Wind, Fog and Scituate

This weekend we sailed to Scituate harbor and stayed overnight at Cole Parkway Marina. On Saturday we headed straight into SE winds and had to tack all the way down. Despite a forecast of 5-10kt winds, the winds rose to 15-20kts true, requiring reefing of the main sail. But it was a delightful sail down.

When we arrived at the Marina we had a vicious side wind which made docking challenging. However, the harbormaster and others were very generous in their time and provided significant assistance - we used every spare dockline to make sure we were tied securely.
We enjoyed Scituate in the evening and sat outside at Riva Restaurant where we ate. As you know Phil enjoys mashed potatoes which was not lost on the waitress who brought out a special dish of Blue Peruvian Mashed Potatoes. Delicious.

On Sunday we woke to fog in the harbor.
It was picturesque and cleared by 8am. We set sail back to Boston on a broad reach with 5-7kt winds and raised the spinnaker. As we closed in on Boston dense fog set in. The radar was essential and helped us avert collisions with large and small boats alike. The near miss of most concern was one of the high speed ferries which travels between Boston and Provincetown. Judicuous use of our respective radars and fog horns helped keep us clear of one another. Despite knowing that a collision would not occur it is quite intimidating when one sees the outline of a ship within 1/8th of a mile.


As this was only the second time we had flown the spinnaker there was a little anxiety, but raising and packing it twice today helped develop the sequence of steps so that it can now be routine.
As we closed in on Boston harbor we navigated the channels blind, except radar and GPS charts until we entered the inner harbor. We felt a little cheated as sailing time was reduced - in close quarters entering and navigating the harbor we turned on the engine - but we certainly practiced other skills.