A perfect day to sail

Wednesday
We left harbor under blue skies that continued all day. We had intended to leave at 8am but were delayed for fueling. At the first fueling dock we waited for 10 minutes to fi d the power was out so we set off for a second. Here we had success and added 20gallons. At 2,500rpm this will provide about 40hrs of fuel. We monitor the hours the engine is on as a backup for the fuel gauge. Over the past week it has been a bit flaky. Yesterday it stopped entirely. So we will closely monitors hours of engine use now.

Sailing was perfect with blue skies all day and winds up to 20kts. The winds were coming from behind resulting in an apparent wind of 10-15 kts in the afternoon. We used our spinnaker for almost the entire day. Since july 4th is around the corner we are using her now because we might need to keep her in the sail bag on Monday.

We had to contend with the Race yesterday. The current turned to the south east through the RAce at 11am. By then time we got there the current was at full speed! At the last moment before entering The Race we decided to bring down the spinnaker just in case we had a troublesome crossing. If we needed to make an evasive maneuver we would need to turn to port which would have caused the wind to change from our starboard stern to port stern. This would have caused a gybe and a serious spinnaker problem. Just after we doused the spinnaker a very large luxurious sailboat came through the race at top speed and caused a massive wake. We had to turn 45 degrees to take wake. Afterward Bob and I smiled as we were very happy we had takewn down the spinnaker.

Going through the Race we achieved a speed over ground of 10 kts. Since the theoretical maximum speed of our boat is 7.4kts we felt lime race drivers. However, the high speed was due to current. Based on how much I fidget when stuck in traffic jams crawling along at 15 mph I would never have imagined that I would be so excited by 10kts (12 mph). I can assure you, the combination of wind, and sea "rushing" past makes you feel like you are flying along.

We arrived at Block Island at about 6pm after having had Bob's bbq bluefish for lunch. This morning we set sail for Buzzards Bay. Winds stayed up overnight and buoy readings - we can tap into them online - show 12kts of wind as I write. Should be another perfect sailing day.

We have no idea of destination. It is getting difficult to find places to stay because of the holiday weekend. If nothing else we will find somewhere to anchor, or at worst case sail through the night.

Check out the blog during the day as we will try to post interesting pictures during the day.