Kalue – Rudy and Phil’s big adventure – April 18-19 2014

Rudy owns Kalue, a wooden ketch that was handmade in 1947. She is a beautiful old school sailboat that Rudy winters in Constitution Marina, Charlestown MA. Kalue is A German Frers sr. designed wooden ketch. Built at the Quiterrez Yard in Buenos Aires. 

On April 18^th it was time to take her back to Maine for the summer. Thought this was an exciting trip, the weather forecast was not promising in terms of temperature.

After final preparations and taking on 37gallons of diesel fuel, we headed out of the harbor towards Cape Ann at the eastern tip of MA. Winds were light so we motored, and motor sailed for over 24hours. We had decided to leave our options open so when we passed Gloucester we made the decision to head on because we were projected to have following winds overnight that would become westerly at 15 kts by daylight.

Its been a long winter in New England and out on the water the temperatures dipped to the low 30s. as the English say – it was Brass monkey. Google it and you will understand.

For the past week there have been strong easterly winds so we had large ~2 meter swells all of the way until we got into the shelter of the rivers and islands of Maine. Food consisted of simple things – cheese and meat sandwiches; salmon and pasta and peas (my favorite). Breakfast – cereal, cranberries and banana. Red bull and coffee – lots of coffee. Rudy had a cup of tea with honey. He commented it was the first time that he had to use two hands to try to squeeze the honey out of the container – the honey was that cold.

For over 24 hours we motorsailed but made steady progress. The 15 kts winds did not materialize. However as we approached to coast of Maine winds roared. One often talks about a rail dipper – this was a stanchion dipper.

As we motored up to Robinhood marine center we noticed snow and ice on the coast.

It was a great trip – although next time I will  wear 10 layers instead of 5 – with a total elapsed time of 27h 41minutes. 

2014 sailing begins.