On the move again

We spent 3 nights in lovely Essex CT, moored in front of Essex Yacht Club. After Monday's iPhone debacle, Tuesday was spent with my sister-in-law Connie. After lunch aboard Spray we went to the ATT store in nearby Old Saybrook and did a deal where I now have a 3G Aircard for my laptop computer,and a basic flip-phone for calls. Connie had to run to L.I. to visit her mother but my sister Marsha and her husband Dennis drove down for supper at the Black Seal in Essex (thanks guys!).

Wednesday started rainy and ended very windy, so cruising was postponed. Instead some boat chores, a few long walks around Essex (how can a 1 qt dog like Riggs pee out 2 qts of markers?), and finished with Connie picking us up for a hot shower and laundry, then a great Italian meal at Cafe Allegre in Madison (Grazie Connie).

Wednesday's big wind lasted all night and into this morning, so Riggs and I decided to delay departure until mid-day to allow things to calm down in L.I. Sound. The morning was productive in that I finally installed a depthfinder in the lower (salon) helm station. I tried something tricky which was to splice both upper and lower depthfinder cables to the same sonar transducer, with an on-off-on power switch that ensures that only one depthfinder is powered at a given time. Amazingly, it works pretty slick.

The bad side of waiting until mid-day to leave Essex is that we had to fight 1-2 knots of incoming current as we went down the CT river, and then had to fight a knot of east-flowing tidal current as we headed west in L.I. Sound. Spray is slow enough already. The good side of waiting is that the waves from the big winds of Wednesday had a chance to subside somewhat. It was a bit rough but the waves were on our nose and we only went about 15 miles to our present anchorage in Joshua Cove, just west of Guilford, CT. We're protected from the (dimishing) NW wind but there is still some 1 ft. rollers from the SW that are gonna make this a rolly night. Spray is the only boat in this large anchorage and we're surrounded by beautiful homes.

Tomorrow we'll get an early start, crossing the Sound with a destination of Northport Harbor, the body of water I grew-up on (well not actually grew-up but you get the idea).

Up the River

...the CT River that is.

Its been a while since I had proper internet access to post to the blog and much has transpired. I'll summarize quickly: From York Beach ME we had a long Thursday to end up in beautiful Cohasset MA (south of Boston). Mass Bay was kinda rough. Friday brought us to the Cape Cod Canal which, with a 3 knot tail-current, we whipped through in less than an hour (Spray making 10-11 knots over ground!), then on to anchor at Westport MA. Saturday was a downer for 3 reasons:

- Brother Steve disembarked so that he could travel to Germany on business

- The weather sucked (mucho wind, mucho rain)

- No travel accomplished (see above for reason)

Sunday was nice and Riggs and I motored in the sun for only a half-day to end up in Pt Judith Pond, RI. A nice anchorage, two nearby islands for Riggs to check out, and time to lower Spray's mast so the anchor light bulb could be replaced (took 3 hrs - that mast is heavy!).

Today was nice but there was a west wind that caused 3-4 ft chop against Spray's nose. Wasn't too bad so we pushed for Essex CT which is 3 miles up the CT river. My brother had arranged for a mooring at the Essex Yacht Club. We reached EYC against a strong river current and also wind and I was a little concerned about being able to grab the mooring without drifting back. That's probably why I sort of lunged at the pick-up buoy which caused my iPhone to leap from my shirt pocket into the aforementioned CT River. Its in 10 ft of water somewhere below Spray's bow (which is secured to aforementioned mooring).

If you have any idea what its gonna cost me to get a replacement iPhone or terminate my contract, then you understand what motivated me to don swim fins and mask and go diving in the murky brown current - alas to no avail. You can't see anything down there plus the current could have carried off the phone. Since I do have WiFi here I even emailed my buddy Ken and had him repeatedly call the iPhone, thinking I might hear it ring. Nope.

You readers may want to buy some ATT stock. They are gonna make some money off me.

I just took Riggs for a well deserved walk. Essex CT has to be one of the prettiest towns in the USA. The local church had just completed a 'blessing of the pets' service so Riggs got to meet many dogs (and goats too). I hope to meet my brother's better-half, Connie, tomorrow (if she'll check her email) and maybe visit an ATT store. It could get ugly.

Tentatively we continue westward in LI Sound on Wed. LI Sound is .... LONG!

At last! Some real distance!

Covered 62 nm today in just over 10 hours. Now anchored off York Beach which tucks behind Cape Neddick. Played chuck-it on the beach with Riggs which was his reward for being trapped on a bouncy boat all day. Early start tomorrow in hopes of reaching Scituate MA or nearby. Then through Cape Cod Canal on Friday.

Boothbay Harbor

Steve, Riggs and I left Castine yesterday at about 9 am and had an easy, sunny ride down Penobscot Bay to Rockland where we took on 140 gallons of diesel (Journey's End Marina - best price around), and ate take-out lobster rolls aboard Spray. We then left at about 2 pm and rounded Owls Head enroute to Tennant's Harbor. That run exposed us to the open ocean and, especially the last 6 miles or so, was a bit rough. Riggs was especially relieved to pull into TH at about 5 pm

We rented a mooring for the night and dinghied to shore for some exploration. Riggs sniffed 5,000 items, peed on 200, and filled one poop-bag. What a good boy! Steve and I decided to have dinner at the East Wind Inn so we took Riggs back to Spray for guard duty and then had a pretty good meal (Steve raved over the potato-encrusted haddock).

It was a rolly night at the mooring as ocean swells were creeping around the corner into TH. Riggs and I were up and on shore in the rain at 6 am today where he did has business with admirable efficiency, then back to Spray. By 6:50 we were headed out of the harbor drinking coffee and planning on breakfast.

Breakfast never happened. The run from Tennant's Harbor down the Maine Coast is quite exposed and our morning consisted of 4-6' swells (occasionally an 8 footer) from the south with 2-3' of chop on top of that. At first we took most of this on he nose so it wasn't too bad but later we headed more west and took the swells from the beam which makes things pretty rolly. Spray held up wonderfully but Steve, Riggs, and I were getting kind of green. So instead of making for our intended destination of Jewel Island in Casco Bay, we headed for our main bailout option, which is why we find ourselves in post-tourist-season Boothbay Harbor. We tied up at the town dock and had lunch 'on the wharf' (yep, lobster rolls again) and then moved to a rental mooring at Browns Wharf (which has WiFi allowing me to easily do this blog). We'll relax this afternoon (its 2 pm now- nap anyone?), then dinghy back over to the town dock for exploration of the downtown. Dinner tonight will be pasta aboard Spray.

As the week progresses the conditions are expected to get calmer, so tomorrow we hope to leave early. If we get ambitious we'll shoot for Kittery Maine but could bail out at Jewel Island, or possible Portland. Stay Tuned!

I was worried about this....

Its been so beautiful in Maine in September that I jokingly worried that we'd use up all the good weather by the time departure date arrived. Sure enough, while today is beautiful, the weather report for tomorrow shows rain plus a gale watch offshore. Rain alone wouldn't delay departure, but wind (and resulting waves) certainly could. As it stands now, we'll probably delay departure until Monday morning. It'll still be somewhat windy and bumpy (possibly all week) but not as bad as they say Sunday will be.

Another benefit of delaying departure is that the extra day will allow more time for the 100 small tasks I still have to do before departure.

I hear that my brother Steve, who is along for the first week of cruising, has found free dock space for Spray in Essex CT for a few days. If anyone out there wants to join Riggs and I for the next leg of the cruise (including NYC harbor!), Essex would be a handy location to come aboard. So please email or call me (cell=207-902-2000) if you are up for an adventure!

Here's something new. I've added a SPOT satellite tracker device to Spray. If you click on Spray's picture (above left) you'll see a Google map showing Spray's current and recent positions. Pretty cool technology!

Stay tuned for departure report. Expected first night's anchorage is Tennants Harbor, ME.

Leaving in one week!

If the weatherman agrees, I'll be departing Castine Sunday the 27th for points south, along with my brother Steve and dog Riggs.

The windlass is installed (came out pretty good, I think) and the new 35 gal. holding tank is also installed in place of the old 9 gal. tank. Of course I had measured to confirm that the new tank would fit in its alloted space but I hadn't thought about measuring the path to get the new tank into that space. Not a problem! All I had to do was unbolt an item or two from the engine, remove the hot-water tank, knock out a vertical wooden support, and PUSH. The new tank is now plumbed in place and I won't have to hit a pump-out station every 2nd day.

I still have many small items to attend to before leaving, including getting everything I expect to need on board Spray, and finding places to stow everything. But I'll be ready.

Here's hoping that the weather for travel south is at least half as nice as we've had here in Maine for the past several weeks. Its really been spectacular. I just hope all the good weather doesn't get used up.

Progress report

There are 2 1/2 weeks before I set sail (set diesel?) for points south. Its looking good for my brother Steve to be joining Riggs and I for the first week or so for travel from Maine to Steve's home waters of Long Island Sound (Connecticut shore). We can only hope for weather as nice as we've been having here lately.

I've been busy working on Spray. The windlass installation was a big job but it came out quite well. I removed the existing bow platform that supported the anchor roller, modified it and reinstalled it 15 inches lower, so that the anchor roller is now at deck height. I cut large holes in the bulwarks for the anchor rodes to pass through, directly to the windlass gypsy, which is mounted at deck level as it should be. Large holes were drilled in the foredeck for the windlass and a foot-operated switch, then power cabling was routed forward and, viola, the windlass now works!

Well....... sort of. My main anchor rode is currently 200' of 5/8" nylon line plus 26' of 3/8" chain. The windlass handles the chain well but is sized for 1/2" line, not 5/8", so I need to make some changes there.

I've also installed a large (size 8D, 160 lbs.!!) 12 volt battery as an addition to the existing 'house' battery. I built a shelf on the port side of the engine room to hold the new battery, and wired in a large switch to enable/disable the battery connection. The whole idea is to be able to run lights, refrig., etc. for longer time while at anchor.

Still to do: I've purchased a 35 gallon waste holding tank to replace the existing 9 gallon tank. Much of the ICW is designated as 'no discharge area' and I'll have to stop at marinas to pump out the waste. This larger tank will allow me to do this less often. I may have a problem with installing this larger tank because its quite a bit....LARGER than the tank it's replacing. I had of course measured the available space in the starboard engine room and verified that the new tank will fit there, but I hadn't really measured the size of the opening above the engine to see if I can route the tank down to its destination. It looks like its not gonna be easy.

Also still to do: Change engine oil & filter, fuel filters, check raw water system. I've bought the 3 gallons of engine oil I need, plus a hand-pump to remove the old oil (through the dipstick tube), so I'm ready to change the engine oil, maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and I've finally joined the dark side by buying a cell phone for the trip. Its an iPhone that will also give me internet access (for weather reports and other info), plus its built-in gps will be useful. My cell no. is 207-902-2000. Soon I'll use the iPhone to take a few pix of the recent work on Spray and upload those to this blog.

More later....