Back on the Boat

Back on the Boat    …   Monday 2^nd June 2014

41 33.887 N, 71 12.996 W

When we returned to Rhode Island in July 2013 we decided to bring our blog to a close. We had finished our year afloat and it seemed like the right thing to do. Now we just moved back onto Cotinga and are heading up to Maine for 3 months or so. After some deliberation we have decided to start blogging again. We did think we would start a fresh blog with a new address – but soon realized that if we did that our boat cards would no longer be correct. So we figure we’ll just use the same blog and the dates will make it clear that we are on a whole new adventure.

A lot has happened in the 10 months since we returned from our trip. Mike set up a photography business (www.mhblockphoto.com) and worked part time teaching chemistry labs at Framingham State University, which he really enjoyed. Gloria has been mentoring a high school student in Framingham and has also been doing a number of on line quilting and fabric dyeing classes. We both took courses and exams to qualify for our Masters Licenses that we finally completed in April. In May we took a great trip to the UK to visit family and then headed out to California to Celebrate Tasha’s graduation from Pomona College.  Now we are all starting out on new wild and exciting adventures. Tasha is out in Washington State, an hour north of Seattle, working over the summer with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). From all we’ve heard this sounds like a great program with a lot of opportunity to see how outdoor programs are organized and to think about and refine her own leadership style. Then at the end of the summer she will head back to California to work as a lab technician at Fransiscan Winery in Napa Valley during the harvest. We are on our way to Sebasco Harbor Resort in Maine where we will run a charter sailing business providing day and part day trips. Check out our website (www.sailcotinga.com)

It may take us a while to get back in to writing a blog. We did enjoy doing it while we were away for a year and are looking forward to writing again, but it is the type of activity in which you need to get into the right mind frame and habit. We may find that we don’t have the time to blog every day, we may not put up photos every time, but we’ll see how it goes. We already know that we won’t be able to talk in any detail about our clients!

Over the winter we did loads of work on the boat. First and foremost we had the boat re-painted. We knew when we bought the boat that this would need doing soon, but we were advised to get some sailing under our belt, hit a few mooring balls and docks, then re-paint. We loved the original claret color, but it’s the least durable of all colors and to be honest the cost of a new “Awlgrip” coat is so high that we could only envisage doing it once. So we have gone for “light ivory” with a claret pin stripe and boot stripe (photos in due course). New England Boatworks did a fabulous job. We also replaced all the remaining septic hoses, made a new canvas dodger and instrument covers, installed an Automated Identification System and integrated audio system with a speaker in the cockpit, and worked through all the normal winterization and maintenance. So the boat looks and feels great.

We re-launched in Portsmouth Rhode Island about 10 days ago and then brought Cotinga over to the East Greenwich Yacht Club. It took us many trips to and from home to the boat to get ready to set out for the summer, but this morning we finally dropped the mooring and motored out of East Greenwich Cove. It’s wonderful to have Gloria’s brother Rod joining us for the passage up to Maine. Today we sailed in a fairly stiff breeze down Narragansett Bay and the Sakonnet River and are now anchored at “Fogland” about 5 miles north of the Bay entrance. We had planned to spend the night at 3^rd beach in Newport (closer to the Bay entrance) but this anchorage is susceptible to swells and we suspected with the strong winds that it might be fairly rolly. We arrived here about 4pm and after a cup of tea finished up a few boat jobs. Then it was time for a cold beer and a fine dinner of Beef in “designer beer” (courtesy of Saint Delia Smith). Now it’s 9.15pm – 15 minutes past boater’s midnight and calm and peaceful on the anchor. It’s great to be back on the boat!

At anchor in "Fogland" - Gloria consulting "Eldridge" in the cockpit as we plan tomorrow's sail up Buzzards Bay

Rod - relaxing in the cabin after dinner