Sunday, June 23, 2013

Solstice Sail


We were determined to do a two-overnight sail this weekend.  We both got to the marina as soon after work as possible and we set sail (set motor actually) at about 6:30. As of the night before, the forecast was for 18 mph winds out of the west. Wow.  Well, they lied. We had grand plans to make it to Scituate maybe but between starting so late and having about no wind, that was not going to happen.

So Friday night, we motored over to Peddocks Island and grabbed an open mooring.  It was a beautiful calm, warm moonlit night.  We both fell asleep in the cockpit.

Posing with Boston Sunset behind us
 
And so ends another day in Boston


Moon over the anchorage at Peddocks

On to Misery

The next morning, we got a pretty early start and decided to head north to Misery Island near Manchester to swim and relax and then probably move on to Marblehead for the overnight.

Linda Relaxing on the bow while we sail very slowly up to Misery Island

On the way up, our buddies Phil and Yolande on Prairie Gold texted us and said they would be heading north from Scituate to Salem.  We asked if they wanted to come join us at Misery Island first and they did.

Prairie Gold dead astern running wing-wing

Rafted up with Prairie Gold at Misery Island.  Notice how Linda goes over to the Fancy boat.

On to Salem
We made an executive decision to do Salem instead of Marblehead so we un-rafted and followed Prairie Gold across the bay to Salem Harbor. Once we got in there, we were circling in a holding pattern for quite a while because Salem Water Taxi was not able to come up with space for us.  Finally they sent us to the competition at Hawthorne Cove and they found to transient moorings for us. Hawthorne is where we winter stored Fujin in 2012-2013 so we have happy thoughts about them.


Nice shiny new Mooring ball and Mooring Lines at Hawthorne
Slow ride home

We knew getting home would not be fast.  The forecast was for pretty light winds and from exactly the wrong direction.  If that's not bad enough, we would be opposing a flood tidal current while leaving Salem and later opposing an ebb tidal current when entering Boston Harbor.  And see the picture of the full moon above - this is a spring tide so max current is really max current. When we left Salem, we both started sailing straight out from shore for several miles the plan being that we would do one big tack to make it back to Boston.  The wind was still pretty light and variable.

Prairie Gold about a mile ahead of us just after they did their tack toward Boston
And it hits the fan again
As we got near Boston, the wind started picking up. We were sailing as high as possible and started hitting 6kts. We were considering reefing the main.  Eventually we partially furled the genoa to de-power a bit.  With about a mile to go, we did a very ungraceful take-down of the genoa.  It was quite windy and we decided to turn down and furl it while being blocked by the main sail.  Good idea except you should actually look and see if anyone is coming before you do an abrupt 90 degree turn!  I was at the helm - my bad.  Anyway, there was some traffic there and so we ended up turning to the point of doing a hard gybe.  ick - messy messy.  All's well that ends well.  Live and learn.



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Monday, May 27, 2013

Chilly overnight trip to Manchester


They say memorial day is the official start of summer but with forecasts of 50 degrees and rain for the weekend, its not so summery. We decided to brave the cold and go for an overnight trip to Manchester anyway. Not only was today cold, it was really windy. The coast guard had declared a small craft advisory for the afternoon.

Very churny, choppy seas behind us leaving Boston

We started out with reefed main and reefed genoa but once we got into the north channel, we completely furled the jib. we were doing 7-8 kts the whole way.

We were considering turning back at one point.  There was not a single other boat out on the water besides us.  Even when we got near Marblehead - the diehard sailing capital of New England - we saw only one other boat.  We were freezing, we were pounded by wind and waves and we were getting very wet with spray.  We kept going.  Every time it calmed down a bit, it would be followed by more really strong gusts.  We both think this is the highest wind we had ever sailed in.

High wind and waves.  Bob fights the helm and Linda snaps a picture
At one point a big dark cloud formed to the north and it looked like it might be a squall line.  The wind really picked up then but the main part of it passed mostly behind us.  Soon after that, the sky started clearing and the wind got a little lighter.

Heading our way

I think it's safe to say that the reason we were the only boat out there was more due to the cold than the wind and waves. When it's warm, we definitely see people out sailing in this type of stuff.

As we entered Manchester channel, the sun was coming out and the wind and seas were calming.  We were happy to see several of their transient moorings available so we grabbed one.  We were dinghyless on this trip so we just stayed put on the boat all night and had a lovely home-cooked meal onboard.  No fancy Manchester nightlife this time.

Entering Manchester Harbor

We woke to a chilly but beautiful sunny morning and set off at about 07:15 for home.  We had a charter booked for 2pm and we wanted to get back in plenty of time to get the boat ready for that.

Morning in Manchester

Manchester harbor is very sheltered.  The boats here very often keep fenders on their sterns because the wind is so calm in here that the boats all start swinging opposite ways on their moorings and bumping into each other.  On this morning, there was a schooner behind us.  His mizzen boom was bumping into the windshield of the boat next to him!
Excuse me


Very low tide...  Manchester channel is very narrow.  You can see a few people push the limits of low water with their boats:




Kayak fishing is very popular in Manchester.  We almost always see a few guys out with these types of rigs early in the morning.  Looks really peaceful.




We had a great fast ride home.  The winds were not as high as on the way up, but they were still pretty strong. We had a full main but partial genoa for most of the trip. We rarely dropped below 6kts the whole way.

First glimpse of Boston from about 12 miles away as we round Marblehead


Once we got out of the north channel, the wind direction was such that we had to tack a lot to make any progress toward home.  That slowed us down quite a bit at the end but we still made it in about 4.5 hours.    We had time for lunch and almost a quick nap before our charter passengers arrived

See the whole May 2013 photo album
2013-may-fujin
Show Log Entries


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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Fixing the toilet


Once again the most important task on the boat is fixing the toilet.   No one thinks too much about the head until it doesn't work right.  Anyway, this is the second time I've done the rebuild kit on this one.  I would have hoped there would be a little more time between maintenance cycles.

On to happier thoughts...

While giving so much attention to the bathroom, we noticed that we kept accumulating a small amount of water on the bathroom floor.  Our suspicion was that it was coming up through the shower drains.  So I decided to replace the impeller for the shower sump pump.

The shower sump unscrewed from the bulkhead.  Bottom plate removed exposing the impeller
As it turns out, I don't think the impeller had anything to do with this problem.  So we may still have a mystery, but in the meantime, we have a brand new impeller on the sump pump. 

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