57nm, 11hours solo, winds to 30 knots. What a great Sunday

Sailing on Sunday included a diversity of conditions and lots of winch grinding. I woke at about 6am to torrential rain and high winds. So as not to get soaking wet at the beginning of a long day I waited until about 7am to cast of from the mooring ball. For the next 6 hours, all weather predictions were wrong.

Here is the old faithful red daymarker #2 which is the meeting point for the Salem water taxi so that they can show you to their transient moorings. When I arrived on Thursday, the lady on the launch said “Oh Prairie Gold, you know where the transient moorings are, go ahead and pick one up”. I guess we head here often.

As I headed out I took a picture of this sorry sailboat. Apparently it broke free of its mooring in Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and washed up on shore. The Salem people brought it back to life, and reattached it to a mooring ball, but the owner doesn’t want to pay the fees. So it is sitting there in limbo. Its companion way is open, its batteries must be flat, and is presumably accumulating water. A launch driver told me that everyone is just waiting for it to sink so that something can be done. So sad.

After the storm front passed there was an immediate drop in winds to about 6 knots ☹ and they shifted from south to west instantly. This was not in my plans that were based on Sailflow predictions. I motored out with the main up past the Miseries and went on to Stellwagen bank. I was heading straight into 6 foot swells at 6kts and was dying to use the head. In my rush to get sailing I forgot to “go”. Any way, after bouncing around a little, I managed to gain relief and get back to the helm – I will check for bruises. I hunted around Stellwagen for about 45 minutes but found no sign of humpbacks. Later on channel 78 I heard one of the Boston high speed whale watching cats bemoaning their lot that they hadn’t seen anything either. Well I guess I can go back, and I am sure I will.

Brunch consisted of bbqed bacon wrapped steak (health food) salad made form our veggie share including beetroot, corn on the cob, and homefries plus a glass of red wine. Life is good.

As I headed back from Stellwagen I was able to get close hauled and sail at a reasonable pace. However, my course was pretty much back to Salem. With time the wind turned further to the south allowing me to slowly turn towards Boston. As the winds subsided again I decided to change headsails. Remember, I had put the 90% headsail on last Friday morning in preparation for high winds. I started to lower the 90% and when it was ¾ of the way down I decided that this might not be a good move on my part as I was solo – seas were still quite bouncy - so I hoisted it again and just decided to sail a little slower. What a great decision it turned out to be.

On VHF the Boston coastguard kept giving weather announcements about a line of storms (see my previous post for the Doppler radar), that the storms were producing winds of up to 30kts, thunderstorms and after the storm passed there would be a wind shift to the west. Well this was great information, however, they didn’t start providing it until after the storm had passed and continued to provide it until the afternoon when it was beautifully sunny. I guess the good news is that there was little else for them to do on this Sunday.

When I was a few miles east of the NE Graves lighthouse the wind really kicked up again. It is now that I was pleased that I had not changed the headsail. I was close hauled sailing all the way back to Constitution marina with sustained winds of 20 kts, gusting to 30kts. I quickly reefed the main sail and was able to work beautifully in these winds. There was almost no weather helm and I was flying. I have been told before that you pick up speed when you reef because the rudder is no longer acting as a brake. I was passing every sailboat, most of them with full sail and really having problems dealing with the wind.

As I entered Boston harbor 4:15pm came the start of the Americas cup race in San Francisco. Oracle US (with one US sailor) was trailing 8-3, with the Kiwi boat only needing one more race to win the cup. I had an ear piece in my right ear connected to my phone listening to the commentary. The excitement of the race together with my own racing was awesome. In the harbor, winds were changing direction and speed, sometimes 6 knots sometimes 25 knots and with wind shifts of 30 degrees. Then in addition I had to avoid a cruise liner backing out of the port into the main channel, avoid one sailor from a collision because they don’t now that starboard tack is the stand on vessel – I should have asked for a penalty - and then had to avoid some tankers as I was tacking across the channel. This is what makes Boston sailing so fantastic, changing winds, lots of traffic, narrow channels, and I forgot to mention I was tacking against the current.

I arrived back to Constitution marina after 11hours of solo sailing for 57nm. A little tired. I decided to have a second glass of wine from the bottle, talked to my better half who is away, and decided I needed to head home soon otherwise I would fall asleep on Prairie Gold.

The fall is here, the winds are up.

By the way, Oracle won both of the races on Sunday – it is now 8-5. Tune in at 4:15pm eastern time today Monday for the next race. Go Oracle. I love their fighting spirit and unwillingness to buckle when their backs are against the wall.

Now I should go to work so that I can sail again soon.