Sailing with family from England

Day 1 – Wind, waves and nausea – but great sailing (Boston to Scituate)

Dave (my brother) and Sue from England joined us for a week of sailing. When asked where we will go we answered, “depends”. We had booked dinner in Salem at Restaurant 62 in the hope of heading there. However, winds were from the NE at 10-15kts and once we exited the harbor it was clear that the sea was very lumpy and needing to beat into the wind for several hours would not be worthwhile. So instead we fell off the wind and had a great and fast sail down to Scituate. When I say a great sail, I mean I had a great sail. During the sail our guests learned that going downstairs in waves can be quite nauseating so they all stayed upstairs in the fresh air. It was quite cold, probably 60F and overcast.

By the time we got to Minots Ledge all crew were incapacitated with nausea. The upside was I was sailing solo. At the outset we were concerned that Sue might not be able to handle the nausea and we had made a deal that she could head back to Boston to shop for the week with Lande. However, she was a trooper and wanted to try again the next day.

Day 2 – Scituate to Provincetown – whales, seals and a boat on fire

We headed out of Scituate early at about 7am as the wind was still at about 10kts and forecast to turn from the north to the south and to lessen. So we wanted to make use of the wind we had as much as possible. After dinner the evening before I was asked, “where tomorrow?”  Of course the answer was “depends. We could head to Provincetown, Plymouth or push through to Buzzards Bay and we would decide as we left Scituate harbor. Upon leaving with three other vessels in front of us they turned south toward the Canal (required to get to Buzzards Bay) and/or to Plymouth. They had no sails up. The wind was about 10kts from the north so heading south our apparent wind would be too low for fun. Consequently we headed to Provincetown on a nice close reach sailing at 5-6 kts all the way. As we approached the tip of Provincetown we saw 8-10 humpback whales very close to land. They put on a great show!

The day was a little warmer but still chilly.

After seeing whales close and personal we continued towards Provincetown and saw smoke and heard desperate calls on VHF channel 16. We don’t believe anyone was on board. The emergency crews responded quickly and towed the boat away from the town and the other moored boats and tried to dowse the fire. One report indicated that they didn’t think the boat would sink, but that there was not much left of her. Another responder asked if someone could attach a floating ball to the boat so that if she sank they could locate her more easily. Quite chilling to listen to all of this talk.

After a head pump out I snorkeled around Prairie Gold checking the through hulls. In particular the one from the head which seems to be blocked. More work to do there when she is out of the water for a bottom paint job. Good news is that the hull is very clean and still has a good coat of ablative paint.

We went into town and neither Sue nor Dave realized what a sight P’town would be. I have never seen their eyes so wide open! We had drinks at a restaurant with some of the worst service ever. As a consequence we decided to head back to the boat to cook burgers (bacon and cheese) corn on the cob, with some salad.

By the evening the wind had turned South to SE as predicted. The evening discussion of destination was quite different than previously. When asked where, I answered Plymouth. But of course this is almost straight into the predicted wind. However, we have an important teleconference we can’t miss at 2:30pm and it’s the most appropriate distance for the available time.

Day 3 – Provincetown to Plymouth

We set off closer to 6:30am this morning with light wind. Dave is still to catch a fish so the rod was out quickly. We sailed for an hour then turned on the iron genny. Today is the warmest of the three days and everyone seems to be getting better sea legs. While underway Dave has even been able to come down into the saloon!

Leaving P-town

When we were midway between P’town and Plymouth, we stopped for a swim and as I was entering the water a whale surfaced 100ft away. I am going to conclude that I swam with the whales today.

We have been having problems recently with emptying the head holding-tank when offshore. To try and remedy the situation we had the head pumped out and at the same time flushed sea water through the system to give it a thorough clean out by the pumpout boat. As I snorkeled we opened the head through hull, and with a coat hanger was able to push through the through-hull into the holding tank and successfully get sea water to flush through.  Hopefully the system is fully functional now. Now we use the head and when we are offshore tomorrow we will see if we can empty it.

As we were arriving at Plymouth we saw a seal (I think it is trying to steal lobsters)

 And that vehicles really is driving on the beech