Watch Hill

Sunday, July 31:  We woke to a cool, crisp morning with light wind and blue skies.  It is supposed to get to the upper 80s later.  After breakfast, Ted went for a long swim over to a rock pile jutting out of the water near our boat, Sheila read a book, and I worked on my blog.

We have a short distance to go to meet up with Stephanie & Lance on MerSea at Watch Hill, RI, this afternoon, so we can afford to spend a leisurely morning here in Fisher’s Island harbor.

After lunch, we weighed the anchor and set out NE across Long Island Sound for Watch Hill.  The wind had come up from the south to about 12 kt and gave us a nice reach under sails, alone.  There were lots of boats in the Sound, going every direction imaginable.  We had to keep a sharp lookout for crossing situations.  We also had over a knot of following current, which helped us make good time.  It was a glorious day to be on the water.

Stephanie had arranged a mooring ball for us through the Watch Hill Yacht Club.  As we approached the harbor, we called the club on the VHF to get a mooring assignment.  In a few minutes, we were securely tied up to the mooring.

 

MerSea was moored just a few boats away from ours.  The next thing we knew, here comes Stephanie rowing over in her dinghy to welcome us to Watch Hill.  We invited her aboard and after chatting for a while, we spent a few minutes discussing our plans for the rest of this cruise together.

Stephanie said she had a friend that has a little cabana within sight of our boats and they had invited us over for happy hour at 5:30.  We considered this for about 2 seconds and quickly accepted this gracious invitation!

The cabana couldn’t have been more than eight feet wide, but had a great view of the ocean out the front and of the harbor with all the moored boats out the back.  We enjoyed meeting and chatting with Stephanie’s friends and the great happy hour spread they laid out for us.  While we were there, we looked out on the ocean side just before sunset and saw two large classic schooners going by under full sails. 

The three of us, plus Lance and Stephanie then went out to dinner at the Olympia Tea Room and had a nice time catching up on our separate journeys up to this point.

Fisher’s Island

Saturday, July 30:  We had a leisurely morning on the boat at Mystic, including a nice bacon and eggs breakfast and some boat cleaning and provisioning.  Then, at mid-morning, we set out in Long Island Sound for a fun sail “where the wind blows” as we had only a short distance to go to our next anchorage at Fisher’s Island, CT.

It is Saturday and there were a lot of boats out and about, both sail and power.  It was a beautiful day, with high in the upper 80s, blue skies with some clouds, and good wind.  We sailed around in the Sound for a while, dodging boats, throwing lots of tacks, and just having a good time.

As we were heading for Fisher’s Island harbor, a small piece of hardware fell to the deck with a loud clack from somewhere high in the rigging.  We could not tell where it came from and nothing bad happened, leaving us both puzzled and concerned.

We anchored out in the harbor, had lunch and went ashore to rent bikes at the Gold n Silver shop.  We rode all over the island and got some spectacular views of the Sound with all the boats and a lighthouse.

Had an early dinner on the outside patio of the Pequot Inn, then dropped our bikes off at the bike shop and walked back to the marina to dinghy back to the boat.

Back on board, Ted started investigating the source of the falling hardware and eventually found that it had come from one of the top-most slides that holds the main sail to the mast.  This was a great relief, because while important, this hardware could not have resulted in a major rigging failure.  We will all sleep better tonight, having fixed this problem.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to meet up with our cruise leaders, Stephanie & Lance, on their Jeanneau 37, MerSea, at Watch Hill, RI.  They are the only other boat on this cruise and they took the “inside” route, up the Chesapeake Bay, through the C&D canal, to Delaware Bay and points north.  This did require them to do an overnight sail to get past New Jersey.

Mystic On The Rocks

Friday, July 29:  We left Block Island this morning, headed for Mystic, CT.  We were well into the entrance channel to Mystic harbor and had already passed several marinas and large mooring fields, when we decided to drop our sails.  We picked a spot to turn out of the channel, so we could go head-to-wind and drop the main.

It was noon and we were going past a moored boat to then make our final turn into the wind, when…. CRUNCH!!!  We ran hard aground in the pebbly bottom!  Ugh!

We quickly sprang into action, launching the dinghy, getting the kedge anchor ready, and loading it into the dinghy.  Ted first took the kedge about 200 feet out on our starboard side and dropped it into the water.  Coleman and I wrapped the line around a winch and started bringing it in.  At first, the kedge seemed to have a good set in the bottom, as the line got really tight.  However, Bottlenose refused to budge, so we continued to crank on the winch.

While Bottlenose still didn’t budge, the kedge apparently broke free from the bottom as we cranked and it slid across the bottom without re-setting.  So, Ted hauled the kedge back into the dinghy and this time took it astern (the way we came in) and re-dropped it.  It got a good set and Coleman and I cranked the line in with the winch until the line was very tight, but Bottlenose seemed unimpressed with our effort.

Using the dinghy, Ted took a hand-held depth finder all around the boat to see where the deepest water was.  It was indeed behind us, so we knew the kedge was in the right location.

Next, Ted went for a swim to see how badly aground we were.  It was pretty bad.  The full length of both keels was solidly on the pebbly bottom and the bows were sitting a foot above their normal water line and getting higher out of the water with each passing minute.

We were at about half tide and it was falling.  Not a good situation.  Low tide was a little before 3 pm and the next high tide would be around 9 pm.  The tide range is only a little over 2 feet.  So, it could be 9 pm before we have our best chance of getting unstuck – and maybe not even then.  So, we prepared ourselves for a long afternoon on the boat to wait for the tide.

We called the Mystic Shipyard West marina where we had reserved a slip for the night, to tell them what happened and that we would be late.  The dockmaster said he would like to come over in his small powered barge (used to permanently anchor mooring balls) to see if he could get us free.  He couldn’t.

Now, today was the day that Coleman was going to leave Bottlenose and go home for a week to take care of a prior commitment.  He had talked my wife, Sheila, into driving his truck here to Mystic and then trading places with him on Bottlenose, while he drove home in the truck.  Sheila was arriving in Mystic, about the time we ran aground, so we called her as soon as we could to advise her of our predicament.

Before the dockmaster left us, Coleman asked him if he would take him back to the marina on the barge to meet Sheila.  He agreed.

Once on shore, Coleman drove with Sheila closer to where Bottlenose was aground.  Then, Ted went to shore in the dinghy to get Sheila with her bags and brought her back to the boat, so Coleman could go ahead and take off for home in his truck.  As it was, he would be getting home late, if he drove straight through.

Ted and I welcomed Sheila to Bottlenose and she got settled in, while we continued to wait for the tide.

Around 4:30, the boat started to bob a little in the building chop of the harbor and at 5:00 it broke free!  We quickly got the engines started, because we were drifting toward a moored boat, and were careful to retrieve the kedge anchor and rode in a way that prevented the rode from getting tangled in the propellers.

We were thrilled that we got off so early, now we can go to our marina and have dinner ashore at the Captain Daniel Packer Inne. 

Back at the boat after dinner, Ted and I sat up til midnight talking about everything under the sun and solving all the world’s problems.

Last Night At Sea, Arrival at Block Island

Thursday, July 28:  At the stroke of midnight this morning, my Wednesday night watch was over.  As I went to bed, the night was beautiful.  Starry skies, clear, cool, and with light wind.  We sailed through most of the wee morning hours, until the wind dropped to almost nothing around 5 am and Ted cranked the engines to motor sail the rest of the way in.

We arrived at Block Island, RI, at 8:50 am, almost exactly 72 hours after we left Hampton, VA.  We dropped our sails and motored into Great Salt Pond (aka, New Harbor) and found a nice spot to anchor near the eastern edge of the anchorage.

Now that we are here, our plan is to rendezvous in the next few days with our sailing club mates and cruise leaders, Stephanie and Lance on MerSea and then spend the next week or so exploring Long Island Sound with them.

We relaxed on the boat for a while, then dinghyed to shore and rented bikes.  We rode all over the island – a total distance of about 15 miles or so.  It has three major light houses and we checked them out and took a lot of pictures.  It also has lots of hills, so Coleman and I were having a tough time keeping up with Ted, who seemed to have no trouble with peddling up them.

When we came back to the boat, Ted went for a swim, while Coleman and I took naps!  Sufficiently recovered, we dinghyed back ashore for a nice dinner.

Back on the boat, Ted and Coleman got into a serious game of chess.  They asked me to use my new smart phone to Google a chess term:  “en passant.”  What?

Settling Into A Routine

Wednesday, July 27:  My first watch this morning was 3 to 6 am.  The visibility was much better than last night and cooler and dryer.  So much so that I was looking for long pants and a long sleeved shirt.  The wind was light to moderate and the sea was much calmer.  We were sailing on a broad reach.

I just enjoyed the peaceful night, watching distant traffic and looking at the stars.

Our maximum distance offshore for this trip was 60 miles.  I was hoping that our cell phone and internet service would work at least 10 or 20 miles offshore, but in fact, we lost the signal at around 5 miles out.  Consequently, we had no connection with the outside world for most of our offshore passage.

Daytime brought continued good weather with light to moderate wind that had clocked around until we were close hauled.  We determined that we were likely to get to Block Island before sunrise on Thursday, so we continued sailing, even when the wind was light and the boat was going more slowly, so we could arrive in daylight.

During my 9 pm to midnight watch this evening, I was looking up at the stars….and saw a small meteor streaking across the sky!

Standing Watch Alone At Night At Sea

Tuesday, July 26:  Yesterday we began the ocean voyage portion of our trip, sailing 24 hours per day.  This required the three of us to work out a schedule so that someone is always on watch in the cockpit.  We decided on a “three on, six off” schedule.

Coleman took the first watch at 9 am yesterday, Ted took over at Noon, I took over at 3 pm, and so on for the next 72 hours.

My first night watch was midnight to 3 am, this morning.  It was creepy because I could not see what was on the water unless it had lights.  However, I soon got used to watching the radar screen for a blip.  When I saw one, I would first look in the indicated direction, then if I could not see anything, I would use my binoculars and could usually see some lights.  Then, I would check back with the radar periodically to see if any of the blips were headed our way.

The weather was pleasantly cool for my watch and warmed up to around 80 during the day.  At 9 am, we started our second full day of rotating watches.  So far, each of us has appeared on deck on time and has safely navigated the boat for the full watch.

We motor sailed in light wind until around 10 am, then the wind picked up enough for us to raise our sails and get a boat speed of over 4 kt.  Later, the wind picked up even more and was behind the beam, so we furled the jib and raised the spinnaker.  What a nice run!  This is what ocean sailing should be!

As the day wore on, the wind and waves continued to increase.  The wind was now almost directly astern and we were having trouble keeping the spinnaker filled.  Ted showed us a technique he discovered on his last cruise – namely that he could sail Bottlenose “wing-on-wing” with the spinnaker on one side and the main on the other!  This allowed us to go dead down wind, with both main and spinnaker pulling nicely.

The ocean waves were confused.  We had large, long period swells coming toward our starboard side, while shorter period, wind-driven waves were coming toward our port side.  This created a very choppy wave pattern, which repeatedly slammed under Bottlenose’s bridge deck every few seconds, making the boat shudder and slow down.  This continued for some hours, but Bottlenose continued to keep up a decent speed.  She is one tough boat! 

As evening approached, the wind began to slack, so around 9 pm, we took the spinnaker down (we don’t use it at night anyway, since there is only one person on watch and it is too much for one person to handle) and continued to sail wing-on-wing with the main and jib, toward midnight.

Out to the North Atlantic

Monday, July 25:  Coleman fixed us a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and biscuits, which were wonderful!  Then, around 9 am, we left HYC, raised our sails, headed out through the main shipping channel, passed over the Bay Bridge-Tunnel, out the mouth of the Chesapeake, and into the Atlantic.

On our way out, we saw several large freighters and navy ships coming and going, including a submarine!  It was on the surface, going pretty fast.  The sail of the sub was fully visible, while its hull was mostly under water.

Once at sea, we headed directly for Block Island, RI, some 350 nautical miles away.  It was a pleasant day, with high near 80, very humid and hazy.  Initially, the wind was SE at only 4 to 10 kt, so we motor sailed to keep up a reasonable speed (about 6 kt).  Later, the wind picked up for a while to 10 to 15 kt, so we were able to turn the engines off and just sail at 4 to 5 kt boat speed.  There was a gentle swell running at 2 to 3 feet and Bottlenose handled it with no problem.

As evening approached, the marine weather warned of a severe thunderstorm headed our way at 25 kt, with winds up to 50 kt.  We could see it coming on our radar screen.  We were going NE and the storm was going SE and it looked like it was going to hit us for sure.  Then the storm seemed to slow down and we decided to change course to try to avoid the worst of it.  We spent the better part of the next two hours trying to out-maneuver it, to no avail and without making any progress toward our destination.  So, finally we just put the boat back on course and went for it.

It turned out that the part of the storm we went through was just light rain with occasional lightning that was at least 5 miles away.  We were out of it in about 1 ½ hours.

After the storm passed, the wind died, the temperature was pleasantly cool, and we motored the rest of the night.  There was not much marine traffic.  The night was very dark and misty, so you could see little by eye.  We relied, therefore, on our radar to show us what was out there.  All we saw were a few commercial fishing boats that were well off in the distance and not anything we had to worry about.

We’re Off!

Sunday, July 24:  We had planned to leave the dock at our sailing club (Rappahannock River Yacht Club) at 8:00 am and in fact were ready to cast off, as planned.  But, in doing his final pre-departure checks, Ted noticed that the main refrigerator/freezer on the boat was not operating.


Coleman and Ted launched an investigation, while I walked over to the club’s ice chest for a bag of ice, just in case.  It turns out that the sea water intake strainer for the fridge was plugged up with a jelly fish!  Ted dumped it out and cleaned the strainer and tried to start the fridge.  Nothing.  Still no cooling water!


We found that the pipe leading up to the strainer was also plugged with jelly fish!  The three of us managed to use the garden hose on the dock, sticking it through an open port hole, and using its water pressure to back flush the strainer pipe and get it flowing, again.


We are back in business!  And, it only cost us an hour.


The weather has been hot and steamy all week, with heat indexes as high as 130.  It is a few degrees cooler today, but still very hot and muggy.  It is a good thing we are headed to the Hampton Yacht Club in Hampton, VA, for the night.  There will be plenty of shore power to run the three air conditioning units aboard!  Aaaaah!!

We left the RRYC docks on Carter Creek, motored out into the river and under the Route 3 bridge.  Once under the bridge, we raised our main and jib and sailed out into the Chesapeake Bay.  In the Bay, the wind was favorable for flying our colorful asymmetrical spinnaker, so we dropped the jib and launched the spinnaker.  We had a very nice run almost to Old Point Comfort, just outside Hampton, when the wind died.  So, we doused the sails and motored the short remaining distance into Hampton Yacht Club.


In spite of the heat, it wasn’t that bad on the boat, until the wind died.  Then, it felt very hot.  I was in a “full sweat” almost immediately.


Our club has a reciprocal deal with HYC for a free overnight slip, which they graciously arranged for us.  However, since Bottlenose’s beam is wider than most boats at 18 feet, HYC asked us to tie up at any one of their “T-heads” at the end of each of their long docks, so we would have plenty of space.


On the way in, we stopped at a nearby marina to top off our fuel tanks, then tied up without assistance at a HYC T-head.


We walked up the long dock (there are hundreds of boat slips at HYC) to the clubhouse for happy hour and inquired about also having dinner at the club.  We found that the club does not serve food on Sunday evenings, so we walked a half-mile to Musasi Japanese restaurant and had sushi.  It was very nice!


Back on the boat, we discovered that the fridge had stopped working, again!  Yep, found another jelly fish in the strainer – and the inlet pipe was also plugged again.  Cleaned them both and re-started the fridge…..but, it still was plugged!!  Now, what?  We thought we had already cleaned everything that could have plugged.  What could have plugged up downstream of the strainer?


We disconnected a downstream hose, attached another hose to it and gently blew through it.  Yes, the downstream line going into the fridge itself is plugged!  So, we found a garden hose on the dock and this time we pressed it to the discharge opening on the outside of the hull.  Some water came out from the disconnected hose inside the boat and it looked like it was loaded with mud.  After we got clear water for a few seconds, we reconnected the downstream hose and then tested the little pump that is supposed to circulate the seawater through the fridge.  It worked OK.  Put everything back together and we were back in business, again!


We slept well in air conditioned comfort.

What Am I Doing?

Friday, July 22:  I have sailed for over thirty years.  Racing as captain, but mostly crew, in small boats in the early years -- coastal cruising, including charters, in bigger boats for the past decade.  I live on the Chesapeake Bay, just a short distance up Virginia's Rappahannock River. 

My wife and I do most of our sailing in the river and the Bay, however, last fall/winter/spring, we traveled the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway south as far as Marathon in the Florida Keys, and back, in our trusty Hunter 36, Wetted Bliss.  This trip included seven day-sails in the ocean, but never an overnight.  (If you want to know more about this trip, please check out:  http://www.sailblogs.com/member/sv_wetted_bliss/ )

I am not a blue water sailor.  Don't want to be.  Have nothing to prove.  In fact, our trip down the ICW made me appreciate even more how wonderful our Chesapeake Bay is for sailors.  I could be happy sailing the Bay and other protected waters for the rest of my sailing career.

So, why have I signed up to crew on a friend's boat (a 38-foot Prout sailing catamaran, Bottlenose) to sail directly from Hampton Roads, VA, to Block Island, RI? 

I am not quite sure. 

Maybe it is because Ted, Bottlenose's owner, is an experienced blue water sailor.  In fact, he picked up Bottlenose in England and sailed her across the Atlantic to the Chesapeake, when he first bought her.  He is very convincing that a four-day passage in the ocean is really not THAT big a deal.

He has a properly registered EPIRB, and modern cruising catamarans are pretty much unsinkable (although they said that about the Titanic, didn't they?).  We (there will be three of us, including our other crew mate, Coleman) will wear our PFDs and clip-in to the boat, while standing watch alone.

All that is fine and dandy, but the real concern I have is the weather.  I absolutely am not interested in sailing in really rough weather.  I've seen plenty of film on storms at sea, and that is definitely not my idea of fun.

Yet, as we all know, weather forecasts are not worth a whit.  They will tell you the night before what the weather is going to do the next day and... guess what?  It could be right on or the exact opposite, when you actually get out there!

All we can do is wait for a decent forecast and then have some places we can duck into, if it gets nasty.  That is the plan.

We provision tomorrow (Saturday) and leave the Rappahannock River for Hampton, VA, on Sunday.