At Sea 42:30N 69:47W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Tue 4 Nov 2008 03:10
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We left Saquatucket at dawn. It was 10
miles south, round the thin group of islands called Monomoy that end in Monomoy
Point, the southern tip of Cape Cod. There should be ways through the
islands but the channels don't meet.
It was a good breeze, but from the south, so
we tacked down with main and staysail up. We were going
nicely, but I was impatient, so the engine stayed on and we motor sailed down to
the point. Charging the battery, I told myself.
Inside Cape Cod everything is shallow. You
sail round in 9 metres of water, then it drops to 5 and you want deep water of 9
again. The inside channel saved a good distance but the shallows are 2.1m
plus tide at 0.3 less our depth of 1.7 gives 0.7 metres clearance.
When we got there, the tide was running with us,
but the wind against us kicked up a steep sea. How accurate are the
charts? Do the banks move? The echo sounder never showed it quite
that shallow and we got through. Was the engine really on to use reverse
if we grounded?
Round the point and on to a run, staysail
boomed out, genoa settled quietly behind the main, tide with
us. No need for the engine now. Within an hour we were out
into proper deep water. 200 metres is too deep for the bloody lobster
pots.
It really felt like going out to sea, the birds
changed from timid fat ducks, surf scoters and white winged scoters to the
elegant greater shearwaters. They fly round us, a gliding flight with
little wing flapping and sometimes settle nearby.
The scoters muddled me for a while, two breeds and
two sexes gave four different sets of markings, all too far away to identify
clearly. They paddled away whenever we came near, staying out of gunshot
range?
The deep water and fair wind have persuaded me not
to stop, so we are heading straight up to Portland. If the wind
holds we will be there before dark tomorrow. At sea for the election, but
I will find some of the local radio stations and listen to them argue. You
get very different views when you ask people here, Republicans complaining of
media bias, but I have yet to meet an American girl or woman who likes
Palin. Perhaps Maine and Massachusetts are not really
representative.
I am quite looking forward to a night sail, but ate
all the biscuits today. I usually eat biscuits when sailing at night, to
keep my energy up, or just due to greed? Never mind, there is plenty of bread and jam. Three nights running
I was in places without shops and ran out of bread and milk. Lorna had
provided bread-mix flour, so I made some buns; would you be amazed if I report
that they were very good?
Both the porridge oats and the marvel dried milk
had gone off. I will get more porridge, that packet had come all the way
from England. A new packet of marvel proved OK, so I could eat cereal
again. Small crisis averted. I got bread and milk in Falmouth, so I
have enough to get to Maine.
Even my tins look finely judged to keep me alive
until I fly home in a week's time. Four or five days of tidying up and
minor repairs, but apart from the towed watermaker which never did work,
nothing much has failed. Oh
yes, the computer, but an installation disk may get that
going. This back-up machine may not do photos, but otherwise seems
OK. You can have photos once I get back to wi-fi.
The rig, sails, engine, instruments, heating, they
are all working. The spray hood still keeps the spray out, I recommend the
slide-in luff attachment mounted on curved hardwood on the deck. Its
predecessor with press studs and flaps kept rain out, but not solid
waves.
The windows have stopped leaking since I sealed the
hatch garage drains and the mast has a dodger cut and laced around it inside the
cabin. The leaks down it now only appear on the floor.
Here we are sliding down wind with three sails
up, the staysail still poled out and the towed generator giving enough to
keep the lights (all LEDs except the mast head tricolour) computer and heating
all going. Not a New England wind at all, to have held in the same
direction for 11 hours.
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