Salem again

On Saturday we headed out from Constitution Marina with the intent of going somewhere for the night. We used the faithful spinnaker and started down the north channel towards Salem on a broad reach. The wind dropped so we used the engine and once we were close to Marblehead, a sea breeze kicked up that allowed us to sail close hauled, with several tacks, into Salem harbor where we picked up a mooring ball from Salem Water taxi.

For dinner, we didn’t fancy anything spectacular and went to the Tavern in the Square for burgers. Back to Prairie Gold, one episode of Walking Dead and we were asleep by 9pm. After a great night of sleep on the gently rocking water we decided to head back to Salem for breakfast and the launch driver recommended Red’s. It was fantastic. Also their throughput was incredible. A table next to us left, within 40secs their table was cleaned and set for the next group. In another 40 seconds the group was seated and in 10 more seconds their drinks order was taken. Gordon Ramsey would have been proud of the service. The food was excellent and despite the throughput you didn’t feel rushed.

We expected to motor all the way home but as we got to Marblehead the wind came up. We were on a SE heading, close hauled racing others. After about 7nm we tacked and headed for home. As we approached Deer Island, the wind died and we motored to Lower Middle, at which time the wind grew again. Just before we raised the sail a sailboat tacked right across our path that caused us to turn immediately to port and pull a 360 degree turn to avoid a collision. Since we were motoring at 6kts at the time it wasn’t a pleasant manoever for Yolande who was standing at the time and didn’t have a firm hand hold. While I do realize that sailing vessels have right of way, shouldn’t sailors use common sense? This was a stupid maneuver on the sailboat’s part and gets good sailors a bad name.

With the sail up we had a glorious sail home. This gave us time to watch the second race of the day for the America’s cup. Those AC72s are phenomenal. I would love to get on one.