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Cruise 2007:
July 23 - August 4
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July 23: Falmouth Foreside
- Harmon Harbor (On Board
Dasein)
This year's cruise turned out a little differently than I
had planned. With Heidi's ankle surgery in early July,
and her ongoing recovery, she was not able to come out to
the boat for most of the summer--and therefore couldn't go
on the cruise. But she was nice enough to virtually
insist that I go on a cruise regardless, so I forged ahead
with my plans...though I did reduce the length of my planned
time aboard by a week or two. Still, I planned about
two full weeks, which would be plenty to unwind and relax.
I certainly didn't have to
come down to Falmouth to help Nathan deliver his boat down
the coast, but for whatever reason I decided that it sounded
like a fun way to begin my cruise. So early this
morning, Nathan picked me up at my Mom's, where Heidi and I
had stayed the night before, and we headed to the boat,
departing the mooring around 0630.
We had visions and hopes of
reaching Rockland--and Glissando--in a single days' travel,
or about 60 miles. Unfortunately, the weather had
other ideas. The day started out nicely, but before
long the forecast wind--northeast, of all directions, and
right on the nose--began to blow, and by the time we got
outside of Little Mark Island in Broad Sound, the wind was
on the nose around 15+ and strengthening--not a condition
conducive to a long journey. By the time we reached
Seguin, we had all but decided to head into Harmon Harbor,
about the most convenient stopping point that didn't require
extremely long forays up the rivers and bays for safe
harbor. We arrived just after lunchtime, and as the
wind gusted throughout the afternoon, accompanied by
persistent rain showers, we felt we'd made the right choice,
disappointing as it was. |
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July 24: Harmon Harbor - Allen Island (On Board
Dasein)
Our hopes for an early morning departure were dashed at 0500
when, independently, we both awoke, took a glimpse outside,
and saw nothing but fog. Thick fog. Thick wet
fog. Rats.
The fog persisted through
the morning, though the sky kept brightening and giving us
hope. Time and again, we'd think that clearing might
be immanent, only to have the fog thicken and the sky darken
yet again. Compounding the frustration was the fact
that, according to Heidi, it wasn't foggy in Portland.
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By lunchtime, we'd almost
given up hope. The fog remained thick and damp, and
often, if the fog hasn't begun to lift by noontime, all hope
is lost. Because of the distance to the next
reasonable night's port, we'd pretty much set 1400 as a
deadline for departure in order to arrive in daylight.
So it was with pleasure that we finally noted the fog truly
thinning, and the sun arriving overhead, at around 1300.
Before long, it was clear that it was indeed clearing for
real, and we got the boat ready. We decided to head
for Allen Island, at the far end of Muscongus Bay, since it
was close to the rhumb line track and wouldn't take us out
of our way. Plus, neither of us had been there before. |
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With the fog rapidly
retreating offshore, we enjoyed a fast and easy trip, with a
light breeze on the beam giving us a bit of extra push with
the mainsail. We also had the tide with us most of the
trip, uncharacteristically, so we made great time to Allen
Island. Once there, we anchored--it took two tries for
the anchor to set--amidst the din of bleating sheep from the
island, certainly a funny sound to be hearing on board.
Actually, sheep are always funny somehow.We had cocktails while
watching some bizarre behavior on he lobster boat Harvester.
Having apparently completed their hauling for the day, they
chose a spot quite near to us, put the helm hard over and
the engine in gear, and spent about 20 minutes going round
and round in circles while both men on board scrubbed and
cleaned the boat up. While the cleaning was admirable,
the circling--particularly so close by--was quite odd
indeed. |
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July 25, 2007: Allen Island -
Rockland (On Board Dasein); Rockland - Long Cove (9.95 nm on
Glissando)
Just before dawn, and at our intended waking time,
Dasein was severely rocked by a huge wake--our buddies on
Harvester again. It was just as well, since we were
ready to get going. We departed early for Rockland,
hoping to arrive by 0900 since once we arrived, I needed to
go ashore and return home to pick up my own last minute
supplies for the cruise, as well as the dinghy and ice for
the icebox. We were 2 days later than we'd hoped for,
so the idea was to minimize the time in Rockland and get
somewhere nice for the night.
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The transit to Rockland was
uneventful: no wind, and clear skies. We made
decent time with the tide in our favor, and arrived right on
schedule, but as we entered the harbor, Nathan lowered the
main and clipped the halyard onto a plastic ring he had on
the mast for this purpose. I was at the helm, and
suddenly looked forward to see the main halyard shackle
dangling 6' above the boom; Nathan seemed equally stunned.
His quick attempt to grab the halyard with the boathook
proved fruitless, and at that moment the wake from the
friendly Island Transporter rocked the boat and caused the
swinging halyard shackle to rocket to the masthead sheave,
completely and utterly out of reach. Now what?
With a fractional rig, when the main halyard goes to the top
of the mast, there's no way to use a halyard to get to the
top of the mast. Neither of us are monkeys who were
prepared to shinny up the mast.Eventually, Nathan called
Journey's End Marina in Rockland, and it seemed like they
might be able to help out. So we motored the boat over
to their dock, where Nathan--with some difficulty--found the
right guy to talk to, and arrangements were made to use
their portable man-lift off the nearby pier to send a man
out and retrieve the halyard. Even though the waiting
was frustrating (and beastly hot in the airless docks), the
response was timely and relatively efficient, and before an
hour had passed the man lift arrived and plucked the halyard
away from the masthead and back down to deck. |
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With that out of the way,
we motored back over to the spare mooring near Glissando,
and then Nathan ran be ashore in his dinghy. I got my
truck from the parking lot and drove home to pick up the
food from my refrigerator and freezer, with a quick trip to
the supermarket on the way back for last minute vegetables,
bread, and ice. I also picked up my cruising dinghy at
home, since I use a different dinghy for day-to-day transit
to the boat at her mooring.I was back on board
Glissando well inside of three hours after being dropped
off--excellent time. I stowed the perishable food and
ice in the icebox, put the rest of the last minute stuff in
the vee berth for now, and prepared to get underway.
It was a beautiful day, and a nice SW breeze had come up
while I was gone. Soon, we headed the two boats past
the breakwater and towards Vinalhaven.
Nathan took some nice
photos of Glissando on this crossing as well.
Click here to see
them.
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The trip across was
probably one of the better sails in memory. The wind
was 15+ from the starboard quarter, so with full sail we
enjoyed a thrilling and fast, surfing ride across the 6
mile-wide bay towards Vinalhaven, Leadbetter Narrows, and
our destination: Long Cove.
Once inside the narrows,
the wind became flukey, so we motored the remaining short
distance to Long Cove. This is still one of my
favorite places. Arrival at 1615 was 2 hours to the
minute after dropping the mooring in Rockland. We
enjoyed cocktails (dark 'n' stormies with lots of good
cheese and crackers) and dinner on Glissando. (Grilled
ribeye, baked potatoes, and broccoli) |
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Merle and Barbara Hallett were
here in their bath-toy powerboat, Endurance. I
really liked this boat--full of character. I was
impressed that Merle recognized me (or my boat, at least),
particularly since I had no idea that this powerboat was
his. We had a brief chat later in the evening. |
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July 26, 2007: Lay Day
Time for a lazy lay day, one of the great joys of cruising.
It was a beautiful morning after a flat-calm night, and
eventually we got the day going with Glissando's signature
corned beef hash and eggs for a late breakfast.
At some point in the
afternoon, I addressed my prototype
coaming seat,
and cut the leg to an appropriate length. The seat
seemed to work quite well, though any final version would
require a cushion for more comfort. I used the seat
extensively on several of the future days of the cruise.
The day was un-notable but
for its sloth: lots of reading, some rowing (I ogled
and photographed my favorite waterfront property yet again),
and too much food. Nathan made up some great fresh
pizza on his grill; he complained that the grill burned the
dough too much, but I thought it was pretty darn good
nonetheless. The only problem was that there was too
much of it. I could barely row back to Glissando
afterwards. |
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July 27, 2007: Long Cove - Pickering Island (16.9nm
traveled)
After a relaxing morning, the two of us departed shortly
after 1000 for a run up the bay to Pickering Island.
Nathan needed to meet his family in nearby Buck's Harbor the
next day, and he wanted to be somewhere close by; plus,
Pickering Island is a pretty and quiet spot and always
enjoyable.
It was hazy, hot, and
humid, with a light-to-nonexistent southerly wind. I
motored out past the southern tip of North Haven, and then
tried sailing in the light breeze. For a few minutes,
it was OK, but then the wind died again, and I was forced to
motor yet again. Around 1200, though, the wind picked
up just enough to make sailing feasible, if slow, and I
sailed much of the way up past the shore of North Haven,
enjoying a relaxing 1.5 - 4.5 knot sail, since the wind was
frequently up and down in velocity. Near the northern
end of the island, though, the wind completely died--it was
like sailing into a wall--so I motored again, up through the
small islands to the south of Butter Island and around the
tip of Butter. Then, there was again enough wind to
sail, so I sailed the rest of the short distance up to
Pickering. |
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 A little while after
anchoring, I noticed a familiar boat coming into the
anchorage: Blue Teal, an Alberg 30 owned by John
Irving. Once he got his anchor set, I rowed over for a
chat, and invited him back to Glissando for drinks later,
along with Nathan, of course. It was a fun cocktail
hour, cut short (fortunately, I think) by the early and
well-organized arrival of the night's mosquitoes. We
scattered to our individual cabins for the night. |
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July 28, 2007: Pickering Island - Buck's Harbor
(5.33nm traveled)
It was thick 'o' fog this morning. Although Nathan
needed to meet Heather and Gavin at Bucks that afternoon, I
really didn't specifically have anywhere to go (though I
also planned to go to Buck's), so the fog didn't bother me
much. The fog lifted a bit around 1000, and Nathan
departed; shortly thereafter, the fog came back for a time,
so I decided to wait and see what happened, and hung
out for another couple hours before the fog truly started to
lift around noon. I departed at 1212 for the short
trip up to Buck's Harbor.
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Although the conditions
didn't require it, I decided to turn on the radar, and
discovered that there was some sort of problem. The
screen showed an error message: "HD-SIG-MIS". I
didn't know what that meant, but later on I checked the
Furuno manual, where in the troubleshooting section it
indicated that this message related to a problem with the
signal cable. I checked the connections and they
seemed fine, so I wasn't sure what the problem was. In
any event, this left me without a radar for the duration of
the cruise, which typically isn't a big deal since I avoid
traveling in the fog whenever possible. Still, I
prefer having the radar available should the fog come in
while I happened to be on the go, so this problem left me a
bit displeased.
 At Buck's, I eventually
found a yacht club guest mooring way down in Lem's Cove, at
the eastern extent of the harbor. I'd never stayed
down that way before, and it felt like a different
world--not unpleasant, but different and far removed from
the action. It took a while to locate the mooring,
since the guy at the yacht club told me it was a pink ball;
there was only one pink ball down there, and it was clearly
an unused, abandoned mooring. Finally, I found two
white balls marked as BHYC, and gratefully picked one up,
since anchoring at Buck's is a near impossibility.
Later, I put the outboard
on the dinghy and trekked down to pick up some additional
ice. Then, I enjoyed a drink and dinner on Dasein,
complete with fresh oysters, corn, and haddock.
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