in the designated spot after a bit of maneuvering in the tight, shallow quarters. It was ridiculously cold the whole time – below freezing with the wind chill, I’d guess.

Here it is, our first video! I took this yesterday as we beat over to Stonington.

Now we’re cozied up in a cafe in Mystic, guzzling the internet. After reflecting on Friday night for a couple days we’ve come up with a new philosophy, revised approach to the sail south, and some rules to follow.
– Don’t get cocky – stay cautious for a reason – take it slow.
– No more over-nights for a while – we’re going down Long Island sound, offshore around NJ cause we have to and outside the Chesapeake cause it’s not that far and inside would take way too long. Then we’re probably taking the ICW inside Hatteras (no desire to conquer the cape right now). We’re probably hit up the ICW as much as we can going south and just take things one day at a time when we need to. At least once we get down there it will be warm.
– Lee is also working on getting a drogue, which would act as an emergency brake at sea in drastic situations.
– When we’re thinking of reefing the solent, just go to the storm jib. The solent is still a big sail and Pirat is sensitive to headsail size.
– Remove all bedding and mattresses form forward bunk when sailing in serious stuff so we can shove a headsail down there if we need to change.

Tomorrow we’re heading south again, maybe to Stratford or somewhere between here and there. This feels somewhat like our trip down the sound last spring only we’re much, much more seasoned than we were then.

Here’s some pictures from the past few days.

Death sail

Stonington to Mystic

Newport is a nice place. Of all the ports where we could be stuck, I’m glad we’re stuck here. The weather just isn’t cooperating for a hop to Cape May, NJ, or even Sandy Hook, NJ on the northern end of the state. The wind vacillates around the West/Southwest/South directions, none of which are ideal for where we want to go because we need to go exactly those directions! It’s not that we mind sailing upwind, we’d just rather not have to actually tack back and forth. The waves are also kinda big and high wind + thunderstorms are in the forecast as well.
At least Newport has a lot to offer. Lee and I been spending way too much time in front of our computers. To balance that out, we’ve been running almost every morning. This is such a great place to run! We shower at the Seaman’s Institute onshore and bike to various other destinations.
Friday and Saturday nights we hung out with Lee’s college friend Mr. C and his girlfriend Sri, who live in Tiverton, RI. They took us to an amazing restaurant in Newport and then made us dinner at their house the next night. We’re getting kinda spoiled! Tomorrow night they’re coming to the boat for dinner so at least I get a chance to reciprocate.
This is what we saw when we were getting ready to go ashore on Friday.

A boat on fire not that far from us. It was a small sailboat that looked abandoned. It burst into flames, burned to a crisp (losing sail, rigging, and mast), and sank in less than 10 minutes. We took pictures. The anchor line burned through pretty quick and the boat drifted downwind fast. It was blowing 25 knots all day. The harbor master came over to check it out and make sure there was no one onboard and the fire department watched from shore. Another boat at anchor escaped a flaming end by only a few feet as the fireball boat drifted past.
We think wet batteries probably started the fire. That’s why we have boat insurance!

We couldn’t get tokens for the showers today because all the SI employees had gone home by the time we got there. I wasn’t too keen on letting the sweat from our run marinate on me overnight but there’s nothing I can do! I sponged off a bit and put on more deodorant : )

We made it to Newport! It really does feel fantastic to be here and know how hard we worked to get here (even if it isn’t that far compared to where we’re eventually going!). The passage was windy, wet, rough, cold, and long. It wasn’t any longer than we thought it would be but it felt more like 3 days than 2. Sunday night totally counted as a day.
Lee, his dad, and I left Bremen around 9:30 on Sunday morning in a brisk wind and sunny skies. We went straight to the solent a a single reefed main, since we knew the wind would only increase. I’m so, so glad we started with the solent. It served us well for the rest of the trip.

The wind was a bit finicky all day on Sunday. It died before a brief band of rain and clouds. It wasn’t coming from the forecast direction so we were on a higher point of sail than we’d anticipated. The waves were there but they weren’t huge. It sure was cold though. I was dressed like I was going skiing.
By sunset the wind was up around 20-22 knots and we were close/beam reaching along with the solent and a double reefed main. Pirat was making about 7-8 knots with waves rolling under the windward side. It was a wet, rough ride. We all wore our harnesses/lifejackets and clipped in whenever we were on deck. It was too rough to heat the stew Lee’s mom made for us to take so I threw some cold hot dogs (and soy dogs!) on buns. Yum!

I took the first shift. I was pretty nervous going into it. Something about sailing in the dark freaks me out for a little while but I get used to it eventually. You can’t see the waves. The ocean’s texture is all weird and everything just feels more extreme. Lee’s dad stayed with me for a few minutes in the beginning of my shift, which was very comforting. Once I was on my own I actually felt really relaxed. I kept moving to stay warm. Sitting in one place made my butt cold! The moon was bright. The stars were out. The boat was sailing super fast. Then the wind started picked up. I crouched on the cockpit floor and watched the knot meter creep up towards 25 in the gusts. Pirat was rolling quite a bit with every gust and wave. The auto pilot was doing a good job but definitely working hard. Reluctantly, I called Lee and curt up to put a third reef in the main. We had to thread the third reefing line through the reef clew, since we don’t use it much and therefore left it out. It wasn’t too difficult of a procedure, even in the dark. I’m glad we did it. The boat felt much more under control. The wind did die down a bit after that but we were still going plenty fast.
The rest of the night continued about the same way. Lee shook out the third reef on his own, then we all got up and put it back in before his dad’s shift (the last one). That was when things were at their roughest. It was my turn to stay on deck with Lee’s dad to watch a freighter cross our path. We used our new AIS tracking doodad to figure out whether boats were going to hit us. It was great!

We made it to the Cape Cod Canal around 8:30 on Monday morning. On the other side, Buzzards bay dished up 15 knot wind gusting to 30. It’s hard to keep sailing when you only slept 2.5 hours the night before! In any case, we got to Newport right on schedule on Monday night. The wind continued to the end but I managed to bake muffins (albeit under-cooked muffins) before we arrived. Lee’s mom met us on shore after we picked up a mooring. We showered in the hotel where Lee’s parents were spending the night, went out to dinner, and then totally crashed. The sailors looked and acted like zombies. We were sooooo tired.
Yesterday we all went to Connecticut to visit Lee’s grandmother. Her home is in a rural area with lots of farms and it’s so beautiful. After a day of visiting and working in the yard, Lee and I returned to the boat and relaxed in our home before another much needed good night’s sleep!

Here’s the pictures from the trip!

Maine to Newport

So here I am, sitting in the cafe at the Seaman’s Church Institute, an old organization that supports those who live on the sea. There are showers, a cafe, laundry, library, chapel, and of course WiFi! I’m certainly enjoying it!
We will probably be here for a while. The weather doesn’t look good to get out of here this week and Hood sails is fixing out undersized hanks. Meanwhile, I’m going to revel in Newport’s fall beauty, go running, hang out here, blog as much as I can, and continue to put things together on the boat. It never ends.

I’m really getting into this whole fall thing. It’s beautiful! There are apples and giant pumpkins everywhere. It feels like really Fall rather than a season contrived for selling Halloween candy. The temperature is just about perfect, although I can tell it’s cold enough to motivate us to move south.
Pirat went back into the water on Monday. I can’t get over how spectacular the boat looks when it’s out of the water, especially compared to other boats around.
We only had one, small mishap putting the boat in. When Lee started driving out of the haul-out slip the wind pushed Pirat sideways just enough to sideswipe a rust metal covered piling with the port rail. We were so close to missing it and a boat yard guy and I tried to fend the boat off (just a little too late). The rail is now missing about 4 inches of gel coat, all the way down to the fiberglass in places. It’s really not too bad but the boat yard generously offered to provide us with awlgrip in the correct color to fix it. They were kind of rushing us out of the slip and the guys on the windward side of the boat could have been holding their lines a bit tighter. All in all, it was refreshing to have them take responsibility for something that happened at least partially on their watch.
Lee motored Pirat back to our anchorage in front of Fish Lane by himself because I was at an appointment. He’s been working on the engine alignment and seems to have that figured out now. He also installed our new holding tank (Yay!).
Today we brought the boat into the dock at high tide to scrub the deck. Lee scrubbed while I took all the floorboards out from down below and gave them a good scrubbing on the dock. It’s actually kind of handy to be able to remove your whole floor and wash it in small pieces without having to get down on your hands and knees. I don’t think the floor has ever been so clean! That should last all of 15 minutes…
A storm is moving through tomorrow so Pirat is battened down at anchor again. I’m tying up projects like a new mattress pad for our bunk, food provisions, laundry, and wedding planning! Yes, I found time during our busy preparations to sail to work on the wedding. We officially have a date and a place so I can finally start working on save-the-date cards. Yay! Looking forward to the wedding makes me even more excited to get to the Caribbean.
Our new intended departure is set for Sunday morning. That should keep us out of the system passing through and get us to the Cape Cod Canal on Monday morning.

Here’s some more pictures from the launching.

Back in the water

Yesterday Lee and I washed and waxed Pirat’s topsides (the sides of the boat above the waterline). Actually, we washed twice: once on Thursday and then again yesterday because we had to come back to try to get a few more stains off. A kind boatyard employee brought us a little Fiberglass Stain Remover (FSR) when she heard our frustration at not being able to get the bottom white stripe clean. The FSR brought the stripe from a dingy yellowish-brown to brilliant white again! Pirat was instantly 100% better looking!
Other marks on the hull weren’t so easy to remove so we decided not to proceed with the polishing until we figured out how to get them out. When we perused the Awlgrip website for answers, we discovered that they recommend using hardcore solvents like MEK (I have no idea what this stands for but it’s intense).Yesterday we tried the MEK and it worked on a few more spots but not on everything. At least we got the random greasy, gritty brown spot off the port side!
Next it was time to wash again! We had to get rid of the MEK we’d applied so we broke out the Awlwash (special product for our topsides paint that Lee’s parents happened to have). It was a very blustery day so water sprayed all over the place. At least it wasn’t too cold. We developed a routine for spraying, scrubbing, and moving the ladder. I felt like I was washing a whale!
With washing and hand-drying complete, it was time for wax! It’s not really wax, actually, just some other fancy Awlgrip product that’s supposed to shine things up and create a barrier coat over the paint. Lee and I did one side at a time, applying the goop with a rag, letting it dry, and then rubbing it off. The result? Smudgy but shiny. Pirat’s paint job is a bit dulled and smudgy from her hard boat life, so we really just shined up a blemished surface. Despite this, the topsides look fabulous! I could see the sunset reflecting on the side of the boat as we were leaving.

This afternoon Lee is reinstalling the auto pilot after giving up on Simrad and adding his own pressure relief valve. Hopefully it works! I really think it will. Lee did a fantastic job figuring out what needed to be done and doing it.
I’m sorting through stuff and picking up necessary items as I think of them. Yesterday it was paper towels, sponges, trash bags, ziplock bags, soap, mouthwash etc. from Target. Today I snagged some Bob’s Red Mill (my favorite grains), tea, and pots at Reny’s.
Now I’m going to start working on an old family cookie recipe that my dad’s cousin Lisa sent in the mail. Heirloom recipes are so exciting!

So much to do and so little time seems like the wrong thing to say in this situation. We’ve been hanging out in Maine all summer and it seems like everything we need to do before we leave for real has been put off till these last couple weeks. Certain things, like the auto pilot, have been much more drawn out processes than we anticipated. Who knew we’d have to send the thing in twice just to have it sent back to us in the same state of disrepair…twice. Yes, our auto pilot is a disaster. It’s a good thing Lee can pretty much fix it himself. He can at least keep an eye on it’s leakage and air problems so we hopefully won’t be left without an auto pilot in the middle of the night in a storm. That would be inconvenient.
We are making a lot of improvements to the boat for this second round of real-deal cruising. The one I’m most excited about it the new, custom made, 316 stainless steel holding tank. It is truly a thing of beauty, especially compared to the plastic holding tank we installed last spring. The plastic tank held 6 gallons of, well, waste. The new tank holds something like 20 gallons. That means we can go much longer without having the tank pumped out. What’s even better, though, is that the new tank won’t make the boat smell like…waste. Odors leech through plastic tanks. We knew that when we bought ours but we didn’t have a choice. We needed a tank! No odors are getting out of our stainless tank! Nothing beats a fresh smelling boat!
Other boat improvements include:

AIS receiving VHF radio
Outboard engine for the dinghy
Modified stern stantion with outboard mount
Pressure cooker and blender for the galley
Comfy mattress pad on our bed
Various valves
Various electric stuff
Thingy to cut off the life raft if we need it

…the list goes on.

Lee and I will be spending our last week in Maine buffing the topsides, servicing through hulls, reinstalling the auto pilot, inspecting, organizing, cleaning, provisioning, getting rid of stuff, watching the weather, and soaking up as much internet and TV use as we can squeeze in.
We went for a little hike up to the old Bremen fire tower the other day. It was a beautiful fall day and I got all sentimental about leaving Maine. I like it here!