Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

Onset (Buzzards Bay) MA. June 14,2022: Day four of our Great Loop, we have calm seas, an overcast morning, and a favorable tide to ride down the Elizabethan Islands headed to Block Island RI, tonight’s primary destination. New Bedford and Newport are plans B & C. 

 

So, we are finally UNDERWAY, 6-6-22 came and went. That was original(D-Day) launch plan, but the boat just wasn’t ready (nor was I) and so we listened to our experts, Dwight R and Bob T, and finished off the to do list. Monday 6/6 we replaced 4 Batteries (House and Thrusters) and Tuesday another battery (Port Engine), and for good measure we added one extra (why not right!). The doctors advised with a great, add a pair jumper cables, when/ if any of our 7 batteries have an issue. Now we can always use the spare battery to get the Generator started which has the battery charger or if we need to jump the main engines batteries, regardless we have a backup, I’m all in on any backup plans!  I do think it’s the best insurance I have aboard as this is the third year in a row that we have replaced these batteries!  These two gentlemen have been a wealth of knowledge and I will be forever grateful to them both.

When I showed up Wednesday at Performance Marina, (they had thought they were done with me) to explain the cable reel broke, I thought I would put them over the top. They do what they do best and scratched out a fix and ordered the parts directly from the factory and had them FED EX the parts to get the cable reel working again. The cable reel is how we plug into shore power when at a slip, something we plan to do 1 or 2 nights a week, more than a nice to have, for me.  

Meredith and I spent Thursday and Friday on the boat. Meredith would not even go back to the house after we left Thursday morning with hopes of getting out early Friday morning.  I did go back to Wyndegate several times mostly to take showers and sneak more stuff a board. I also spent Friday afternoon, Ashley spent all Friday morning, waiting for the FEDEX driver who was supposed to be there before 10 AM, quick install and gone by noon!

At 5 PM Friday I got the notice the package was returned to Portland and would be delivered Monday! UGH, Bottom line we were able to go to Portland FEDEX and pick up the package at 7 PM. When I asked, “why the delay”, the woman said the driver was injured in an accident. I was loaded for bear …..ready to unleash my fury, get a full refund…..but that statement sure took the wind out my sails. In fact, I was happy just to have the parts.

Saturday morning Bob and Dwight were on board at 8 AM and we discover the wrong parts were sent.  They installed what they could, but the bottom line is we will complete the reel fix in route. Dwight told me that had renamed the boat “BYE-BYE”, so I know that I had stalled long enough. (Dwight thought he had heard the last from me, but he also knew “I’d be back”). Honesty, he told me to call him anytime which one of these days he will regret!)

SO……SATURDAY IS GO DAY, and it was.

We left The Arundel Yacht Club at 10 AM, clear skies, 2–3-foot seas and unlimited visibility. Our final destination was Gloucester Ma (50 miles) our plan B was Isle of Sholes (25 Miles). Happy to report we were able to get to Gloucester by 4:30 PM even with the winds picking to 20 knots with guest to 25 knots by 3 pm. Here is a screen shot of day 1. We picked up a town mooring for the night and I slept like a baby, (I was up at 5 AM that morning as I was too anxious sleep, it’s go day!) “We were now underway”. Calm seas all night which is wonderful. Sidenote, if you stay in Gloucester Harbor, the Inner Harbor is best, the town has moorings in three locations, Inner Harbor by far is the best.

Day two we left Gloucester at 8:15 AM and made our way thru the Cape Cod Canal and got to Onset (MA) a little after 4 PM. We rented a mooring at The Independences Yacht Club in Onset Harbor. Nice night until 10 PM then rained hard all night until 5 AM with several thunderstorms rolling thru. Lightning sure is bright when you are on the water, seems a bit spooky in fact.

Screen shot of Day 2:

 

Departing Gloucester, we headed across Massachusetts Bay and had a calm breeze and unlimited visibility and 1–2-foot seas, perfect. By 10 AM they were 2–3-foot seas and 10-15 knots of breeze and by the time we hit the canal it was a solid 25. However, the canal was fine with only 10-15 knots on the nose and a 1 knot tide against us. The canal is one of those waterways that the “right of away” goes to the boats traveling with the current as it is hard to steer the boat when you are going with the strong current. Therefore, having a little current against you gives you much more control, and who does not want control😊, when you are driving a boat, in a narrow waterway with commercial traffic going in both directions!

Onset is a special place for us, as it was where Meredith lived while she was in college and her family spent many years after there. Meredith worked summers at the Marina throughout College, so it holds a special place in our hearts. We spent two nights here last year and told the dockmaster we would see them in a year upon our return next June. Interestingly they had a couple come thru last week that had just finished their “Great Loop” and in fact they had spent their first night and last night of their loop at PIYC, pretty cool.

Why two nights one might ask? Last night during dinner the Generator just stop. Error code was “not getting raw water”. I cleaned the screens in the seacocks for water intake had some seaweed cleaned them out and fired it back up, 2 minutes.

 I figured with Meredith connections we would have a tech on board and be gone by 10 AM. The Marina told me 3 weeks, thirty calls later until I finally got a generator company from Fairhaven that said we will be there in an hour. Before we found Windwood Generators, I thought we were going to spend the summer in Onset, (the place is NOT that meaningful).

Now I know things are going to break but day two☹. So, I called the Doctor and Dwight gave me enough background to be able to try and explain what I might need and so I didn’t sound like a boy from the flatlands, who in fact know probable know more about engines than I do. Dwight’s parting shot to me was “I feel like I’m at Mission Control at NASA, and I have two crew members headed to the moon in a spaceship”.

Jack the tech (great young hard working smart fellow) showed up in 45 minutes and 3 hours later he had the problem fixed and the Generator is working fine now. Bottom line was the thru- hull (seacock) water intake had sucked up seaweed and could not get water into the generator. So, with a 3-foot steel rod he plunged the thru-hull and the water poured into the bilge……. “Jethro, we stuck gold”. I am going to have a PHD in boat fixes in the next year.

Unfortunately, it was too late to take off as the winds and seas had built up to 4-6 feet, by 2 PM winds blowing 20-25 knots, Southwest with 5 knots of current running up the Elizabethan Island which is our first 25-mile leg. Pretty easy decision to stay put.

Hence, that is the answer to why two on the mooring at PIYC.

They let us hang on the face dock all day, so we walked all over town to visit Meredith’s old haunts. W have a lot of great memories here but leaving town is the next best one. It also made it a much easier for Jack the tech to be able to not have to ferry back and forth to the mooring by dinghy, which he liked. So, we highly recommend PIYC.

In Route to Block Island. Flat seas, a following breeze E-NE, and unlimited visibility.

 

Cheers and Fair Winds

Leaving the Kennebunk River

Boone Island ME

The Admiral Taking Her Idea through the Cap Cod Canal

Cape Cod Canal

Last Night's (almost) full Moon over Onset MA.