Wednesday morning was sunny and breezy. We had an early start for a charter at 9:00
am.
Despite the northerly winds, the docking went well. We met Gene and Joann on the dock, they live
near Worcester and were at Sebasco for a vacation. We had a fast sail out to Orr’s Island,
tacked around and came back on a more southerly route. We threaded our way through the gap between Blacksnake
ledge and Ragged Island and carried on in a southeasterly direction until we
could turn north toward Sebasco without crossing any ledges. (Overall we took a
very similar route to the shown in the blog for Sunday June 14th). The big difference was that with northerly
winds we were now tacking to windward with Gene at the wheel. The whole sail went well and the docking
maneuvers also went smoothly.
In the late afternoon, Mike was slated to take the Ruth out
with a private charter group. This left
us with a large chunk of time in the middle of the day—just perfect for doing
laundry. We went to shore with the dirty
washing and our showering kit. After
showering in the gym building we started the laundry and read our books while
waiting. We were back on Cotinga with clean
laundry by about 2 pm.
Mike took out his charter group (a company outing type of
thing). They brought along a cooler full
of drinks! That was quite a different
thing from the standard Scenic Tour on the Ruth.
Everything went well but our early start and full day left
us pretty tired.
Thursday:
Mike had a morning trip on the Ruth. I went to shore to help with the lines when
he brought the boat into the dock. That
trip went smoothly. Over the course of the day the wind continued to
build. By afternoon the forecast was
predicting 18 knots of wind from the south-southeast with gusts to 25.
As luck would have it we had a sunset sail booked for 6
pm! We tried all afternoon to get in
touch with our clients but cell phone coverage is not terrific here and we
never reached them. Mike and I were
thinking that we should just cancel or rearrange for Friday evening. However when Mike met the clients on the
dock, they had other ideas! So under
these windy conditions, with no one to catch our lines, we brought the boat
into the dock. We set off happily,
thinking the docking was likely to be the worst of it. Once we put up the mainsail we took in a
reef. Our plan was to sail with the
reefed main only. However, after a while
it seemed that we weren’t making good progress.
We looked up at the sail and noticed that the reefing line had come
untied. This was lending an absolutely
hideous shape to the mainsail. We
partially unfurled the genoa and tried to sail on that while Mike wrestled with
the main to take in the second reef. We carried on as best we could but true
sailors might have been horrified. Part
way back, Bill (the client) started to feel a bit seasick as a result of the
swell. Thankfully we managed to re-gain
the harbor without further problems. The
docking went quite well considering how poor the conditions were.
Of course the mooring pick-up was also fraught with
difficulties....We passed another bumpy night.
Friday was supposed to be a free day. We started out with showers on land and then
decided to bring the boat into the dock to pump out the holding tank. First we had to find the maintenance chap who
opened the dock house for us. Then a lot
of fooling around with switches allowed up to power up the pumping
apparatus. The docking went well and we
were soon tied up on the unusual starboard side (needed to get the hose to the
waste pipe). After more fooling around
we found the correct sized hose end and were ready to get started. Mike was going to work the hose end on the
boat. My job was to turn the pump-out
station on. We got started. After a short while I heard a noise and
notice some liquid bubbling out of the hose that takes the waste to the storage
tank. Exercising caution, I moved to the
other side of the dock. Over the next
few minutes this bubbling turned into a veritable shower all over the dock and
one kayak that was tied up nearby. We
shut the system down and tried to duct tape the hose. We manage to finish up pump out without
further showering of the dock. Liberal
application of the hose removed the mess from the dock. We even rinsed out the kayak and turned it
over to drain.
Once order was restored, a lady appeared asking if Mike was
the captain of the Ruth. She said that a
private group wanted to go out in the afternoon but she had been unable to get
in touch with the dock master. We agreed
to do the trip, with me acting as crew on the Ruth. Our “free day” was suddenly looking a bit
busy. The trip went smoothly and we
returned to Cotinga to sort out the reefing lines and get ready for the party.
A few months back a lady from Massachusetts had asked us to
run some charters for a group of her friends who would be coming up to Maine
for a celebratory weekend. We agreed to
do these charters and were thus invited to the party this evening. This woman has a connection to the Sebasco Harbor
resort and owns a part share in a cottage on the waterfront nearby. For a number of reasons she is selling her
share in the cottage and is throwing a big “end of an era” party. It’s a lovely cottage in a stunning
location. We met some of the people who
will be coming out with us tomorrow.
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