Celebrating 21

Celebrating 21   …   Sun 12^th – Mon 13^th July

On Sunday we took out a family of 4 people for a 4-hour “Coastal Explorer” trip. This turned out to be exactly what I had in mind when we set up this business – beautiful weather, fabulous scenery, great sailing and lovely guests! It seems only fitting that this would be a special trip because it was our 21^st charter since being up here in Sebasco Harbor. We left the dock in light south westerly winds and quickly had all our sails up. We headed westwards for a couple of miles on our “standard” east-west route, but then turned to the south-east and were able to make one long tack all the way the end of the Cape Small peninsula. We rounded Bald Head, cutting between the mainland and a rocky ledge and caught our first glimpses of Seguin Island off to the east. (see previous post in 2012: http://www.ataleoftwochemists.blogspot.com/2012/08/seguin-island.html).

The scenery around this area is beautiful. We continued eastwards for a short while and then did a loop around Fuller Rock where we saw seals baking in the sun. This set us up for a fantastic 5-mile westerly run all the way to the end of Bailey Island. We made more than 7 knots the entire way, encountering relatively few lobster pots. At this point we planned to head northwards up the side of Bailey Island and then head back east on our “standard” route. However, the winds had grown somewhat light and from a more southerly direction, so we took a more direct north easterly line to maintain progress. When required to head due north to avoid ledges we actually managed to sail wing-on-wing. We finished the trip by cutting through the Westpoint entrance to Sebasco Harbor – which gives lovely views in the late afternoon sun.

Monday also turned out be a great day and we took 5 people over to Ragged Island on a lunch cruise. We dropped the anchor close to the rocky shore and enjoyed a peaceful lunch in smooth waters with guillemots flying around. We fed our guests humous with veggies and crackers as appetizers, sandwiches and chips (crisps) and then fruit salad and homemade banana bread for dessert. We think our lunch cruises are a real bargain for our guests!  As usual we had charming, interesting guests on this trip and because conditions were so perfect it all felt very relaxing.

As I sit here typing, we have just postponed / cancelled our lunch cruise today. It’s warm and sort of sunny, but you can’t see 100 yards because of fog. Not ideal conditions, especially when our radar is away for repair.

That’s it for now. We hope all of our readers are doing well.

p.s. not doing much (any) photography ... my free time is just too fragmented and unpredictable

Mike

Saturday Chores 11 July 2015

Saturday is a busy day on the “Ruth”.  Mike does three trips—a pirate cruise, a scenic tour and a sunset cruise that finishes at 8:30 pm.  Because Mike is so busy, we don’t have sailing trips on “Cotinga” scheduled for Saturday.  When I first saw the schedule, I pictured myself lying around eating bon-bons and painting my toenails.  The reality is slightly different.

Saturday has become laundry day.  It’s something of a mad rush to get showered, get the dirty clothes and towels into the washing and get everything washed, dried and folded before 12:30 pm. At that time, the pirate cruise should be wrapping up.  Mike has an hour to get lunch and be ready to go out again.  Yesterday, during his “scenic” trip, I cooked chili for dinner—always good to have something to re-heat after the sunset trip. 

Luckily we had a booking for our four-hour sail on Sunday.  That did mean that we wouldn’t be getting the grocery shopping done on Sunday afternoon, so in the interval between scenic and sunset cruises, we had to make a trip to the Shaw’s in Bath.  Our two objectives were food for the week (including some quick dinners for the ‘sunset’ evenings) and lunches for our ‘Lunch’ trips.  We are still trying to refine the menu and procedures so that we get some sailing done, have time for lunch and can get back to the dock in time for the next trip.  It’s a work in progress.  We did discover that soup and sandwich takes way too long.  Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, soup doesn’t seem that appealing anyway.

What else has been happening?  Thursday we took out a family group—two adults, brothers-in-law and four offspring ranging from college to middle school age.  Interestingly, they really wanted to participate in the sailing.  We were hoping to be able to get out to Sequin Island.  At the dock the wind seemed strong, so we were optimistic.  By the time we got near the entrance to Small Point Harbor the wind had pretty much petered out.  We ghosted around various islands to the west and managed to do an interesting loop with a bit of help from the engine.  Friday we took out six people, a party of four and another couple.  The couple was staying at the resort.  The others were a pair of “Mainer’s by choice” who live in a cottage close by and their guests.  It was a lovely sail overall.  We left the dock in a strong north wind which faded to nothing part way down to Small Point.  When the wind filled in, it was from the south.  That makes planning interesting.  

The sunset sail that followed was terrific.  We started out with some strong southerly wind that died away during the trip to allow a flat-water view of the setting sun.  The three passengers were staying at the Rock Garden Inn adjacent to Sebasco Harbor resort.  I’m pretty sure that Dev, who took the helm for much of the trip, had a good time.  Hopefully they all enjoyed the sail, we certainly did

The challenges of boating

The challenges of boating   …   Sun 5^th – Wed 8^th July

Sunday was a really quiet day for us. I took out one “scenic” trip on the Ruth at 10.30 am and other than that we had no bookings. However, the morning had it’s element of excitement when Robin and Paul, the couple that we met on Saturday, set out to take their yacht “Bald Eagle” from Sebasco harbor round to Great Island Boat Yard in Quahog Bay. It’s a trip of about 6 or 8 miles, so no big deal, except they needed to complete it without the use of their engine (which was overheating) or, as it turned out, without much wind. Paul hitched his dinghy to the side of “Bald Eagle”, a 38 ft Sabre yacht, and they dropped the mooring. However, they were concerned about lack of speed and limited steerage, so I tied on our dinghy to the other side and with the double hip-tow in place we proceeded out of the harbor. Once clear of the entrance, “Bald Eagle” rolled out her genoa and proceeded under sail alone at about 2 knots until the breeze died altogether. Paul re-started their dinghy outboard and they were able to make decent progress, so I headed back to Sebasco to take out the Ruth trip. We later heard that Paul and Robin’s outboard overheated shortly after I left and they struggled on with just sails in minimal wind. The happy end to this story is that they re-appeared at Sebasco later the next day with their engine fixed and the prospects of their summer cruise alive again.

Monday and Tuesday were both really busy days for us. On Monday we took out a family of four (Mom, dad, daughter and cousin) on an “Islands and Bays- lunch cruise”, a 3 hour sail with a stop-over at a quiet anchorage for lunch. We went down to Ragged Island and dropped the anchor close to the wild and rocky shore with just guillemots for company. It was a good trip. Later that afternoon we took out a couple for a repeat sail. We took that as the strongest evidence that they really did enjoy their first trip, and we had an excellent sail with near perfect conditions. Monday’s sailing trips were sandwiched between two Ruth cruises, one starting at 9 am and the other finishing at 8.30pm, so it was a jam-packed day.

Tuesday was also quite frantic with three Cotinga trips scheduled and customers booked on all of them. Our first trip of the day was another lunch cruise, this time with 6 customers (4 adults and 2 children). The forecast was for increasing winds and seas so we chose a route that had us sailing westwards across the bay, then north into protected waters. It all went fine except for the heart stopping minutes where we snagged a lobster pot line and float about 45 minutes into the trip. The rudder suddenly went very stiff, we heard groaning from under the hull and we were just a couple of hundred yards from a rocky ledge. We quickly dropped sails and with some trepidation started the engine. We then made a slow, laborious turn to the south, with the intention of trying to get back to harbor, when “pop” – off it came, the steering freed up and there was a fluorescent green float bobbing behind. Panic over, we continued with our trip! Just in case anyone thinks we are totally incompetent (and I’d understand why you might think that) you have to realize that the density of pots up here is astonishing. You never get to sit back and steer from the side of the boat – you simply can’t see the pots well enough from that position. You can never, never relax and let your guard down. I didn’t see the pot we snagged until after it popped up behind and it may not be that I simply missed it. Today on the “Ruth”, we were heading up a narrow channel into the Basin, a standard part of our “scenic trip”, and the tide was running quite strongly, so Jack, our tour guide, was standing next to me to help spot pots. There must be about 50 pots in the space of two hundred yards, but two of then caused us concern on the way in because they were so sucked under you could only just see the tip of their wands. On the way out we kept an eye open for these two, but it was pure chance that we both looked down at the same time to see another float two feet under water passing the side of the hull. I love the coast of Maine, but the pots make the sailing “suck”. It was easier in a 16-foot day sailor where you could lean over and re-set the rudder if it was “tripped” by a pot.

Anyway, back to our schedule. We arrived back from the lunch trip shortly after 2.30 pm and picked up our next set of customers for a 3.00pm to 5.00pm cruise. Again we had 6 people signed up and with the winds increased significantly we decided too sail the outbound leg of our trip with genoa alone. This went fine, but once we reached Orrs Island and started to head back we were essentially becalmed and decided to raise our mainsail as well. The breeze picked up and we were enjoying a fine sail. Then the breeze picked up some more and we were now “enjoying” a lively sail at 7+ knots in short period waves of 3-4 feet … all the time trying to spot those lousy lobster pots. In the mean time, the fog rolled in and we could no longer see land! Thankfully, our GPS worked just fine and we were back in harbor in no time. Once we landed our customers on the dock, we heard that there was now a small craft advisory in place and we were happy (relieved) to be able to cancel our final trip of the day.

This morning, Wednesday, we awoke to fog and showers, but little wind. There were thunderstorms forecast for lunchtime but these never materialized. I decided that it was safe for the Ruth trip in the morning to go ahead, but due to poor weather, none of the 15 signed-up customers appeared. We did go out on a trip later in the afternoon. In fact we spent most of the day trying to resolve radar issues on Cotinga. Yesterday, in between the two trips we did make, we realized that our radar was not starting up. The system has worked flawlessly for 3 years, but no longer appears to be functional. We checked the obvious culprits … fuses, wiring connections, etc., and talked to the manufacturer (Simrad). Finally we dropped the radar pole and took off the radar dome. We opened this hermetically sealed unit only to find about a pint of water sloshing around. We confirmed that there is power arriving at the unit, but the scanner seems to be dead. So this afternoon we headed in to Bath and posted the radar unit back to Simrad to be repaired. To be honest, we haven’t needed the system since our overnight passage up from Cape Cod, but now without radar we feel a little vulnerable.

Tomorrow we have a full boat (6 people) for a 4 hour cruise in the afternoon, with a forecast for smooth seas and light winds from the east / south east. I’m excited that we might be able to sail a little further and in a different direction from usual.

Mike

Frantic Friday

Frantic Friday    ...    Fri July 3^rd – Sat July 4th

Friday turned out to be a very busy day indeed.  Mike did two tours on the Ruth in the morning.  His second Ruth trip finished at 2 pm.  The first Cotinga sail of the day was scheduled for 2pm.  We had the guests (a group of four people) come out on the launch to save time.  Mike arrived by launch shortly after the guests with the news that two more people were expecting to join us.  This turned out to be a man and his six-year old son. 

We got underway for what was meant to be a four-hour sail. As this was our first sailing after the “rock” episode, I was more than a tad nervous about the route, the sea state and the degree of heeling.  After traveling in a southwesterly direction to White Bull Island, we turned westward on a more sedate beam reach.  Threading our way through various island and ledges we saw plenty of breaking water.  A short run along the eastern side of Bailey Island revealed the stone bridge between Orrs and Bailey Islands.  Then we headed eastward and entered the mouth of the New Meadows River.  We sailed up past Cundy’s Harbor and saw seals on the Cedar Ledges nearby.  Tacking around to head back down the river, we were making many tacks but little progress to windward.  With the assistance of the ‘Iron Jib’ we were able to exit the river with only modest amounts of spray coming into the cockpit.  We arrived back on the dock almost on time. 

That was a good thing as the sunset sail was due to start at 6:30 pm.  Off we went again this time with six adults—a party of four and another couple.  We put up the sails, tucking a reef into the main and moved along smartly to the west.  Once near Orr’s Island we turned back eastward as the sun started to slide toward the horizon.  We finished the trip by ducking into West Point and then turning north for Sebasco. We dropped out guests at the dock and headed out to the mooring, leaving the dinghy behind on the dock.  This was somewhat dismaying but we soon became much more concerned about the mosquitos (aka ‘the Maine state bird’).  We hastily put away the mooring lines, stashed the fenders, covered the sail and retreated into the cabin to cook dinner.  It was already after boater’s midnight!

Saturday was a busy day for Mike with three trips on the Ruth.  I did laundry.  In the laundry room, I met Robin who was telling me about her trip to Sebasco from Falmouth, Mass.  They had many problems with their engine overheating and so had arrived here with no power, picking up their mooring under sail.  Robin and her husband Paul invited us over for drinks (soft in our case) on Saturday evening.  It was great to chat to them and to see their lovely boat, ‘Bald Eagle’.  We talked some about their plans for getting their boat to Great Island Boat yard.  We offered to help them.  Mike will tell more about that adventure in another post. We left Robin and Paul at about 6pm and Mike headed out to prepare for his final “Sunset” trip on the Ruth. After he returned at about 8.45pm we cooked shrimp and grits, substituting couscous for grits as we have none of the latter, and settled down to watch “Silence of the lambs” on the computer. Any night we have a sunset cruise is a late night.

Crashes, Bangs and Fireworks

Crashes, Bangs and Fireworks …. Tues 30^th June – Thu 2 July

It’s been a challenging couple of days. On Tuesday afternoon we took out a group of 5 guests on what was supposed to be a 2-hour cruise. The weather was perfect and we planned a route that would allow us to wind our way down through the islands and ledges that fill the upper reaches of Casco Bay. Most of the ledges and islands have shallow sections to the north and south, with deeper water to the east and west, reflecting their glacial origins. In order to clear the southern tip of Long Ledge on the same tack, we chose a course that took us close to the northern edge of Flag Island. We cleared to the top of Flag Island, but whilst negotiating the lobster pots in that area and simultaneously trying to serve drinks, we lost track of the fact that there is a second shallow area to the west and we managed to hit an underwater rock. It was quite a jolt and when we took stock of the situation we realized that we had lost the ability to steer the boat from the wheel. We quickly dropped the sails and took out the emergency tiller. A quick inspection below showed that we our steering cables had failed and we realized that the autopilot would still work. So we switched on the engine, engaged the autopilot and headed back to harbor. Rather than negotiate docking in this situation we returned directly to our mooring and had the harbor launch pick up our guests.

Further analysis of our steering gear revealed that we had snapped the chain that goes over the wheel-cog inside the pedestal. Hard to believe – this is 5/8 “ chain made of stainless steel (think motorbike drive chain rather than bicycle). Tuesday night was a worrying and depressing time as we did not know whether we could get spares or what other damage was done.

On Wednesday morning we had a diver out and he spent ~ 10 minutes under the boat checking things out. He found a ding on the keel, which is no problem and can be dealt with over the winter, and no sign of a scratch on the rudder. This was great news, but a bit of a mystery how such a significant gear failure could have happened without leaving a mark. We are starting to wonder whether there was an existing weakness in the chain. In our most optimistic moments we are even thinking that a vibration that we have been feeling when sailing at higher speeds and trying to address all year may have been due to this. Whilst the diver was at work we were also able to arrange for a new chain and steering cables kit to be sent up from Edson in Massachusetts by overnight FedEx delivery. By 9 am things were looking better and we had a quieter day – with all of the “Ruth” trips cancelled due to bad weather.

Wednesday evening was great. We had Mike’s former colleague Michelle and her son Malcolm over for dinner – cooked chicken on the gas grill, with lemon pasta, zucchini and brownies for dessert.

Thursday was a very busy day. Mike captained a couple of trips on the “Ruth” and Gloria drove an hour each way to Auburn to pick up the spare parts from the FedEx center. At about 2.30pm we started work and by 5.30pm we had the new steering chains installed and adjusted and the steering pedestal re-assembled. This is not a difficult or intellectually challenging job, but it’s a bit of a work-out trying to get at everything whilst lying in a locker or squeezed in a narrow opening. We took “Cotinga” out for a quick sea-trial involving some vigorous motoring and turning as well as a more gentle sail under genoa alone. Everything seemed to be just fine, so we are back in business. We won’t know for a while whether the installation of new steering controls has addressed our vibration problem, but we’ll update as soon as we know. 

One brief aside – whilst rebuilding the pedestal assembly Gloria inadvertently snapped the electrical cables off the compass light. This was easy enough to fix – but in penance I was forced to make her watch Apollo 13 (for the 13 time) in the evening. The last laugh was on me – after a fine dinner and a couple of beers I fell asleep and missed most of the film. During the film we took a short break to watch the firework display put on by Sebasco harbor to mark the 4^th July. It was quite a spectacle and we had perfect viewing point!

Mike

Fireworks at Sebasco Harbor resort

Fireworks at Sebasco Harbor resort

Fireworks reflected in the harbor

Fireworks reflected in the harbor