Vacation Cruise

We completed our 2009 vacation cruise. Well it was Carol's vacation. I'm on permanent vacation. Heather joined us and Piggy Sue was in the crew also. We had great weather right up until the end. We cut the trip one day short because of rain and possible stormy conditions on what was supposed to be our last day. Except for that it was sunny every day of our cruise. Including those affected by Hurricane "Bill".

Here is the crew taking in the sun at Hadley Harbor, Naushon, Cape Cod, Ma.

Our trip started out very foggy going from Point Judith, RI to Cuttyhunk, Elizabeth Islands, Cape Cod, Ma. but it was sunny all the rest of the way to Lake Tashmoo near Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard, Ma. We spent four days there mostly going to the beaches, going to town or taking a nature walk. We then went to Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard to see 'Grand Illumination' night at the Methodist "campground" there. It was an adventure manoeuvering our boat in a very tight mooring field in Oak Bluffs Harbor. The practice would come in handy later in the cruise.

We then went to Nantucket. We had very dense fog for a little more than an hour enroute with several collision opportunities. None occurred. We kept Heather's young eyes at the bow in these reduced visibility conditions. Much to Heather's disappointment we only spent one night in Nantucket and did not even get to town. That night was breezy and due to the strong current we did not point into the wind, making for a noisy and rocking night. Hurricane Bill started making itself noticed and these factors lead us to leave early and head to Hyannis on the Cape for more security should the storm come closer than forecast. We spent a nice night in Lewis Bay and then went to the Inner Harbor for a slip for the night of the storm. Nearly $200 for that night!!!! Ridiculous!!! But it was safe and calm and they did give us a nice tote bag. Got to use a car and the internet, too. This is the 48 foot space they had us go into with our 44 foot boat. We had to go in sideways. If you know boats you know how difficult that is. We managed just fine before moving to a different and nicer location. Why did we move? The mega-yacht did not want us that close. I think because we smelled different. Didn't have that cash smell in our wallets.

We left there after "Bill" had passed and went to my favorite harbor, Hadley Harbor, which is across from Woods Hole, Ma. On the way we saw Air Force One approach Otis A.F.B and then later Marine One with President Obama flew nearly over us (along with many scout and decoy copters) enroute to his vacation on Martha's Vineyard. While out in our dinghy at Hadley Harbor we saw several seals fishing for their breakfast in Vineyard Sound. We had never seen any marine mammals from our own boat before. Neat! Our kind of adventure! Last year we saw sharks (for the first time) on our cruise. Seeing seals is much nicer.

From Hadley we went to Red Brook Harbor, Cataumet, on the Cape for two days. This is Carol's favorite harbor. Our second day there we started hearing about Tropical Storm Danny and had to modify our cruise. Instead of stopping at Cuttyhunk we went directly to Newport, RI. Heather was happy about this even though it is a long passage. She got to shop and see a friend she met when she was at Marist.

From Newport to our home port in Mystic we started getting some sprinkles which preceeded the rain on what was to be our last day of the cruise.

All in all a nice trip with good weather and no major adventures. Seeing Air Force and Marine One, the seals and manoeuvering our boat in tight quarters were the only unusual events. Foggy adventures are more the norm and these did not get too dangerous.

We had 45 hours underway over the two weeks and no yelling was involved.

If you'd like to see (nearly) all the photos of our trip email me (at pnorm72-one@yahoo.com) and I'll send you the link.

Cruises Update

I thought I'd give an update on the summer so far before we do our two week cruise to Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and (hopefully) Nantucket.

I did a one-week cruise with other boats from the Waterbury Power Squadron in July and didn't have any adventures except for spending two nights in Cuttyhunk (Elizabeth Islands, Cape Cod) on a $40 per night mooring due to very bad weather. In a week I got two hours of sailing in.

Typical.

The photo is of the people on the cruise at Point Judith Pond, Rhode Island.

In August we had a get-together in Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY and I took the boat there myself (as usual). Tough being retired. Carol met me there by ferry for the day. Two days to get there and two days back for a few hours hanging out with the squadron. Got some sailing in, however. 2 1/2 hours on Thursday. 2 1/2 hours on Friday. 3 hours on Sunday.

The video is part of my sail on Friday, 7 August.

I did have an adventure on my return trip. A few miles out of Mattituck, NY I started the starboard engine and a belt that drives the raw water pump (a key engine cooling component) broke. No cooling equals no engine. I had to shut down the engine and go into a long narrow creek with only one engine. Fortunately no incidents occured. It only took a little time (maybe an hour) working over a very hot engine to replace the belt. What fun!!!!

Watch the video to get a little idea of what sailing on Infinite Improbability is like.