Next Big Sail South

October 4
Well I'm on my way south aboard Kia Ora again heading to the sunshine state. This year a much earlier start then last years October 30 shove off. Final destination for this trip is Sarasota. Once in Florida I'm planning on taking the St. Lucie Canal into Lake Okechobee and on to the west coast thru another canal.
I have a friend of the family onboard crewing. Jason Larrere, who has just graduated and has his comercial instrument helicopter licence (go Jason!). We provisioned and got things stowed away, including the newly refurbished dingy and a mountain bike on deck. With the long drive down to Falmouth from Gilford and what not we didn't shove off until 2:30. The winds were NE at 15 and we had a very pleasant sail under partly cloudy skies to Kennebunkport. The rebuilt clutch on the autopilot is working great, a big relief since this was the first time I had to check it out. Pulled into Kennebunkport at 7PM, totally dark, but with the GPS and a good look out it was dicy but OK. Docked at Chicks Marina, which is convenient to downtown.
After a nice meal onboard, we walked down to Allisons Resturant and watched the Patriots distroy the Dolphins.

October 5 Tuesday:
Got a decent start shoving off at 8AM. Winds NE at 15 to 20 and waves 6-12 feet. The quartering waves are giving the autohelm quite a work out. It only took a little over two hours to drain the deepcycle battery to the point the autopilot kicked off on low voltage. With the starting battery we cranked up the engine and got the voltage back up to enable the autopilot to do it's thing. I hand steered for a while, because I'm using my last spare drive belt and I was afraid of wearing it out, but so far so good. I will rotate the belt a quarter turn every week so the same spot at wheel center doesn't get all the wear. We are making great time past Cape Ann doing over 7 knots most of the time under main and jib alone (foresail furled), so in spite of the frequent rain showers we decided to keep on piling up the miles and went straight for the Cape Cod Canal. We hit the current just right arriving at the canal entrance at 10 PM so we blew thru with the GPS showing 12 knots a couple of times (whoa..a new record). Onset Mass is just south of the canal and we picked up a mooring for the night.

October 6 Wednesday:
The forecast was for gale force NE winds and heavy rain, so we slept in. The forecast was right for the rain but the heavy NE winds did not materialize. We stopped over at the Point Independence Yacht Club for fuel, water and, a holding tank pump out. They were gracious and let us leave the boat at the fuel dock while we took showers and and put all out wet clothes in the dryer. They opened up the club for us so we could watch TV while wating for the dryer. I was a little embarrased when the dockmaster came back because with every thing in the dryer I was sitting there in my underwear (oops! where's my blue blaser?). With the winds west at 10 and the rain letting up we decided to try to make Newport. Got underway at 3pm and were motor sailing with the main and jib for an hour up Buzzards Bay when the wind filled in from the south west at 20 knots (another little detail the forcast missed). So we went to plan B (or was this plan C? hard to keep track with the fickle weather) which was to head into New Bedford. The cruising guide was touting the merits of the Old New Bedford Yacht Club, so we headed for that. Docked where the GPS said it was only we turned out to be at the Pope Island Marina. Which was OK since the ONBYC had more laid up fishing boats at thier docks than pleasure boats.
I got in touch with Gary Langley who lives nearby. We sailed in company from Ft. Pierce Florida to Norfolk VA this past spring, both of us single handling. He got us on the right track and recommended a fun sports bar, the Ice Chest a mile north on Rt 6. Good food great prices, lots of fun (Octoberfest on tap, yeah).

October 7, Thursday:
With the forcast for heavy west winds, we elected to take a layday. West Marine was right across the street so we took full advantage. Replaced the starting battery, changed the oil, replaced the rusty chain on the anchor and repaired the mainsail cover zipper attachment (thanks Jason..... hey Terry he can sew now!). With us in town a second nite Gary Langley's car was now out of the shop, so he picked us up and showed us the hot spots in New Bedford. Had a nice meal in the historic waterfront district and Fresh Catch. Nice view of the harbor, but sad to see so many of the fishing fleet idle. Behaved ourselves and only hit one bar (Old Ale House)after dinner.

October 8, Friday:
Forecast was iffy but we didn't want to have to take two laydays in a row (three if you count Onset where we sat around in the rain.... and our underwear if you remember most of the day) so we decided to try our luck against the wind. When we got to the hurricane barrier (yes New Bedford had one and they can close the gate if necessary to protect the harbor from storm surges etc.) it was closed!! After calling on VHF channel 13 we found out the Army Corps of Engineers was doing repairs, so we couldn't get out of the harbor unti for another 2 1/2 hours. We returned to the dock and decided to take in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Terrific idea. It has the largest ship model in the world, a half scale whaling ship the Lacoda. The thing is like 60 feet long! and inside!! They also has a 1/3 scale Concordia Yawl which was functional and spectacular. Well worth the visit.
Got underway after listening to the forcast for the umteenth time. We started out with a single reefed main and full jib, but no foresail. This was perfect for the first 45 minutes then the winds picked up and were blowing a steady 25 with higher gusts. At that point I would rather of had the second reef in the main, but it was too rough to try to change for the short trip we had left to get to Cuttyhunk Island. The boat handled it very well powering thru the 6 foot chop and we even had it steering itself without the autopilot. I was plenty wet, the rail was in the water most of the time, and we had to motor the last mile directly upwind. The harbor entrance is very narrow and shallow. With the wind now gusting to 32 (confirmed from local bouy readings we heard later) it was hard to keep the bow from blowing out of the wind. This made it a handful coming in the narrow channel, not the time you want the wind to catch the bow and do an involuntary 90 degree turn, which she was doing if you missed a beat with the steering only a few moments before on the way in.
We picked up a mooring are safely in for the night as the wind howls outside, flaps the plastic cover on the mountain bike, and creeks and groans the mooring line thru the chock and by the bobstay. Hope it lets up a little so it will be quiet enough to get to sleep. Looking to take advantage of some more fair NW or even N winds tomorrow which should be 15 gusting to 20 as we head west up Rhode Island Sound and then Long Island Sound.