>It’s early on Thursday morning and we headed out of Rockland ME at 05:30. Next landfall will be the Cape Cod Canal over 200 miles away following an overnight passage. My original plan was to leave over the weekend but with Irene the NE and E winds that generally follow a hurricane were favorable for a passage from Thursday through late Friday. If I were to wait until Saturday we would have had to motor into a stiff prevailing SW wind, right on the nose.
Switching by a few days doesn’t seem like much of a problem except that my friend Roger, and fellow SAGA 43 owner who was going to crew with me on this run, was stuck out west after his Monday (Irene Monday) flight was canceled. By the time he was able to resolve travel issues he wouldn’t have been able to get to Rockland until Saturday, just to late for the passage to Mystic with the wind forecast.
With only one day to find a replacement crew, I made a slew of calls to friends with the hope of finding someone who could drop everything and make the run up to Rockland with one day’s notice. To ask someone to take off two days from their life at the beginning of a holiday weekend was a tall order.
However, my friend Keith, again, another SAGA owner, was willing to come up from CT and is on board with me now. I should note that Keith had mouth surgery on Tuesday and still was willing to help bring Pandora home.
It’s interesting that after making this run for 15 years now, I decided to have just one person join me instead of the usual 2-3 that I have more typically used in the past. My view has changed now that we have spent time with many couples that we have met in the last few years that sail long distances with just the two of them aboard. I guess that if they can sail around the world with two on board, I should be able to make a 1.5 day run with two as well.
One last look at the hills of Penobscot Bay and Rockland. If we are able to head south next fall, it may be a while until we have this view again.
