So this is my perspective. PM is writing a novel, I'm more into the here and now. This has been more of a learning curve than I had imagined, as I was familiar with running and maintaining VELOMER and thought, naively, that living and traveling would be different only in the location change. Well, it is a lot more. Every day, we learn something new and hope to remember so the next time I do not feel so dumb. Case in point occurred the second day as we approached the south end of the Annisquam Canal. The bridge was down and I had to turn a 36 foot boat in a 40 foot canal with lots of rock along the shore. So lesson learned: always read the signage along the canal, although it was a small sign, or so I will recall.
So to make this more of a captain's log, I will make our location and daily courses the lead paragraph, except for this one.
Day 1: Spring Point Marina, South Portland, Maine to Harbor Place Marina, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Distance run 47 miles; time: 7 hours; weather: clouds in the AM and wondrous sun in the PM; wind: light and out of the north; seas: 1-2 feet.
Day 2: Portsmouth to Constitution Marina, Boston
Distance run: 48 miles; time: 8 hours; weather: sunny and clear; wind: southwest, 10 knts; seas: 2-4 feet rollers.
Day 3: layover day in Boston
Day 4: Boston to Kingman Marine, Pocasset Harbor, east side of Buzzards Bay near the Cape Cod Canal.
Distance run: 41 miles to the western end of the canal then 7 miles through the canal and 5 miles to Pocasset; time: 8 hours to the east entrance where we waited 2 hours for the tide to turn, then 2 hours through the canal and into Kingman Marine- a long day; weather: sun and broken clouds; wind: southwest and building in the afternoon to 15-20 knts; seas: gentle swells to the canal, slight chop in the canal and then 4-6 foot steep sided seas for the run into Pocasset Harbor. That was fun!
Day 5, Day 6, Day 7- layover at Kingman Marine awaiting replacement seals and gasket parts for the flybridge steering.
This layover at Kingman Marine has been a great place to hang. Bob Roemer's suggestion of this place to get work done was spot on. PM and I rode to Wood's Hole along the "Shinning Sea" bike path yesterday and had intended to ride to Bourne and along the Cape Cod Canal bike path today, but, as often happens on boat life, we didn't do the plan, perhaps tomorrow. Today was spent doing brightwork and writing. I love this life!
The coffee at the little store, Latitude 41, ashore is great as we sample it each morning after showers.
We have been meeting really interesting people on this trip, family included. The one common theme to most blogs about the loop trip is that the people are the most memorable, although for me, as much as I love meeting new people, especially boat people, the time at sea has been the highlight.
VELOMER runs beautifully all day even as we were tossed around in the rough seas exiting the Cape Cod Canal two days ago. For those of you who recognize the passage out of the western end of the canal, it was a typical afternoon heading and very steep sided sea as the wind came out of the south west and blew up the gut of Buzzard's Bay: a wild ride for awhile, and we did it from the flybridge, 12 feet off the water. The Monk is designed to handle much more violent seas than that but that ride was about as wild as PM would ever wish to see, or so she says now. We had no casualties below except the TV and CD player did a flip off the shelf and landed right side up on the V berth and much of the interior dry food was rearranged on the cabin floor. Every day, PM's confidence builds. We even are talking positively about a crossing to the Bahamas next year. And a big thank you to Winn Pillsbury for replacing the fuel tanks before we purchased VELOMER and polishing the diesel. I 've been checking the Racor filters underway and they are staying clean and running at normal low pressure.
All for this day, its getting to be time for Pinot on the flybridge perusing our spectacular surrounding and that is a priority
No comments:
Post a Comment