Sail Pandora

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There is another, and even more amazing , technology that is being quickly adopted by yachts today and that’s AIS,   This technology, as I understand it, is very similar to the system used by air traffic control to keep track of airplanes.   With AIS, each ship over a certain size is required to have an AIS on board to continually transmit the name of the ship, location, course and heading as well as other important information.   The VHF radio that I purchased also includes an AIS receiver so I can monitor shipping nearby.   The unit is made by Horizon Standard and I am told is the only unit on the market today that has this option built in.

While radar helps in seeing ships when they get close, It’s much better to have the name of the ship and all sorts of other information show up on the radio and incredibly, on the screen of my chart plotter.  Very cool indeed.  There have been many times over the years when I have seen ships at night, tried to hail them and not gotten a response.  Perhaps it’s because I would say something like… “vessel  headed east out  of the Race, this is the sailing vessel Pandora. Come in please”.  This always seemed clear to me but often there was silence on the other end.  I am told that when you call a ship by name you nearly always get a response.   AIS makes knowing the name a cinch.  I am looking forward to learning this first hand. 

>Pandora is back in Mystic after a long visit to Maine.  I had planned to bring her back over the Labor Day weekend but hurricane Earle thought better of it so I left and went home to New Jersey.

Getting crew is always difficult as moving the boat is so weather dependent and plans can change quickly.  This year’s return from Maine proved to be more complex than most.  My plan for this year has always been to move Pandora back from Maine around Labor Day and then move her South to Annapolis for a bit of late season sailing.  With the demands of business, yes that pesky day job, I had to put Annapolis on the back burner for this season and instead keep Pandora in Norwalk for the winter. 

With my Labor Day run to CT dashed by hurricane warnings, I had to leave her in Rockland for two weeks while we visited Nantucket for the wedding of a friend the following weekend.   I have to say that visiting by ferry from Hyannis was a treat as Brenda and I had not visited the island for over 15 years, mostly because the cost to take a mooring in the harbor is the highest that we had encountered and just more than we have ever been comfortable.  On this visit I was told that the cost was something like $65 a night or more.   Contrast that to Martha’s Vineyard where they run $45 a night, and that’s without any sort of launch service included.  In other areas, like Maine for instance, moorings generally run in the $35 range and sometimes less. 

Nantucket is the most remote island you will run into within a modest distance of major cities on the Mid Atlantic and North East coast and, to me, it has a flavor that is a bit more sophisticated than the other islands I have visited in the area.   One point of interest on the island, worth noting, is the Nantucket Whaling Museum. 

I won’t say much about the museum except to say that it has a very impressive collection chronicling the history of the island and a lot of care has gone into putting the history of commercial whaling in context with the times.  The collection represents many cultures given the many places that whalers visited on their voyages.  A particularly impressive display is the skeleton of a whale hanging from the ceiling in the main hall salvaged from a dead whale that washed up on the Nantucket shore years ago.   It’s beautifully lit and displayed as you can see below.

And there is always the wonderful Brant Point Light, at the entrance to the harbor.   Who can resist the alure of the Rainbow Fleet of colorful Beetle Cat boats parading by this light?   Brenda and I served on the “steering committee” of the Catboat Association for many years so these wonderful little boats will always hold a special place in our heart.

Well, we had a great time in Nantucket and I have to say that the ferry from Hyannis and back was trouble free and very comfortable.  We won’t talk about the hours and hours that we drove to get from home to the Cape and back.  They even offer free WI-FI for passengers.

With the wedding weekend behind us I again turned my attention to finding yet another crew to bring Pandora back from Maine.  As the weeks ticked by the weather was only getting colder up in Maine and I was anxious to get the delivery over with.

It’s hard to find friends that have flexible schedules and the ability to leave for a trip with just a few days notice.  Beyond that, a trip to CT from Maine is “up hill” and against the prevailing winds, something that isn’t that appealing to most boaters.

I have made the run from Maine to CT many times over the 15 years that we have sailed in Maine and at the end of a long and wonderful season, and planning what is often an uncomfortable run can be stressful.  However, this trip proved to be much more pleasant than usual.

While sailors always prefer to, well, sail but that’s not normally the case when you have to go toward where the prevailing winds generally blow from.  In the North East that’s generally from the South West. 

In this case we got lucky and a front passing through the area brought North winds to help us get home without a fuss.   While we still had to motor nearly the entire way, 33 hours actually with a few hours of late afternoon sailing in Buzzard’s Bay, the trip was uneventful and thankfully, the wind was on our stern, if a bit light.

With a half moon and clear skies, we were treated to a fabulous view of the stars and a fair number of shooting stars.  It’s remarkable how clear the night sky is when you are away from the light of big cities.  At 1:30 on Saturday morning and 25 miles off of Boston, the light of the city was a just a red smudge on the Western sky.   With nothing obscure the night sky after the moon set at 1:30am, the view was breath taking. 

The run from Rockland to the Canal takes about 24 hours so we would be out over night for our run South.  We left Rockland harbor at 4pm on Friday and picked up the mooring in Mystic at 2am Sunday.  And that’s without stopping along the way.  Picking our way up the Mystic River in the dark was a bit of a challenge but we did it with a minimum of fuss.

There is always the hope that we will see whales along the way and this run didn’t disappoint.   A few finback whales, nearly 30 feet in length, came very close to Pandora.  They are beautiful and graceful animals.

Now that Pandora is in Mystic I will take this weekend off to do some chores around the house and then head out for one last weekend with some friends when I bring her to Norwalk and her home for the Winter.

Alas, a great season of sailing is coming to an end.   Hopefully, our 2011 season will again take us to Maine and South to Annapolis.  All and all, a great season on the water aboard Pandora for me and Brenda.

>After much debate, just prior to the Labor Day weekend, we decided to leave Pandora in Rockland and head back to NJ and home while waiting for hurricane Earle to make his run up the East Coast.   I had arranged for crew to bring her back over the long weekend but it was clear that, direct hit or not, the seas and weather were going to be unsettled for days to come and I didn’t want to extend our visit by a week while we waited for favorable NW winds to make our trip home.  It’s also difficult to get crew on short notice that have the flexibility to make a run with short notice as most work full time and have those “pesky day jobs” to worry about.  Fortunately, after leaving the boat and heading home, Earl had a lot less impact than expected, although you wouldn’t have known it if you watched the breathless reporting by the networks and the Weather Channel. 

It is amazing how weather has turned into a national obsession.   Who would have ever expected there to be cable shows, with millions of viewers, based solely on reporting on the weather.  I for one, get my weather from the Web as it’s a bit more dispassionate in it’s reporting.  The National Weather Service has never been known for their editorializing, and NOAA, and his/her robotic voice on VHF weather certainly doesn’t have the breathless delivery of a network anchor.

My favorite source for weather is www.wunderground.com and www.sailflow.com with the former a great source of long range forecasts, such as they are, and the latter good for marine wind directions for most locations up and down the East Coast.

With Earl bearing down on New England we headed home with the hope that Pandora would not be pounded by hours of strong easterly winds, a direction from which the harbor is heavily exposed.  Well, the decision was made to get a mooring and head home to wait out the storm. 

If you have ever visited Rockland, you probably know it as a great harbor with loads of moorings as well as space to anchor fairly near to town.   While I usually get a mooring, on our last visit, after paying for so many moorings over our six week visit in Maine, I decided to anchor, something that I have done in Rockland off and on over the years.  However, as is so often the case in heavily used old harbors, there is a risk of hooking an anchor on some sort of old junk that was jettisoned overboard as no longer usable. 

In over 30 years of sailing I have only snagged my anchor on something big twice.  Once in New York Harbor when I pulled up a massive old cable when I anchored off of Governor’s Island during an op-sail in the early 90s, a place where I shouldn’t have been been in the first place, and again last week in Rockland. 

I had tried to anchor near the cement factory, to the left of the mooring field as you face town from the water, with my 65lb bruce anchor.   This anchor usually hooks in well without a lot of scope, but this time I had to put it down twice before it bit in well.  In actuality, it was hooked much more securely than I realized. 

Later that day I decided to move in closer to a mooring as I just wasn’t comfortable being out quite as far from town I was and decided to pull up the hook.  All went well until I had most of the chain in and was trying to pull the anchor out of the mud.  It seemed that the anchor just wouldn’t break out, something that sometimes happens after we have sat in fairly heavy winds overnight.   However, I had only had the anchor down for a few hours in this case.   Oddly, no matter how hard I used the windlass or the engine, I just couldn’t break it out. 

It wasn’t long before I realized that this wasn’t coming up using normal means and that more “extreme” measures were required.   After messing around with things for a while I decided to attach a line to the chain with a chain hook and ran the line to a winch on the mast to muscle the anchor up.  I took up the slack, such as it was, and secured it with another line so that I could again attach the chain hook, pull it in a bit more, remove the hook, take up the slack and so on, until I was able to, under extreme loads, get the anchor up to the surface. 

The strains on the line and chain were a bit daunting and as I winched it in and I began to fear that something would break under tension and, well, who knows what…

Fortunately, someone on a nearby boat was watching me struggle with the anchor and came over to help.  With his assistance I was able to take a line from the bow loop it under the cable and back to the bow.  Once this was accomplished, and tensioned properly, I lowered the anchor slightly so that my helper was able to pull each loop off of the anchor so that it settled into the rope loop that I had put in from the bow. 

Once this was accomplished, I was able to get the now freed anchor out of the way and slip one end of the rope so that the cable dropped back down to the bottom.  The exercise, and yes it was good exercise and I was sweating fairly well by the time it was over, took nearly an hour but it worked, thankfully.  With out help I am not sure I would have been able to solve it as easily and certainly appreciated someone coming to my aid.   As this was unfolding Brenda was ashore so I was on my own. 

After freeing myself from the cable, I was able to get a mooring for the night and begin to preparing Pandora for the storm and our departure.    I have certainly make a mental note, and you should too, to think twice when you anchor in a harbor that has had lots of industrial use over the years.  Some make a habit of rigging a trip line when in an unfamiliar harbor so that they can more easily retrieve a snagged anchor.  Perhaps I will too in the future.

The storm passed without a whimper and I am now preparing to head back and bring her home.  The weather report suggests that we will have NW winds beginning on Wednesday which will hold for a few days while I bring Pandora back to Mystic.  The sailing season is about over for me as work is busy and I can’t spare the time to run her to Annapolis, our preference to extend the sailing season.

For now I will have to satisfy myself with a weekend or two aboard prior to pulling her out in Norwalk CT for the winter.  I can always think about sailing next season.  Hmm…

As I write this I am in Nantucket with Brenda for a friend’s wedding.  What a wonderful place. But, more about that later.

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Since my last post we moved Pandora back from the eastern Penobscot Bay toward Rockland and Camden.   Along the way we enjoyed visiting Merchant Row near Stonington, the home of one of the last operating granite quarries in Maine.  In the 1800s granite was a major building product, prior to the widespread use of concrete as a building material.  This shot is of a very active quarry, one that seems even more active than when we began cruising in Maine nearly 15 years ago.  You can really get a feel for the scale of the operation.  It’s interesting how smooth the cuts are and how massive the blocks are.

This area of Maine is dotted with small granite outcroppings and navigating among the islands can be tricky, especially in the fog.  Fortunately, this day was chrystal clear and sunny.  This shot of the chart plotter gives a good feel for just how “interesting” navigating in Merchant Row is at 7.5kts.

Note that the island in the upper left hand part of the display is Crotch Island, the one with the “crotch” in the middle of it, the granite quarry that is in the photo above.  The actual quarry is the Deer Isle Granite Quarry.  Their site shows that they sell small items for the home and it’s hard to believe that they don’t sell bigger pieces given the scale of the operation.    It would be fun to have kitchen counters from an area that we love.   I guess that even big chunks of granite are sometimes destined to become small trivets.  Not a very noble end for a magnificent island.  Go figure.  All of the islands in this area are made up of unbroken granite and are quite beautiful.  

Granite isn’t the only industry in Merchant Row.  This mussel “farm” is anchored off of a small island where the ever present currents keep the “crop” fresh and sweet.  When you purchase wild mussels in a grocery it’s likely that they came from a place like this.  By suspending them in water above the bottom they never get grit inside which makes them taste even better.   We have dug them ourselves and it takes lots of washing to be sure that you won’t get a mouth full of grit. 

There’s another new industry cropping up in Maine, and elsewhere in the US, and that’s wind power.  These three massive towers are the first on the Maine coast and generate enough power to supply the electrical needs of Vineyard Haven with enough left over to sell back into the power grid.  Some hate the look of wind generators but I think that they are wonderful.  To see these monsters slowly churning away is quite a site to behold.   Pandora is also fairly “green” with nearly all of our power coming from solar panels. When Pandora was launched in April we turned on the freezer and it’s been on all summer.  I can leave the Pandora at anchor for days, or weeks, at a time and never need to use the engine or generator to charge the batteries.  The solar panels put out a great deal of power, sometimes nearly 30 amps at their peak in the middle of the day.

 Back when schooners were the primary mode of transport in Maine, especially for heavy cargo like granite, the primary “trucks” of the day were the coasting schooners.   Today they take human cargo out for day and week long trips.  Merchant Row is a favorite stomping ground for the “dude schooners” and to me this is one of grandest of the schooners.  While I am not positive, I think that this one is “Heritage”, a wonderful schooner with really sweet lines. 

Views like this are fairly common place in Maine and this one with the Camden Hills in the background are particularly scenic.  If you want to spend time on a Maine schooner, you can book here.

As I write this I am back in New Jersey, courtesy of Hurricane Earl.  My plan was to bring Pandora back to Mystic from Maine over the Labor Day weekend but alas, she’s on a mooring in Rockland riding out the storm and I am in New Jersey.  It doesn’t look like Earl will be much of a threat in Maine after all with most of the strong winds coming from the North West. This means that wind driven waves won’t be a problem as the winds will be coming off of the land and there won’t be an opportunity for big seas to develop in the harbor.  While wind can wreck boats, it’s big seas that tend to be the worst culprit.  

As for getting Pandora back from Maine, as soon as the winds and seas get back to normal I will head back to Rockland with crew to bring Pandora home.  While I was planning to head down to Annapolis again for some late Fall Sailing, I think that I will just pull her out in CT and begin thinking about the 2011 season.   Work is a bit too busy and now with the delay in getting back to Mystic, I don’t think that Annapolis is in the cards.  Perhaps next year. 

All and all, we spent about six weeks sailing in Maine where I was able to keep working a full week and still enjoy the sailing life.

Forgive me but I can’t help myself as I close this post with yet another magnificent Maine sunset.  Pretty impressive, right?  Brenda and I think so and plan to make the summer of 2011 our 15th visit to Maine. 

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Of course, what blog post would be complete without a shot of a schooner at anchor with a beautiful sunset.  This particular schooner is the Heritage, one of the many that take out paying guests for week long cruises along the coastline of Penobscot Bay.  Earlier this evening all aboard went to a local granite island in Merchant Row near Stoninington for a lobster bake and a bit of dining under the setting sun. 

>We spent the better part of the last week enjoying Maine aboard Pandora on a cruise with The Corinthians.  For readers of past posts, this group looms large in my life as I serve on the Afterguard, or leadership board of the group.  It’s a great group of sailors from all over the northeast from Boston to Annapolis.  Among many activities that the group has, is the summer cruise is here in Maine on alternate years.  Nearly 50 boats participated this year, with a good number making the trip up from Annapolis. We started our cruise in Booth Bay Harbor and headed east to Rockland, Fox Island Thoroughfare and then on to Gilkey Harbor in Isleboro.  The cruise headed on from there but Brenda and I stayed on for the Seven Seas Cruising Association Isleboro rendezvous.   The SSCA is new to us but they, as a cruising and liveaboard group, seem like a lot of fun and we are looking forward to learning more about them and making new friends.

I thought it might be fun to include some photos of “boats of Maine” to show some of the diversity that you see as you cruise the waters of Maine.  There is no question that sailboats dominate, very unlike the waters near the New York area, where it seems that power is the preferred choice.  The predominance of sail in Maine is likely because of the fact that precious few can afford the fuel to make the run here.  For me, I doubt that I have burned 70 gallons to date this season and I have moved Pandora from Annapolis to CT and now to Maine, a distance of probably about 600 miles of sailing.   That’s a long way at 6-7kts.  Fortunately, Pandora is easy on the fuel and only uses about .9 gallons per hour when we are under power which is fortunately, not all of the time.

When we were visiting Rockland the Navy came to town. Unfortunately, we left as they opened the ship up to visitors.  What an amazing sight.  This ship just dwarfed everything else in the harbor.  I wonder if it was built at Bath Iron Works. I expect so as that’s probably why she is visiting, to show the flag.  They were also, no doubt, in town for the lobster festival this weekend.

If you are more inclined toward the varnish verses the iron crowd, try a visit to Camden.   Too small for the Navy but not to small a place to show the flag, even if it’s a private signal.

Yes, this is what you get if you can keep your money out of the hands of the government and if you want to see the fruits of capitalism, a visit to Camden will never disappoint. These two lovely beauties were tied up at the town dock. So unfortunate that they weren’t able to find room at the Camden Yacht Club or another more worthy spot.   Some times you just have to hang out with the unwashed, like it or not.

Speaking of the unwashed, if you feel a bit like roughing it, there is always an opportunity to go out with the gang from Outward Bound.  This program helps young people, and some adults that have never grown up, learn to be more self reliant. For me, and definitely Brenda, it would be tough to give up the warm showers.  It has often been said that when it comes to boating, “don’t spend a lot of time on at boat that’s shorter than your age”.  In the case of this crew, I would say that the numbers work as it appears to be a group of 20 somethings.

And, there’s always a mess of lobster boats out feeding the gulls. It’s amazing how the birds materialize when the old bait and crab by-catch is thrown out when the traps are hauled. 

It’s not a boat but this house on Fox Island Thoroughfare is really interesting. It does look a lot like the transom of a boat. I’ll bet that it has great furnishings.

Since I have gotten off of boats, these two shots are of some of the buildings on the Wyeth compound on Allen Island off of Port Clyde.  It’s clear,  the look of the buildings on the island that Andrew and Betsy Wyeth had both money and taste.  What a great spot.  This other building, and there are many on the island, really looks like one of Wyeth’s homes.   Very idyllic.

>After a great trip to Maine aboard Pandora, we are settling into a nice visit to cooler climes.  While my trip up the coast was uneventful and allowed for some great sailing, Brenda wasn’t so lucky getting here.   For some time now our 10 year old SAAB has been smoking a bit from the turbo with assurances from the garage that any failure would be a gradual loss of power and not a total engine shutdown.  Ha!  When Brenda was outside of Worchester MA last Sunday afternoon the turbo gave out in a dramatic, smoke bellowing final shudder.  While the engine wasn’t damaged, it wouldn’t run and had to be towed to a nearby shop.  Yes, we have AAA towing.  After the diagnosis, we decided to put in a used turbo (hope that was the right decision) and get a rental car so she could continue her way to BoothBay.   By the time she got to Maine she was bushed.  

Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the SAAB Saga story as when she picked up the car on Wednesday, after a four hour ride back to Worchester,  she headed out only to have the car die again.  This time things had a somewhat better outcome as after a frantic call to the garage, the preliminary diagnosis was that it was a loose vacuum hose.  The mechanic diagnosed this over the phone as the likely problem as the engine smoothed out when the AC was turned off. 

Anyway, the car’s not completely well yet but Brenda did get back, albeit a bit later than she expected last evening.  Ed took pity on her and we greeted her in the driveway with a glass of wine followed by a (late) lobster dinner and a wonderful evening with Ed, his son, daughter-in-law and their son. 

That wasn’t the first taste of Ed’s lobster as we have been enjoying his hospitality here in the Oven Mouth, a wonderful spot off of the Sheepscott River near Booth Bay for the last few days.  Ed is retired and enjoys being on the water as a part time lobsterman.  At 82 Ed is an amazingly spry guy and a wonderful host.  In the last two days I have personally consumed 5 of his lobsters. 

Ed also has a 1800’s vintage catboat that he has converted into a small (really small) trawler.  It’s a sweet boat with a nice little Yanmar Diesel.  Very cute.

The Oven Mouth is a piece of water that is very narrow and drains a large area upstream through a very constricted rocky cut.  As a result, the currents at full tide can run upwards of 7kts.  It’s impressive to see whitecaps build as the current races by.  It’s particularly amusing to see the local duck population go by with the current without a care in the world.  I swear that they are out there for the ride. Very funny.

The scenery here is wonderful with the light changing on a nearly hourly basis from ephemeral mists in the early morning to the dramatic light and dark of the sun on the pine trees.  Happily, the temperatures are a lot lower now than we had experienced in Annapolis, CT and Martha’s Vineyard where things topped out in the 90s most days.  This morning I turned on the Espar heater for the first time this sailing season. It went down into the mid 50s last night.  Very pleasant. 

Work has been incredibly busy with my partner developing grant submissions to both the NIH and some pharmaceutical companies with some medical society partners.  I am hopeful that things will begin picking up in a few months as some (lots?) of our requests are approved (hopefully).   Starting a business isn’t easy but a lot of fun.  Also, with the cell phone booster, fax and printer that I have aboard, it’s been very easy to stay in touch.  Each day is incredibly busy with scheduled calls and lot’s to do. 

I am looking forward to a cruise with The Corinthians this coming week when I can put work aside (mostly) for a week. 

I should also note that if BoothBay Harbor isn’t on your list for a visit, it should be.  Yes, there are lots of tacky t-shirt stores, but the natural beauty and friendly people are wonderful.  It’s one of my favorite places to visit by land or water.

I was particularly amused by this sight as it “motored” by the other morning.  Is it a car, a boat?  It’s tacky and wonderful, that’s for sure.   I guess it’s a caboat.  No kidding, it’s steered from inside the car by wheel.  Notice the Maine registration on the front fender.  Good thing that it has a spoiler on back to help control it at speed. 

On a somewhat more sublime note, this old tug motored by one evening with what looked like a very comfortable “crew” aboard.  What a nice way to enjoy a cocktail cruise in BoothBay Harbor. 

Well, it’s nearly 8am and time to get to work.  Lots to do but TGIF (In Maine, no less).

>At 05:30 today I dropped the mooring in Mystic to head to Boothbay Harbor Maine for our annual visit Down East.  I am not certain of exactly what year we first went to Maine but I think that it was about 14 years ago.  This year the plan will be to keep Pandora in Maine waters for the month of August and head back to Mystic and ultimately to Annapolis in the Fall.  This trip has become something of a tradition for Brenda and me.   As she doesn’t enjoy the long delivery trips, I assemble crew through my connection with The Corinthians, a great sailing group that I belong to and am very active with, and Brenda joins me by car.   The Corinthians will also have their cruise this year in Maine and will be joined by members of the Little Ship Club of London.  Some 35 members of the LSC will make the trip and join for a total of 65 boats for a week of racing and cruising in Maine waters.   Interestingly, two of the LSC members joining us will have made the trip over on their own boats.   The Corinthians and LSC clubs have had a long and very close association with members of each group visiting the others to sail together every few years. 

With me on this trip to deliver Pandora to Maine are three others, all quite experienced sailors.   Having left first thing this morning from Mystic we will reach the Cape Cod Canal mid afternoon, in time to catch the fair current that will help push along to the eastern mouth and into Cape Cod Bay. 

Our trip across the Gulf of Maine will take us through some of the most productive waters on the east coast and the home of many whales, including the endangered Right Whale.  Unfortunately, we aren’t likely to see many on this crossing as we will be crossing the best whale watching waters over night in the dark. 

When I heard the recent report about the whale that landed on the deck of a small sailboat off of Cape Town South Africa, I had to think about that happening aboard Pandora.  After a bit of searching on the Web, I didn’t find many references to whales striking boats, however, it does happen from time to time.   When I saw a photo that someone sent me from the NY Post yesterday, I thought that it must have been a doctored photo but it seems that this really happened.  I wouldn’t want to have a 40 ton whale land on Pandora.   I tried to find a photo that I could post on the site but the best I could find was a link to the New York post story.  Check it out.

The most famous of these “encounters of the whale kind” was the ramming and sinking of the 87′ Nantucket based whaling ship Essex.  On November 20th 1820, while some of the crew were hunting a pod of whales in the South Pacific, a very large whale repeatedly rammed the Essex and sunk her.   Some have speculated that toward the end of the height of the commercial whaling industry, some of the whales that remained had become more aggressive and were more regularly attacking the ships that were pursuing.  Who knows if that was what led to the ramming of the Essex but it’s fun to think about.  Herman Melville drew inspiration for his book “Moby Dick” from the Essex incident.   To learn more about this incredible story click here.

Anyway, I hope to be able to post my own photos of my own “whale encounter” from my trip to Maine.  Who knows.  For now, I will just have to put up this photo of me piloting our dink with a “whale’s load” of luggage.  Yes, it’s not the best analogy and a literary stretch.  However, it’s my blog.. You’d think that this amount of stuff must be able to sustain us for a year at sea.  Alas, it was for just a one week voyage. 

>Brenda and I were sitting aboard Pandora in Hadley Harbor, near Wood’s Hole MA, on Naushon Island when this magnificent yacht came into the harbor and picked up a mooring.  I have seen wonderful yachts many times but was struck by this one in particular.  At first I thought that it was a Hinkley but that wasn’t it.   I did notice a tall gray haired gentleman aboard who looked familiar but it didn’t connect until someone else on another boat that I talked to clued me in that it was Senator John Kerry.   Over the next few days that we were there the Senator did indeed take Isabell out a number of times.  The boat was launched in the last year in New Zealand by Friendship Yachts and is one of their 75′ designs.  Take a look at the photos of the actual boat, as it must be the first one of the design to be built, on their site.  It’s a magnificent yacht by any measure and the boat on the site looks just like Kerry’s boat Isabell.  And it’s really massive as this shot from her stern clearly shows.  The “glamor shots” on the site look so elegant. 

This is a shot of the boat from Pandora’s viewpoint.  The lines are really sweet.  At night the mast is lit all the way up, the cockpit is wonderfully lit and there are even lights below in the water that make the area below her glow green.  Against the dark star lit sky it’s breathtaking. I wish that I could have taken a picture of that sight.

Brenda and I have been visiting Hadley Harbor since the late 70s in a succession of boats from our first 20′ catboat all the way up the line to Pandora, and have always enjoyed the hospitality of the Forbes family who place moorings in the harbor for guests/visitors to use.  While you can’t go ashore unless you are the guest or relative of the Forbes clan, they do set a small island with trails aside for visiting boats to use for picnicking and dog walking.   The main house up on the hill is really impressive and massive.  I have a good friend who was a guest of the Forbes for a week as part of a group of visiting artists.   What a place.

The senator is no stranger to the island as he grew up visiting the island as a member of the Forbes clan.  Wikipedia has an interesting article about the island and it’s history.  So pleased do know that the Boston Forbes clan made it’s money running drugs in the China opium trade.

Some of the homes on the island are much more modest like this one at the head of the harbor.  Years ago Brenda and I were invited for dinner with some Forbes friends of us and this is where we had dinner.  It even had an outdoor shower.  No, it didn’t have one indoors though.  I was wonderful as our boat at the time didn’t have any shower at all.

All the boats in Hadley Harbor aren’t massive like Isabell.  There is even a small fleet of Herreshoff 12 1/2 boats.  This design is considered by many to be one of the finest small craft ever designed and the design looks as good now as it did a century ago when the first ones were launched at Herreshoff’s yard in Bristol RI.  They are lined up on the dock and are sailed regularly like this one. 

Prior to visiting Hadley we spent a few days in Vineyard Haven and on our way over to Hadley, we spied this wonderful little schooner.   What a great boat and flying the burgee of the Black Dog Cafe, an institution on Martha’s Vineyard. 

Well, we are off the boat now and won’t be back until I head back to Mystic to bring her to Maine later this month.   Here’s to more great sailing left this year.  More to come soon.

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We visited Cuttyhunk MA over the weekend on our way to Martha’s Vineyard and were thrilled to see our first golf cart parade.  As Cuttyhunk is a very small island served by a passenger ferry from New Bedford, on the main land, there are very few cars.   The island is only about 1/3 built up so there is plenty of openn space.   However, think twice before you go bushwacking into the wild spaces as the island is overrun with deer ticks, something that Brenda and found out the hard way years ago.  With only very limited shopping on the island, you’d better come with everything that you need.  It’s still quite rural and the views from the top of the “hill” are really impressive.  Pandora’s outside in the bight on a mooring.

When we arrived on Saturday evening it was late and while we tried to anchor twice but couldn’t make our Bruce anchor hold well enough for my comfort so we took the last mooring available.  The weekends of the 4th and Labor Day are the two busiest of the year for the island.

We visited the Cuttyhunk Historical Society museum and enjoyed a wonderful exhibit on the history of fishing for striped bass on the island over the years. The island has been known as a great spot for stripers for ever and it’s a major draw for fisherman.   The museum is worth a visit.  Very nicely done.

 There was even a nice exhibit of model boats, some on loan from nearby island residents.  I was particularly intrigued by this model, some 6′ long that was used to instruct new sailors on how to set the sails. 

The homes on the island are very tasteful and all have the weathered shingle look that fits in well.  Unlike so many coastal communities, it seems that the locals guard the look of the architecture and don’t let homes  that don’t fit in get built.  Lots of wonderful gardens, all neatly tended.  

The dock for tenders was all the evidence you would need to know that this is a busy weekend.

Just about all of the residents on Cuttyhunk get around by golf cart.  So it’s fitting that a parade for the 4th would feature decorated carts. 

A wonderful vintage Ford lead the procession. 

 Even though the winter population is less than 50, that doesn’t keep the locals from having their own police officer who carries a gun, night stick and a two way radio.  I wonder who he talks to on that radio anyway as there wasn’t any evidence of another officer.  Hmm…  He also has the only new vehicle on the island.

After leaving Cuttyhunk we headed up to Martha’s Vineyard to Lake Tashmoo, a wonderful harbor on the western side of the island.  By the time that we arrived it was blowing nearly 20kts and the tide was running hard.  Going into the channel was a nerve wracking moment as the depth sounder counted less than 1ft under the keel.  As it was nearly high tide I am not sure what will happen when we leave today.   However, the tidal range here is less than 2 feet so I hope that won’t get stuck. 

When I was below making lunch Brenda called me up because we were being approached by this yacht.  I wasn’t able to take a photo quick enough to show her bow pointing straight toward us and just a few hundred feet away.  This boat was massive and very fast, beating into a 20kt wind against the tide.  They were incredibly quik.  What a sight.  It’s hard to imagine the money it takes to keep a thoroughbred like that in oats. 

Today we are taking two friends out for a sail and a visit to Hadley Harbor on Naushon.   With a little wind and the wonderful lunch that Brenda has prepared, it should be a great day.  Time to do the dishes and get ready for their arrival.