Fog winds and waves

Yesterday, Wednesday was an exiting day with many challenges. Leaving scituate was relaxed and I tried sailing despite low winds. When i was doing less than 1kt i turned the engine on. However, winds picked up to about 15kt true and allowed me to sail close hauled to the south for 2 hrs.during this time they turned further to the east allowing me to move in closer on the cape cod canal. It was necessary to reef both sails and with a little effort I managed to get good trim and no weather helm.

Since the fuel gauge stopped working last week i am working on estimated fuel usage so decided to stop in the sandwich marina to fill up with fuel. Surprisingly only 17 gallons was needed (40 gallon tank) so we must have been using good fuel conservation. As i headed back to the canal and turned west the wind picked up to 25 kts. definitely an omen of things to come.

Part way through the canal fog appeared. The weather on the east and west sides of the cape can be so different. As we exited the canal the wind against current caused the very predictable steep waves that were 6-8 feet in height. The difficulty was that they were so steep and with no visibility. I knew in front of me was a slow moving commercial vessel and had been purposely trying to slow Prairie Gold so as to put distance between us in case i needed to accelerate through waves. This was definitely good planning.

With visibility at about 100feet it was difficult to see the red and green buoys marking either side if the channel. The wave power was awesome. Initially I went head on into waves at about 4 kts because this meant we got less air! However, the speed was to little to get control. Normally i run the engine at 2.5k rpm. I pushed her to 3.5k rpm. I felt like we were flying but we had good control. We would come off waves with a crash then bury the nose and anchor locker into the next wave. Water would come along the deck and into the windows of the dodger and at ties crash over the bimini. It was most exhilarating. Lots of drying up to do in the evening.

I had intended to sail down to the tip of buzzards bay but the fog was so dense i decided to go to a port i had been during our Manhattan trip. I turned for mattapoisett harbor and moored on buoy 5, the same buoy we used on our way down to NYC. It took three attempts to pick up the mooring single handed. The first was sheer stupidity on my part, the second i didn't estimate the impact of 18kts of wind, on the third i made it.

The evening was foggy and fog lasted until 10am the next day.

You may ask why i am doing this single handed sailing. It is a different challenge and i am considering entering the newport 160 race next year. Completion of this race is required for entry into the Bermuda 1, 2 race. If you are interested in the bermuda 1, 2 let me know. Just had breakfast on the east side of the canal, will post about todays experiences tomorrow. Pictures will go up today. Time to put some sails up.