Reflections

Reflections   …   Monday 8th July 2013

We awoke to the most perfect morning in the Great Salt Pond, Block Island. The wind was blowing about 8-10 knots and the air had a level of clarity that we haven't seen in days. We spent the morning doing some cleaning on the boat whilst we waited for favorable tides and currents. At 11am we pulled up the anchor and motored out of the cut, raised our main sail and turned to the north. We kept the motor running for another 30 minutes to charge the batteries and cool the fridge, but after that it was plain sailing all the way to East Greenwich. Crossing Block Island Sound was a little more dead downwind than we would have liked, but once past Point Judith we were on more of a broad reach and we had a great sail all the way up Narragansett Bay. We fired up our engine right at the end and motored into East Greenwich Bay. Gloria's brother Paul and his wife Fran were on the dock to cheer us in and they were joined by friends Tom and Joan Ashley. Picking up our mooring "C-44" went just fine - we were pleased because it's the first mooring we've picked up since we left Fernandina Beach in Florida. We quickly put on the sail cover, switched off the instruments and headed to shore to celebrate the end of this journey.

Whilst this is by no means the end of our story it is the end of this particular adventure. We will be moving back into our house in a week or so and moving on with our lives. This has been an amazing year, living on the boat and sailing from Maine to the Bahamas. We went to so many beautiful places and watched the sun rise and fall over the ocean countless times. It felt plenty exciting and certainly there were moments that were not so much fun, but overall it was a fantastic experience. We met so many wonderful people, many of whom are living on their boats indefinitely. Whilst it is tempting to just keep going we have family commitments and other plans that we will pursue. However, we have talked about taking off again, perhaps in two years time and trying to sail further south to the Caribbean. At the outset we had a vague plan that we might set up a customized charter business on the coast of Maine and that we should get our 100 ton captains license to do so. Mike is still keen to do this, but Gloria is perhaps not so convinced that this is a good idea! We are just 10 days short of the required 365 days experience so we do plan to do the courses and take the exams for the license, and we'll continue to work through what it would take to run the charter business. One alternative would be to run a charter business down in the Bahamas over the winter, which we both think might be more feasible and is something we'll consider. There are other directions that we will also pursue. Gloria would like to get involved in providing better career advice for school children - particularly in areas where the kids may not have a wide variety of role models and she would also be happy to return to a chemistry job in the pharmaceutical / biotech area. Mike will look into consultancy opportunities and also explore whether there are photographic avenues to go down. So you can see the future is not so well defined but we remain optimistic.  To quote Winston Churchill - "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning." 

We want say a huge thanks to all of our family and friends who have been so supportive during the planning and execution of this trip. Without your help and enthusiasm this trip may never have happened and certainly wouldn't have been as much fun. So again - thank you. 

At this point we will conclude our blog. This seems like an appropriate place to stop. It's been fun writing and we loved reading and hearing your comments. It's great for us to have this record for the future. If and when we embark on our next adventure we will start a new blog afresh.

We wish you all "fair winds and smooth sailing"

Gloria and Mike

Distance travelled: ~ 4000 miles

Engine hours: ~ 800

Longest passages: Nassau to Fernandina Beach (450 miles / 3 days and nights), Norfolk to Atlantic Highlands (~ 270 miles / 2 days and nights)

Favorite places: Wardewick Wells (Exuma Land and Sea Park), Hope Town (Abaco), Tahiti Beach / Tiloo Cut (Abaco), Charleston (SC), St Augustine (FL)

Least Favorite places: Delaware Bay (every sailors least favorite place!), Belhaven (NC), ICW in Cape Canaveral area

Favorite guests: are you kidding!

Most valuable piece of gear: GPS/Chart-plotter/Radar … the engine!

Surprising lessons: you can do a lot more than you think you can and there's a lot of shallow water out there!

How did it match our expectations? Mike: ICW more difficult than expected, Bahamas more beautiful, overall exceeded my expectations - I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Gloria: Our friend Lynn summed up the journey well--the ICW is just hard work but the Bahamas is cocktails in the cockpit. Overall, I think the trip exceeded my expectations. 

Gloria grappling with the anchor snubber and deck wash hose having just pulled up the anchor

The Block island coast guards station - next to the channel into the Great Salt Pond

Fishing vessel off Point Judith

After dinner at "Meritage" - Gloria, Mike, Paul, Fran, Joan and Tom

Block Island

Block Island   …   Sunday 7th July 2013

We chose to come to Block Island as our last port of call before returning to East Greenwich because it seemed fitting after we spent our first night here on our trip south. On that day we had been planning to head down the mainland to the Stonington, CT  area, but bumpy seas forced us to change our plans and make the more comfortable sail to Block Island. On that occasion we didn't even get off the boat. Today was very different. We awoke to clear blue skies and lovely warm weather. We could here the floating bakery making its way around the harbor and fantasized about cinnamon rolls. We had no idea where the bakery boat was so we started cooking eggs, but just as they were ready we heard the cry really close and dashed on deck to attract the attention of the crew. We managed to buy a couple of cinnamon rolls, but by the time we had eaten our scrambled eggs and toast we were so full we only had room for a small bite. We'll enjoy the rest for breakfast tomorrow. We loaded the bikes into the dinghy and headed for for the dock. Having been here a few times we pretty much know our way around. We cycled about 4 or 5 miles to the north west tip of the island and hiked out along the beach to the light house. It's a pretty place and in the right light is a good location for photos, but it was just too bright and flat light whilst we were there. We did get to see some seals playing near the beach and this years gull chicks were also still around the nesting areas. After returning to our bikes we cycled back to the old harbor for a very welcome ice cream. We returned to the boat in the middle of the afternoon and spent a couple of hours hanging out. This evening we took the "Dumb Dog" back to shore and went out for an end of cruise dinner at "Dead Eyed Dick's". It was blowing pretty strongly in the late afternoon so we were a title concerned about the anchor, bur we could see "Cotinga" from our table on the deck of the restaurant which made dinner a bit more relaxing. On the dinghy ride back to the boat it was evident how much the harbor has emptied out since we arrived yesterday, particularly in the anchorage, but there are still no free moorings to be seen.

Mike

Black backed gull _ portrait

Gull chicks

Gull in flight - triple exposure

Unknown girl on the beach at the North West tp of Block Island

East Hampton and down wind to Block Island

East Hampton and down wind to Block Island … Friday – Saturday July 5^th and 6^th, 2013

On Friday we decided to take the bikes ashore and cycle to East Hampton.  While tying up the dinghy, we met a French sailor and got chatting to him.  He told us that he and his wife had been living aboard for the last 15 years.  From what we could gather they started out with big plans (possibly to circumnavigate) but various events in the life of their daughter kept them returning to New York.  Currently they were providing ‘sailing summer camp’ for their granddaughter. He mentioned that they still went down to the Caribbean or Panama for the winter, putting many miles under their keel each year.  He said that they had only had three really bad episodes, one involving a broach at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.  Having been at that spot not so long ago, it’s a tale I wish I’d never heard!

After quite a long chat, we set off on our bikes.  We stopped to explore the farmer’s market, getting some much needed veggies for the next few days.  We decided not to buy fresh fish. It looked good, but at $28 a pound for striped bass it was either pass or sell our daughter into slavery. Another close call Tasha! It was easy to tell when we were approaching the town as the traffic ground to a complete halt.  We locked up our bikes and wandered along one major street amongst the hordes.  As bad as the sidewalks were, the supermarket was totally out of control.  The aisles were narrow and the shopping carts were everywhere.  It seemed to me that the town police should be called in to direct traffic.  We acquired the makings of a picnic at the grocery store.  Setting off back toward the marina we found a quite patch of lawn near the graveyard.  By the time we returned to the town dock the temperature was overwhelming.  We returned to the boat and collapsed. 

Today (Saturday) we had a slow start, breakfast followed by a swim and shower.  We headed out about 10:30 to catch the ebb tide starting at 11:30.  Once clear of the harbor, we put up the sails and sailed on a beam reach to the marker north of Gardiners Island.  Turning down wind for Block Island, we had current pushing us along.  That was just as well as the wind wasn’t very strong.  At some points, the wind was so light that motoring seemed the best option.  I’m proud to say that we resisted the temptation.  Once we approached Block Island the wind began to build.  By the time we needed to take the sail down we were moving along quite well. We were a little disappointed in the performance of our new trolling lure … “good for a salt water species” the advert said … well not so far!

The sight that met our eyes upon entering the Great Salt Pond is hard to describe.  Not only are all the rental moorings full, there are boats anchored all over the place.  We feel happy to have wedged Cotinga into a space.  Now if the anchor holds and the raft of four powerboats next to us is not too noisy, all will be well.

If all goes well this will be our last stop before we return to our home port of East Greenwich

Gloria

41 11.469 N, 71 34.684 W

Happy Birthday Tasha!

Happy Birthday Tasha!   …   Thursday July 4th 2013

We were supposed to be going to a July 4th barbecue with our friends Will and Sandy. We didn't even get to call them - we spent the whole day at the hospital. I don't think anyone was that surprised - "it" was overdue. Well that was 21 years ago to the day. Gloria woke me about 5am to say we needed to go. We drove to Macclesfield Hospital and spent the day in the delivery room trying to take Gloria's mind off the pain by talking about all the nice places we'd been. The hospital kindly provided regular meals for the patient, but Gloria couldn't eat them in case she had to have an anesthetic. Just as well I was there or all that food would have gone to waste! By late afternoon things were getting rather too exciting, but at 7.15pm after a great deal of effort our darling little daughter was born. We hadn't known in advance that "it" would be a girl and we struggled to break the habit of calling the baby "it", which invariably provoked smart reprimands from the midwife.  Tash was born with a torpedo shaped head and a mop of black hair, which fell out over the next few days and thankfully her head also took on a more normal shape! It was a couple of years later that she uttered those fateful words to her Grandmother (Meme) … "I'm in charge!" …  but from the outset I think there was little doubt in her mind. It is entirely appropriate that Tash was born on Independence day as she has always been a free and independent spirit. It seems almost inconceivable that 21 years have passed. It has been an unbelievable experience and a privilege to watch her grow up. We gather that she had a fun evening leading in to her birthday and finally got to bed about 2.30am. She was up again at 5am, having slept through 2 alarms, but was eventually woken by her friends and hiked part way up Mt. Baldy to watch the sunrise whilst drinking champagne! A fine way to start the day. The great thing about being born on the 4th of July is that it's always a holiday in the USA and there are lots of parties going on. From what we can gather Tash has a busy and fun day ahead of her.

We were also up early today and made the journey from Port Jefferson up Long Island Sound to Plum Gut and then over to Three Mile Harbor near East Hampton. It was a long, hot and somewhat frustrating trip as we pretty much motored the entire way. On the coast of New England it's fairly typical for the wind to strengthen in the afternoon and it's more likely that you will end up motoring if you leave early in the morning. As you may have gathered, patience isn't a real strength of mine, but on this occasion it wasn't me "champing at the bit" that prompted the early start, but rather the need to cover 42 nautical miles to Plum Gut before the tide turned against us at about 3pm. Currents through the cut can run up to 5kts - either for or against you - depending on your timing. So we pulled up anchor shortly before 7am, raised our main in the hope of doing at least some sailing and then proceeded to motor. The winds were light to non existent. Initially we had about 1kt of current against us, but gradually this changed and we reached Plum Gut at about 1pm having had positive current (up to 2 kts) for the previous 3 hours. Once through the gap we turned south towards Three mile Harbor and attempted to sail the last 7 miles with what appeared to be the makings of a breeze. Well that didn't last long. Our initial 3.3 kts dwindled to < 2 Kts and we were struggling to maintain steerage around the crab pots. So back on with the engine and let's get there quickly. The half mile long entry channel was easy to navigate and once inside the bay there was plenty of room to anchor in about 15ft of water. Needless to say, no sooner had we dropped the hook than the wind piped up and started to blow steadily! We were really hot after the trip and had a wonderful swim off the boat - surprisingly, not something that we've done all that often. Now we are in the middle of barbecuing pork filet to eat with biscuits and gravy, butternut squash and corn. To be honest our food supplies are rapidly dwindling as we head towards the end of our trip. But don't panic - there is little chance that we will be returning hungry!

Mike

41 00.831 N, 72 11.113 W

4th July dinner in the cockpit

Everything made of cloth has taken a real beating on this trip - our clothes, the bimini, fender covers, genoa etc. I had plenty of time today to look at my boat shoes - what a mess!

Stranger than Fiction

Stranger than Fiction   ...   Wednesday 3^rd July 2013

This morning we motored to Port Jefferson in the dinghy.  We took a walking tour of the town (not including the bakery!) and had just stopped outside a café, waiting for it to open, when a couple started to walk by.  To our amazement we recognized the chap from Marsh Harbor in the Abaco.   After a little mental exercise we could remember that his boat was called Walkabout.  In fact we first encountered John when we were anchored in Lake Worth near the inlet in preparation for the crossing to West End, Walkabout anchored near us.  So when we chatted to John at Snappa’s Bar in Marsh Harbor, we felt like we already knew him and over the next few weeks we bumped into each other quite often.  Today he was with a woman who had “jumped ship” to spend a few days with a fellow Australian.  John is on his way to Maine.  His companion claimed that she would rejoin her “original boat” in a few days and travel to Nova Scotia.

It amazed me to bump into this guy here on Long Island.  As Mike said there aren’t so many ports where sailors go.  I think there are quite a lot of ports up and down the eastern seaboard.  The chances of being in the same place, at the same time as someone you know seems pretty slim. Of all cafes in all the ports in all the world... 

Gloria

40 57.948 N, 73 05.785 W

Sandy cove - Port Jefferson

Cotinga anchored near the sand bar tat forms the north-western side of Port Jefferson Harbor

Storm clouds passing at dusk

Port Jefferson Revisited

Port Jefferson Revisited   …   Tuesday 2nd July 2013

We really feel that we are getting close to the end of our trip and have very mixed feelings. We have a rough plan of how the next few days might play out as we make our way up Long Island Sound and we expect to be back in East Greenwich early next week. In some respects, with the end in sight, we are keen to make progress and get home. There are some practical matters like laundry that need to be taken care of - soon! In other ways we feel sad that the trip is coming to end. It has been an amazing experience. I don't think either of us expect it to be particularly easy to be back - it's not as if we have a very clear plan of what we are going to do going forward, although we have plenty of not so well defined ideas.

We woke this morning to more grey skies and the prospect of more showers and afternoon thunder storms. The weather over the last few days has really helped us appreciate just how lucky we have been overall with the weather during our trip. After coffee and muesli for breakfast, we raised the mainsail, pulled up the anchor and motor sailed outs of Oyster Bay. The wind was light from south, but once we cleared the Bay we raised our stay sail, cut the engine and spent  a very pleasant 3 hours or so sailing quietly eastwards up Long Island Sound. We could have done with our genoa, but with some favorable current we were able to make 5 knots over the ground and so we enjoyed the peace and quiet and concentrated on trying to finish a crossword puzzle. As we approached Port Jefferson it started to rain and we turned on the engine, dropped the sails and motored in past the breakwater to anchor on the west side of the bay, about a mile or so from the harbor itself. We spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy on the boat, reading our books and cooking a pork and apple cider casserole, which was delicious. The weather gradually improved and as the afternoon progressed the sun came out and it was fun just to hang out on the boat. Tomorrow we'll jump in the dinghy and go in and explore the town … we happen to know there is a particularly fine bakery!

Mike

40 57.948 N, 73 05.785 W

Oyster Bay, NY

Dredging Oysters

Lies, Darn Lies and Weather Forecasts

Lies, Darn Lies and Weather Forecasts   ...   Monday 1^st July 2013

Mike carefully checked the weather forecast before we set out this morning.  The prediction was for thunderstorms after 2pm.  We thought we should set off fairly early to ensure being tucked up in Oyster Bay before these storms arrived.  At nine o’clock we were underway.  The skies to the west looked ominously dark.  Once out of Manhasset Bay we set the staysail and were moving along nicely, doing about 5 kts.  The wind continued to build.  The weather overlay on the GPS/chart-plotter showed lots of thunderstorm activity to the west.  The wind intensified.  Then the rain came down in torrents.  The visibility declined, especially for those of us who wear glasses.  At one point we were doing 8 kts with the main and tiny foresail on a beam reach.  We put a reef in the mainsail and carried on.  The first set of storms passed over. 

By the time we were turning into Cold Spring Harbor Bay, the skies were black again. We anchored at the south of Oyster Bay.  As Mike put it: If we’d waited and sailed in the afternoon we might have avoided getting wet at all.  The forecast predicted the storms but as for the timing---hmm.

Gloria

Position: 40 52.893 N 73 30.772 W

Transiting the East River, New York City

Transiting the East River, New York City   …   Sunday 30th June 2013

We thought long and hard about whether to make the passage through to Long Island Sound today or wait for tomorrow. The weather forecast was reasonable except for the prospect of thunder storms, and in the end we couldn't convince ourselves that Monday would be a lot better. Timing the transit through the East River is critical. If you arrive at the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan two hours after low tide you can catch favorable currents all the way through. If you ignore the tides you can end up fighting up to 5 knots of current as you try to make your way through "Hells Gate". Today the timing worked out well with low tide at the Battery at 9am, so we felt that if we reached there by 10.30 or 11 am we should be through to Long Island Sound and safely anchored before the afternoon thunderstorms set in. We hauled up our anchor at Atlantic Highlands at 7am and headed north for New York. Of course what the "perfect plan" for transiting the East River fails to mention is that to get to the Battery at the required time you will have to fight formidable currents through the Narrows and into the Upper Bay just to get there. Our highly sophisticated chart plotter suggested we should be bucking 1.5 knot currents. However, our speed through the water was 7 knots and our speed over the ground dropped as low as 3.5 knots … you do the math! We had planned in some time for adverse current and did make it to the southern tip of Manhattan in good time. I was so excited about the prospect of taking photos but the visibility couldn't have been worse. Actually, as Gloria pointed out it could have been worse - total fog. As it was, the conditions were hot, airless and smoggy. Once in the East River we made excellent progress and it took us less than 2 hours to reach Throgs Neck Bridge at the eastern end of the river. At this point the channels opened up and the wind was blowing steadily from the south so we decided to extend our plans and sail onwards to Oyster Bay, about 12 miles to the east. However, after about 15 minutes we took another look at the sky and the storm clouds gathering, changed our minds again and headed south into Manhasset Bay. It was just as well we did because a short while later we realized that we had torn the trailing edge of our genoa. We furled the sail and continued under main alone and then engine to anchor off Port Washington. After a cup of tea and some lunch we unfurled and dropped the genoa to inspect the damage. Mostly it appears that the stitching has pulled out from a strip down the trailing edge. We contemplated re-stitching this by hand but figured that we might be able to do a couple of feet per hour and the tear is maybe 40 ft long! So we "folded" the sail and man-handled it down the companionway and into the aft cabin. The genoa must weigh about 100lb and doesn't exactly pack up neatly. Lets just say that we won't be putting anything else in the aft cabin for now. For the rest of the trip we are going to have to use our small stay-sail hanked on to the inner forestay. It's a real pain that this has happened, but it would have been much worse if it happened earlier in our trip.

Mike

40 49.079 N, 73 42.666 W

Passing under the Verrazano Bridge   ... we were there first!

Tug and Barge off Manhattan

Manhattan skyline

Abstract buildings NYC

Abstract buildings NYC _ 2

Squash the genoa into the aft cabin and there's not a lot of room left for anything / anyone