A Great Day of Sailing

A Great Day of Sailing    …..   Monday 10th Sept 2012

OK, the verdict is in - it was a good decision to pull in to Robinhood Cove on Saturday. Three reasons - firstly, it's a lovely place and it was a pleasure to be there. Secondly, we got to watch the Patriots game, and who knows, they might have lost without our fervent support. Thirdly, when we left today we had a wonderful sail. Despite the persistent swells from tropical storm Leslie, conditions today could not have been more different than what we experienced on Saturday. The swells were long, not short and steep, and the winds were out of the NW rather than the SW. We motored out of Robinhood Cove and through Goose Rock passage with the benefit of current from the falling tide. This was something of a mixed blessing as the lobster pots were being dragged under water and were really hard to see, particularly as we were squinting into the sun. Once out in the Sheepscot river and past the heaviest concentration of pots we raised the sails and headed south initially and then south west towards Cape Small. The winds were supposedly 10-15 mph from the NW, gusting to 20+, and this seemed about right to us. (We have no wind speed measure). The boat felt great and we were making excellent progress, often at speeds of 7 knots or more. Whenever it would gust the boat just headed up a bit to windwards. We approached Cape Small and decided to change our plans and instead of heading to Potts Harbor (north east of Portland) we would try and make use of the good conditions to reach Biddeford. As the day progressed the wind stiffened up a bit and things got a bit bumpier. At times we achieved sustained speeds of over 8 knots (8.8 max) and by 3.30 pm we were entering Wood Island Harbor, Biddeford. We had covered 42 nautical miles in 6.5 hours - all on one tack! It's supposed to continue to blow hard tonight so we picked up one of the many vacant moorings. The Biddeford Yacht club could not have been more pleasant when I called them. After confirming that we didn't need launch service they said "You are good to go" - so I take it that they aren't going to charge us, which is very nice of them. We are feeling quite pleased with our day of sailing….and Gloria says she'll feel even better if we make it through the night without throwing up! It has to be said that it is really rocking and rolling out here on the mooring.

Sailing across Casco Bay to Biddeford