Solo weekend sail ahead

Tomorrow, Thursday afternoon I will sail solo over to the Beverly area where we have a work retreat Friday and Saturday. Noonish on Saturday I will then spend time sailing solo to a destination or two before returning back to Boston. Wind predictions are for ~20kts at the weekend, so it should be a fun time.

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.

Is that a car in the water?

Mooring under sail

Just moored under sail power at spectacle island

Made it home

My type of marina

Motoring home. Then 4kts of wind came up so for the last mile we got out the sails. It was slow, but a fun way to end the weekend. 

Breakfast on a wet morning

Waiting for thunderstorms to clear. We are in the Hull MA area and stayed overnight at sunset marina - no sun this weekend 

Heading north

As always at the weekend we don't know  where we are going . However winds are driving us along the north shore. When two boats are sailing in the same direction there is always a race. This race lasted for an hour with crew on both boats trimming sails. In the end we won - would I have written with a different outcome? 

Running out of diesel

I have always been a little concerned about whether the E on the fuel meter and an empty tank are one and the same. I now know that they are not. We were returning from a weekend trip to Scituate. Winds were very light and we used the spinnaker most of the way into George's island. We then powered up and had an 1/8th of a tank of diesel for the last 5nm. Given that the tank contains 40 gallons when full you might expect we had at least 5 gallons remaining, which at 2,500rpm we know will provide 10 hours of motoring. So at a speed of 5kts and only 5nm to our marina we should only use 1/10th of our fuel budget. Sunday afternoons can be quite busy in the harbor - an understatement. We were at the narrowest part near the airport and suddenly engine noise stopped - and there was only about 4kts of true wind.

So we jumped into action, headsail came out quickly we turned 160degrees to get on a close haul so that we could make a little wind and have control over our position. We always carry spare fuel and at this moment I was a happy camper (skipper). We quickly added 5 gallons, then I went beneath to bleed the diesel lines. After two attempts and one tack the iron genny was running again.

We made it back to the marina, our friends (non sailors) departed and I don't think they realized potential severity of the situation. A sailing friend texted to me "Sea Tow was probably circling like vultures". Another example of being happy that I maintain Prairie Gold and understand many of the systems and how to fix, or at least jury-rig them.

Whale watching at Stellwagen Bank

Although this is a sailing blog we couldn't help but post about a whale watching trip that we took. Its in our back yard so we feel justified.

Recall notice on Lite Cylinder Propane tanks

These fiberglass propane tanks are great as the don't rust. However, there is a recall notice on them so had to dispose of mine.