Aboard Lady

Cristobal threatens!

Portland, Maine 43 39.230N 070 15.037W

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

A rainy day, our first one in Maine.  We did boat chores.  We may stay here longer than anticipated because of more rain. We are watching out for tropical storm Cristobal, that Dr Jeff Masters says will swing by Maine.  Glad we are not in Iceland getting the remains of Bertha - the lumpy swells in calm seas we had the past couple of days were enough of that storm.

Isles of Shoals

Friday July 18th, 2008 42 58.750N 070 36.693W

We dropped the mooring at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead early Friday morning and headed out in to Massachusetts Bay.  There was not much wind, so we motored around Cape Ann in to the Bigelow Bight heading slightly east of north, thinking that Portsmouth, New Hampshire might be our next destination.

Our Sirius weather did not seem to be working.  We could hear that NOAA was broadcasting expected thunderstorms for later in the day, and the Coast Guard was also issuing weather warnings, not something they do routinely.  Although the sea was calm, there were large swells that made us glad we had taken our sea-sickness medication before we left.  These swells are the after-effect of tropical storm Bertha.

I reviewed the first part of our Maine guidebook, and it indicated that the Isles of Shoals were "not to be missed".  Well, we were going right past them, so we changed plans and headed in to the harbor.  These islands to not have many permanent residents.  There are a number of moorings in the small Gosport Harbor, some provided by New Hampshire yacht clubs for their members, others privately owned.  The custom seemed to be "first come, first served", so we picked up what seemed to be a stout looking mooring, labeled "MacIntosh" and listened to the weather forecasts. 

We were amazed to find that we had cell phone coverage, so after trying everything he could to get the Sirius weather working, Charlie called Raymarine's Technical Support.  He had had amazing service from them in the past, and this time was no exception.  He was soon talking to a technician, and punching buttons on the unit to bring up menus he had never seen before, and the diagnosis was that Sirius was not sending us a signal.  Another call to Sirius customer support (English was not the first language of that person) determined that our subscription had expired after six months, and so they stopped transmitting.  We hope that now they will automatically renew every six months.

A few more boats came in to the harbor.  Some were local residents, and boats that were on their moorings were asked to move.  The harbor also had lots of lobster pot floats, and one boat had a float caught around the mooring they were trying to drop - that looked like a mess!  Late in the afternoon the storm hit.  Just before it started a couple more boats came in to the harbor and picked up what seemed to be the last two moorings.  One was very close to us and as the storm started and torrential rain fell, our two boats verged closer to each other.  Charlie and the other boat's skipper were putting out fenders and pushing the boats apart as they swung back and forth away from and close to each other.  We started the engine, just in case we had to evacuate quickly. Most excitement we have had all year!  During the height of the storm, we saw one boat, dinghy trailing, very close to the shore.  Once the storm passed some of the boats left quite quickly, including our friend we had kept pushing off from.  Thank you Mr. MacIntosh for the loan of your stout mooring!

We did not get ashore, but these lovely islands would be worth coming back to and clambering over their rocks.  The state line between New Hampshire and Maine passes through the middle of Gosport Harbor.  We think that we spent part of the storm in one state, and part in the other!

Thar she blows!

Marblehead, Massachusetts 42 30.270N 070 50.454W

July 18th, 2008

After leaving Newport, we had a great sail up Buzzards Bay, and found our way in to Onset Bay, Massachusetts.  A charming marina and quiet town, where we were able to re-provision.

Then we were up early to catch the tides for going through the Cape Cod Canal.  Currents are so swift here, that it's prudent to use the three knot current with you, rather than to fight it.  The canal was quite pretty, and there were cyclists and walkers out in the early morning.

The wind was light, so we motor-sailed across Cape Cod Bay, and fueled up at the Providencetown marina, and got a mooring there for the night. Ashore, the town was full of tourists and trinket shops.  We had a nice trolley tour, and learned that this was the first place the pilgrims landed, but lack of water and tillable land made them push on for Plymouth after a few weeks. There is a monument to the pilgrims.  All the crowds discouraged us from spending another night, so we headed out to Marblehead across Massachusetts Bay.

We had been told in Providencetown that this area is the second best in the world for whale watching (they didn't tell us what the first was).  We were still in sight of land when Charlie saw his first whale.  I was looking the other direction and missed it.  After a while he saw another.  Again I didn't see it.  But, as we got further out in the bay, there they were.  Quite a few of them feeding.  We figured out that the birds were also feeding on all the fish, and there were quite a few recreational fishing boats in the area as well as the whale-watching tour boats from Providencetown and small planes flying overhead.

We spent the night in Marblehead, Massachusetts, at a very nice mooring provided by the Corinthian Yacht Club, where we had a delicious dinner, and met some members who invited us to meet them in Maine when they are up there cruising next month.

Newport, Rhode Island

Friday, July 11th, 2008 to Monday, July 14th, 2008   41 28.789N 071 19.531W

As we motored in to the Eastern Passage of Narragansett Bay, we heard radio chatter about "waste of taxpayer dollars."  Soon the Henry B. Bigelow passed us to port and we could see the vessel the anonymous radio caller was talking about.  We passed by some luxurious resorts on our way to Newport Harbor.

After cruising the harbor, we dropped anchor off the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, named after the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who after saving 18 lives and assuming the duties of her father after his death, was belatedly (10 years later!) hired by the government as the official lighthouse keeper. Even though she could not swim, she was an excellent boat handler and the town showed its appreciation of her by giving her a beautiful wooden row-boat.

We took the dinghy ashore, tying it up at the Newport Yacht Club, which has a reciprocal agreement with Waterfor Harbor Yacht Club, which we joined in Kemah. 

The waterfront area was having a busy Friday afternoon.  Besides taverns, restaurants, high-end shops and T-shirt and inexpensive jewelry stores, there were lots of tourists.

Many years ago, my brother, Nigel Joy (née Pain), worked aboard a tall ship called Black Pearl. At that time, the owner, Barclay Warburton, also owned a restaurant and bar of the same name in Newport.  The business is now owned by someone else, but we enjoyed margaritas at the bar by the water.  One of the bartenders knew Charlie's brother Raleigh, having hung out with mutual friends in their college days...what a small world!

What a fun sculpture!  Apparently it is often adorned with flip-flips, swimsuits and other decorations.

Here's a picture of the cat on the cat anchored next to us.

A number of people on the way had suggested that while we were in this area, we should take a tour of the mansions.  We signed up for a trolley ride that took us around the town, and then on to The Breakers, Cornelius Vanderbilt II's cottage. We loved it as we drove by an area where they were getting ready for a kite competition.  Wouldn't you like to have a 40 foot flying octopus?

At The Breakers, we were not allowed to take pictures indoors, but here's what we guess is the skateboard goddess who graced the entrance portico.  The cottage was an amazing home, used only six to eight weeks a year, built at a cost of $7 million in 1895.  It only took two and a half years to construct the 70 room mansion, and the Italian mosaic artists probably were there the whole time.  Lots of marble and beautiful furnishings of the period.

Following a nice dinner in town, we caught another beautiful sunset, followed by distant fireworks from Jamestown.

Sunday we went ashore for a walking expedition, wanting to see close up some of the areas we had passed the previous day in the trolley.  We stumbled upon the Portuguese festival, right after we had had lunch; we wished we had found it before lunch!

Up on the top of one of the hills is this Old Stone Tower.  Some think that it dates back to when Scandinavians possibly came to this country.  I think that it was more likely to have been built in the 1700's when the rest of the town was being built.

Lots of cool old houses in the neighborhoods.

It got quite hot that afternoon, so a stop by the water was good.

Once we were aboard the dinghy again, we cruised by the Newport branch of the New York Yacht Club.  This might be something that Windycrest Sailing Club in Tulsa could look forward to!

Block Island

Wednesday, July 9th to Friday July 11th, 2008          41 11.536N 071 34.710W

As we prepared to depart the Mystic Seaport Museum, there were a few other boats wanting to go through the Mystic River road bridge at the 9:40 opening. Amistad was taking campers out for a sail that day.

Once we got through the road bridge, we discovered that the railway bridge was closed, and there was also a dredge waiting to go through!

As you can imagine, it was quite a slow trip down the river following that guy.

We had a good sail across Block Island Sound, the wind grew in strength as the day went on.  We  entered the Great Salt Pond on Block Island, cruised the harbor, and not finding any open town moorings, set an anchor.

Craig and Debbie Roser (Charmed) had told us that Hayden and Raydeen Cochran and Island Spirit were in Block Island, so we called them via cell phone to let them know that we had arrived.  It was much too breezy for either of us to think about a dinghy ride; it would have been a wet ride; so we planned to see them the next day.

On Thursday morning, the winds had calmed and we found Island Sprit not too far from us, and arranged to meet Hayden and Raydeen at the town dinghy dock.  They have spent lots of time here in previous years (one year they were here for six weeks), so they were excellent guides as we walked the mile and a half in to town.  The Great Salt Pond, where we were anchored is also known as the New Harbor...it was created by cutting a link from the large pond to the sea.  The original harbor is a lot smaller, but ferries come and go here from the mainland.

We visited the Post Office - no mail delivery on the island, so all the residents have free boxes at the Post Office - and did a couple of other errands and made arrangements for Raydeen and Hayden to join us aboard Lady for dinner.  The town was charming, but SO MUCH TRAFFIC!  I enjoyed a lobster roll for lunch.

On the walk back, we took time to admire one of the 365 (one for each day of the year)fresh-water ponds on the island - this one had lovely water lilies.

There are also some beautiful salt-water creeks.

There are lots of pleasure boats, and lots of boating activity in the New Harbor.

When we got back to Lady, we could hardly fail to notice that a large motor yacht had come in to the harbor, and was anchored practically next to us.  I recognized the name.  Continental Drifter III is owned by our favorite musician. As we went by in the dinghy on our way to the beach Jimmy Buffet waved to us.  What a great guy!  I hope he enjoys his break from concerts.  We certainly enjoy listening to his Sirius channel 31 Radio Margaritaville on this boat.

We beached the dinghy and took the boardwalk to the street, then a short path across the island to the beach. Girls in wet suits were trying to surf; children were playing in the sand; mothers were visiting in the shade.  It wasn't nearly as crowded as some other beaches; there was no charge to be there.

This little dog was enjoying himself playing with a rock.  He buried it; he dug it up; he rolled it around the beach; he rolled it in to the sea; his boy threw it for him and he got it back; it was a hoot to watch him.

Dinghy was still there, along with a dozen others. We are not very good at getting the dinghy off a beach.  I guess we need more practice.   

Hayden and Raydeen came for burgers, and we had loads of fun together. This had to have been a perfect day.

On Friday, as I sipped on coffee early in the morning out in the cockpit, another boat came and anchored close to us.  I couldn't believe it as her stern swung past us.  The hailing port was Tulsa OK!

After breakfast, Charlie hoisted the anchor and we saw someone on deck as we were leaving the harbor.  We went by to meet them.  Sam and Carolyn Bates have been cruising aboard Melaka II for nine years, and we were the first boat from Tulsa that they had seen in all that time.  They gave us some good hints on where to anchor at our next destination.

I can see why Block Island is called Bermuda North.  A lovely place.

Connecticut

New London and Mystic Seaport Museum  41 21.796N 071 57.868W

July 6th, 2008 to July 8th, 2008

As we motored out of Sag Harbor, we were greeted by FOG!

Out in Gardiners Bay there was FOG! Sometimes it was lighter than others, but still rather disconcerting.  Luckily our radar worked great.  One power boat was on a reciprocal course with us, but Charlie contacted them by radio, and we passed each other unseen, although he did reported back that he could hear the horn I sounded!

By early afternoon, the fog had lifted, and we tied up at Burrs Marina in New London.

Our friends on Charmed, Craig and Debbie Roser, had phoned us in Sag Harbor.  If you remember, we first met them on the radio as we left Beaufort, South Carolina, and have since tagged up with them in Wrightsville Beach, Beaufort North Carolina, Annapolis and we even saw them briefly in Baltimore.  They had invited us for dinner Sunday night, and their friends Jan and Mark from At Last joined our group.  A great meal was followed by games of Liars Dice.

Craig and Debbie had use of a car, so on Monday Debbie and I were able to visit the grocery store, before we said goodbye..see you next in Maine...

We followed a submarine out of New London.

The next destination was Mystic Seaport Museum.  We've heard of this wonderful place for many years, so we were excited to finally see it.

The trip up the Mystic River was exquisite.  Loads of boats, impressive homes, peaceful river.

There are two bridges to negotiate in order to get to the museum.  The railway bridge is normally open, unless a train in due.  The highway bridge only opens once an hour during Summer days,  and we had missed one opening by about ten minutes, so we had plenty of time to cruise the river looking at all the boats.

When the bridge opened, it was all north-bound traffic, and soon the Museum appeared to starboard. All the beautifully preserved old ships! 

      

After tying up on the Museum's North Wall, with a dozen or so other visiting boats, the dock-master and his assistant were ready to go home for the day. We walked in town.

The next morning we were eager to explore the museum.  The Charles W Morgan was a whaling ship. The staff were so friendly and anxious to inform us of all kinds of aspects of life at sea on a whaling ship.

We went over to the shipyard where Charlie was fascinated by engines.  He reported to me that most of these huge machines had no more horese power than the Yanmar diesel we have on Lady!

The campus has lots of houses, furnished like a village in the 1870's.  If any readers have been to Har-Ber Village on Grand Lake, Oklahoma, it reminded me of that, except that the houses were not quite as full of stuff as Har-Ber Village. Not just people's homes, but their business too...the grocer, the pharmacist and doctor, the cooper who made barrels, the instrument maker, the newspaper and printer.  There were vegetable and parlor gardens.  Many of the homes had a staff member who told stories about what went on in the establishment.

We also saw some of the special exhibits on voyages and living in the ice.

Some of the big ships are being used as Summer Camps for kids.  They have fun all day and learn to sail too!

Later in the afternoon, we walked back in to town, where the major purchase was another hat for Charlie.

         

Sag Harbor

Thursday July 3rd to Saturday July 5th, 2008            41 00.293N 072 16.986W

Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York

It was quite entertaining Thursday morning to watch the kids from a local camp enjoying dinghy sailing.   The wind had piped up quite a bit, and soon two or three of the boats had capsized.  The rescue boat and  counselors knew what to do, and it did not take long for them to right themselves and be off again.  We hoped that son Mike was having as much fun at Camp Mishawaka in Minnesota.

 If we were on this mega yacht with a helicopter on the top, brother-in-law Jeremy from New Zealand might have been able to join us! ab

Ashore on Thursday, we found out that Sag Harbor's fireworks were NOT to be on the 4th of July!  (They were scheduled for the 5th!)  Also, there was NO parade!  According to what I could find out, the parade was to be in Southampton.  The information office provided us with a schedule of buses to Southampton from Sag Harbor, but apparently all the people working at the bus company took the afternoon off on Thursday, as nobody would answer the phone.  Later, I read a newspaper report (on-line) that proudly stated that Southampton was expecting 20,000+ visitors for their parade, so we quickly decided that the parade was off our agenda.

  Despite no parade, and no fireworks on Independence Day, we decorated Lady, dressed ourselves in patriotic colors and headed ashore for a visit to the Whaling Museum and the old Customs house (reduced prices if you go to both, which isn't difficult as they are next-door to each other.)

We were particularly interested in the exhibit that admitted that today's oil and gas industry was most responsible for saving the whales; Charlie had argued this with neighbor Beth Robinowitz in Tulsa, years ago!

The town was very busy, but it didn't seem quite like the fourth of July with all the traffic, few people dressed in red, white and blue...but this is The Hamptons...

On our way back to Lady, we cruised close by some of the mega-yachts in port and in the anchorage.  By now, some of them had decided to put up some decorations.

Later we saw two of the big boats rafted together!

So, we had to stay another night, in order to get the holiday fireworks fix!  On Saturday we went to the weekly Sag Harbor Farmers Market, and purchased some lovely cheese, bread, mint, honey and a few vegetables. 

We were amazed as we cruised by the yachts in the slips to see one apparently getting ready for a dance as they hoisted the sparkle ball and twinkly lights!

Despite rain showers, we fixed a classic fireworks night dinner of burgers from the grill, tabouli and potato salads.

 Yachts all around were getting ready for the show, which was great! (The rain stopped in time.)

Long Island Sound

Thursday July 3rd, 2008 41 00.293N 072 16.986W

Sag Harbor, New York - Long Island

We enjoyed our stay at Oyster Bay last week.  We met Fred and Barbara Shannon on another Catalina 470, 2nd Wind.

After launching the dinghy, we found a place to tie up at the town marina and explored the town.  We visited an interesting museum, the Raynham Hall Museum, a beautifully maintained home dating from pre-revolutionary times.

We ate a splendid lunch at the Baykery Cafe.

We found a lovely market to pick up a few groceries, and Charlie got to pet a horse.

The off and on rain Saturday afternoon rewarded us with a lovely rainbow.

Sunday morning, after hoisting the anchor, we left Oyster Bay and motored around Cold Springs Harbor, admiring the swans and luxurious homes on the shore.

Out on Long Island Sound, the wind was very light.

An amazing sailing yacht appeared out of the haze on a reciprocal course.  According to the web-site I found about her, Adele is a recently custom-built yacht that has cruised the world.

Eventually, the wind came up, and we had a lovely sail down (or is is up?) Long Island Sound to Port Jefferson. 

The homes here are more modest that those of Oyster Bay, but it looks like they have a long hike down to the beach, so the huts on the beach are probably pretty handy!

After dodging ferries coming and going, we decided to anchor behind a beach call Old Fields.  We overlooked marshes astern, and a pretty empty mooring field off the bow.

Charlie cooked us steak for dinner!

On Monday we had similar weather patterns - light wind in the morning, so we started out under power, then filling in after noon.  We had a lovely sail down/up Long Island Sound until we got to the light at Plum Gut.

We turned in to Gardiners Bay, then rounded the Long Beach Shoal Light to enter Orient Harbor.  Soon we were threading our way in to Stirling Basin, and docked at Townsend Manor Marina and Inn in Greenport.

We had an enjoyable couple of days there.  We used the marina's facilities to do laundry, wash all the salt off Lady's decks and clean inside.  Made new friends on the dock, ate some nice meals ashore, then we were off again.

We decided to start off going counter-clockwise around Shelter Island. After motoring in to the wind, we turned south and unfurled sails.  Lovely reaches down Shelter Island Sound and into Noyack Bay.  The homes on the shore were impressive.  It amazed me that huge dwellings would have been built on top of a large sand dune.  Some of them looked like most of their yard on the shore had slid away!

We approached highly-recommended Sag Harbor.  We noticed large motor yachts at anchor, and sailing yachts on moorings outside the breakwater.

We slowly motored through the breakwater, and cruised around the docks and outer harbor.  It was quite apparent that the harbor was full, so we went back outside and anchored with the big yachts.

The ship's cook made an excellent dinner, which we enjoyed as the sun set.   Looks like the holiday weekend will be fun!