Wednesday, September 26, 2018

September 13, 2018 Provincetown, on Cape Cod




















We spent the day in Cape Cod.  We took the dinghy in and checked out the dock for getting fuel.  There were lots of people lined up to get on ferries.  We checked out the memorial to the Pilgrims that landed here in 1620.  We had lunch at the Squealing Pig.  I had a lobster BLT and Dave had a lamb burger.  They also had a special starting at 2:00 of $1 oysters.  So we had a dozen for dessert.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

After we ate, Dave headed back to the boat to get our fuel jerry cans and refill at the dock.  I had a chance to do a little shopping, mostly looking.  While Dave was at the boat, he noticed a boat anchored near us with kids.  He went over to say hi and took pirate scarves for the 4 kids.  Then he tells them pirate jokes.  They just left Maine and are heading to the Caribbean with the 4 kids and a dog.  Wow!

I actually found a pair of pants for me and raincoats for both of us.  I made a stop at the liquor store before meeting Dave at the dock.  I found a local beer made on Cape Cod from the Cape Cod Brewing company called Red Right Return.  It was a great red beer.  If you’re not a sailor, that is the saying to remember the channel markers.  They are red and green.  If you are returning to port, keep the red to your right. 

So many people tell you that you have to go to Provincetown.  It was ok.  I guess more touristy than we like.  But this time of year wasn’t bad.  It was cool just to be here after looking at Cape Cod on a map all your life. 



our boat is under the tree and in front of the cars
 
 

September 11-12, 2018 Wood's Hole and the Cape Cod Canal

Tuesday
We decided to sail as if we didn’t have any water leak and take it day by day.  We’re finally on a plan to get to Maine.  I ran to shore one more time with our garbage.  The packaging form chicken and pork would get pretty stinky by the time we get to shore again.  Dave cleaned raw water engine screen and the water maker screen and readied the boat to leave. 

We left about 11:30am in fog.  We used our mechanical fog horn to have one prolonged blast every 2 minutes.  Funny, we have never heard anyone else’s fog horn, but at least we’re covered.  The fog cleared at the mouth of the Narragansett bay.  We headed through Buzzard’s Bay to Penzance Bay outside of Wood’s Hole.  This looks like an interesting place to visit on our return trip.  We had fog again by the time we anchored.
can you see the bridge we have to go under?
find the channel marker
oh, there's the channel marker
shoreline in Wood's Hole
Wednesday
We planned our day around the tide in the Cape Cod Canal.  You want to be traveling with the current and close to slack tide.  The current is too strong to motor against.  Close to slack tide, we would have more control. 
Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse
freighter showing 1/2 mile visibility
just shoreline in Massachusetts
We entered the Cape Cod Canal about 8:30am.   We usually travel at about 6-7 knots.   We were moving along at 8.5-9k right away.  We passed the Massachusetts Maritime Academy with some impressive ships.  By the time we passed under the railroad bridge we were doing 11k.  It was 9:45 by the time we exited the canal on the east end in Cape Cod Bay.  Since we aren’t heading into Boston at this time, we headed for Cape Cod. 
channel markers at the west entrance of the Cape Cod Canal

 
 
railroad bridge
little wet from the fog, can't see through my glasses and nothing dry to wipe them
people fishing on jetty
It was pretty cool to go into the hook of Cape Cod.  We anchored near Provincetown.  It was rainy and we were tired.  So we stayed on the boat with naps and dinner.  The closing for my office building was at 3:00 MST.  We had a toast to Dr. Kate Haave at 5:00 EST, took a picture and sent it to her.  CHEERS!!!
rounding the hook of Cape Cod

Provincetown








September 8-10, 2018 Bristol and car rental

Saturday
We planned to rent a car in Bristol on Monday to be able to finalize my closing documents on my office building.  So we settled in for a weekend in Bristol.

I spent the day at the Maritime Welcome Center doing laundry and using their wifi.  Dave spent the day putting our aft cabin back together and reorganizing the “garage”. Then we had dinner on the boat and listened to Alabama college football win another game.  ROLL TIDE!!

Sunday
Dave and I went to shore together this morning.  I headed to church and Dave went to the Maritime Welcome Center to upgrade charts using their faster wifi.  Afterwards, we met at the Sunset Cafe for breakfast.  We stopped at the welcome center before leaving shore and met another cruising couple. Neil and Brycea live aboard also.  Neil is from South Africa and has been sailing for years.  Fun to share experiences.

Monday
Car rental days are busy days.  We make a list, kind of map things out, and hit the road.  We had Enterprise pick us up about 9:00.  First stop was the UPS store for the notary.  Then breakfast at the Green Egg, a restaurant in the area that Dave googled that was great.  We headed towards what we thought was a Fed Ex store, but it was only a shipping location, darn GPS.  We found a store in Newport, so headed that way.  On the way, I made an appointment with the Newport Hospital for a mammogram at 1:45pm.  We came across a Home Depot, so pulled in there along the way.  We found the FedEx and shipped off the documents.  Dave dropped me off for the mammogram and headed to a West Marine nearby.

My last mammogram was 8-28-17, so my insurance would cover another one again.  I thought I could work this out once we had a car.  So I war really pleased that they could see me on such short notice.  Since I now have 2 sisters that have had treatment for breast cancer, and doing great, I didn’t want to delay having my mammogram done. 

We tried to find a marina in Portsmouth, RI to talk to a mechanic that was recommended by our surveyor.  We ended up just talking to him on the phone.  He has done a repair on a Beneteau similar to what we need.  He pointed out that the water could be coming in somewhere else and just traveling along the hull and coming out in the area we found it.  So we will continue to monitor that.  He also said a repair similar to this took 160 hours at $100/hour!!!  That is 20 8 hour days.  Guess we won’t start that right away. 

All that was left was groceries.  We divided and concurred that task and were able to return the rental car by 5:00.  They had to give us a ride back to the boat, groceries and all.  This way, we didn’t have to figure out where to park the car for the night or have to go to shore in the morning.  We had to wait for them to take us back to the dock, so we started removing all of the boxes from what we could to be able to throw them away and not have to deal with them on the boat.  We take cereal, etc, out of the box and store in bags to utilize space.  And to avoid bugs that can be in the cardboard.  I spent the evening storing groceries.  Besides putting things away, I break down the meats into 2 piece servings, wrap them in a clear cling wrap, then put them in vacuum sealed bags. I should have taken pictures of my assembly line.  Dave did the hand pumping for the bags. 

September 7, 2018 Short Haul at Hinkley Yachts in Portsmouth, RI

TODAY IS THE DAY!!
Hinckley Yachts wanted to hall us out about 9:00am.  We wanted to meet the surveyor at 8:30, so we left our anchorage about 7:00.  It took us about an hour to get there.  We tied up at their fuel dock to meet the surveyor, so we bought fuel, too.  We met Mark Ashton after talking to him several times on the phone.  After he had his look inside and heard more details from us about what was happening, the boat had to be moved to their lift area.  2 guys form the marina jumped on board and said they would move the boat.  That was really nice, because it was kind of a tight area to get away from the fuel dock and into the bay with the travel lift.  We were getting the feeling that this was a very professional AND high dollar marina.  We hadn’t even asked what the short haul would cost, we were just glad they could do it for us.  We have heard the fees run anywhere from $8-$15 per foot.  That’s $344-645.  They often charge extra to pressure wash the boat once it is out.  In the end, it was $9/ft and no extra charge for the pressure wash.  We were happy with that.  And the insurance company may reimburse us.
Dave had mixed feeling about having someone move our boat
they placed sheets of plastic to protect our boat from their lift straps

Once the boat was out, Mark did his thing.  There didn’t appear to be any structural damage to the hull.  The seal that Dave had placed, where the shaft exits the skeg, looked like it wasn’t completely sealed.  Mark needed to see the area, so the 5200 3M sealant was removed.  It looked like that could be the source of the leak.  Dave bought a new tube of 5200 to reseal the area while the boat was out and no one was looking.  This is non DYI yard- not a do it yourself.  The skeg protects the shaft and has a filler inside.  After checking the skeg further, Mark could tell where there were voids and moisture inside the skeg.  This area should be repaired at some time, so we had the yard manager look at it to give us an estimate while it was out of the water. 


the triangular area protecting the shaft is the skeg

seal where shaft protrudes may be been the leak

goop it up good with 5200
Our first thought was to repair it from the inside, where Dave could see the cracks.  But the marina suggested cutting open the side of the skeg, cleaning it out, refilling, and then repairing the surface.  I believe the shaft, the prop and the rudder would have to be removed, too.  So this is a bigger job than Dave would do. 

For now, we will see if the new seal takes care of any water coming in.  Then we will plan the repair for the near future.  Of course we will need a new plan if we continue to take on water.  We were back in the water and on our way by 11:00.  We went back to Bristol to make a new plan.

I was also in the process of selling my office building in Rapid City, SD.  I spent a little time on the computer with some of those details.  Then we went into Bristol for a late lunch.  We tried Quito’s on the water.  Their seafood was great.  We walked around town long enough to wait for the Bristol Oyster Bar’s 4:00 happy hour to have their “buck a shuck” oysters one more time before leaving the area.  Besides the regular cocktail sauce/horseradish, they also served a pickled jalapeños and shallots sauce, and a mignonette sauce.  We really liked the mignonette.  It is made with pepper, red wine vinegar and shallots. 

September 6, 2018 Bristol, RI and Narragansett Bay

We left Cuttyhunk about 7:00am to go back to Bristol, RI.  Bristol is about 5 miles north of Hinckley yachts and a good anchorage that we are familiar with.  We made it back by 1:00pm, right before a front moved through with heavy rain.  A neighbor boat was dragging it’s anchor.  We watched them try to reset their anchor out in the pouring rain.  I said to Dave “it’s too bad they had to deal with that in the storm.”  Dave pointed out that is exactly when you would have trouble with your anchor dragging, not in calm weather, duh. 

 
 

we expected to see a tornado drop out of those clouds

We had put out fenders on both sides of our boat to be ready for the haul out tomorrow. The boat that was dragging must have thought we suspected their anchor wasn’t set very well.  It looked like we were protecting our boat.

On the way past Newport, we saw a nice new boat sailing.  Then we noticed a boat circling it and filming it.  There is a boat show here next week.  That will probably be their promotional video for selling the boat.  Interesting.

Castle Hill Inn at the entrance of Narraganset Bay

September 5, 2018 Cuttyhunk and Portalnd Pudgy

We took the dinghy in to shore this morning.  There was a small sandwich and donut shop on the dock.  We each had a breakfast sandwich, coffee, and shared 2 donuts.  We had the feeling they had been frozen, not fresh made.  But it was a treat, none the less.  We shared the only table with shade with another boater.  We sat and visited with him for most of the morning.  Hinkley Yachts said Friday is a go.  And that works for our surveyor, too.  Yippee!!  Dave called Fairhaven Shipyard and cancelled the haul out with them.
Haven't been up to catch the sunrise in awhile
Cuttyhunk


That afternoon, we took our Portland Pudgy, Skadoosh, to shore for a day at the beach.  It is the first time I have been in the water this summer.  Dave has dove the hull, but not just relaxed like this.  The water was cold, but we enjoyed it.  We had perfect wind to sail directly back to the boat.   Dave let me off at the stern.  Then he had to go around our other dinghy and along side the boat to take the sail off and load it back on the bow.  When he rounded to the side of the boat, the nose of Skadoosh was directly into the wind, and he couldn’t sail along side the boat.  It took him about 30 minutes to zigzag across the bay and get back to our boat. 
setting up the sail alongside our boat

 

come on in, the water's fine

this is the channel between Cuttyhunk and Nashawena Island.  the land in the distance is Martha's Vinyard
For dinner, we made pizza using our bread dough recipe for the dough.  Not a good choice.  It was too think and ended up like a “brick” oven pizza.  We could use a good pizza dough recipe.