After a great departure party at Gannon & Benjamin and a day of running around we were finally ready to go on Sunday June 15th. Matt dove in on Saturday to do a final cleaning of our propeller for the summer, as water is a lot warmer in Vineyard Haven than where we’re headed!
Since the trip to Lunenburg should only take 4 days at most we were not particularly concerned about provisions, but got a lot of snacks and sandwich materials and a few tried and tested supper recipes.
Packed and everything stowed we cast off our lines at 9:30 am on the 15th with the intention to make it around the edge of Cape Cod to Pollock Rip by the time the tide changed around 6 pm that evening. As this area is known for standing waves and shallow shoals we wanted to get there in daylight and with a fair tide. This was easily accomplished and we made it through around 8:00 pm to be able to relax and watch the beautiful sunset.
The following day most of our wind died and we had to motor for a while, not ideal in a sailboat since the wind is free and diesel costs money, but it was better than floating around for the day, perhaps moving backwards. The wind then picked up and we were cruising, at times up to 8.5 knots, as we surfed over the waves coming from our stern.
There is not a lot to do out there on the water, and since we have no fancy satellite equipment to stay “connected” to the rest of the world, there is a nice relief of any responsibilities other than keeping the boat going where it should, and of course keeping it afloat. I had figured I’d have 3 days to read or write but found most of my time was spent staring at water and sleeping. The rocking really lulled me to sleep despite a lot of new noises.
Well more to come…
Slowly Sailing Somewhere 