Port Jefferson to Port Washington, ball

We're in a sweet spot of calm waters this week. Probably will change once the remnants of the latest hurricane, Francine, heads north.

We plan on being here a while, maybe a week. Port Washington is a cute town with easy access to NYC, it's just a 45 minute train ride. And the balls are pretty inexpensive. AND they have a pump out boat. What's not to love?

Some swans and swanlings... swanlets? Swansters?

If we had another 4 day window (which is a luxury in boating so not very likely) we could make it to Baltimore from here. Those are long days, too. We have to cross the Jersey short to head south. Any east wind makes that a "no go" typically -- you don't want the fetch of the entire Atlantic to have to deal with.

We're not in a massive hurry but things are getting a bit crowded in October. We know our slip in Baltimore is rented until Oct 5; that's not a huge inconvenience since we could put inQuest in another slip until it frees up. We do have some things we'd like to do to the boat that requires it to be hauled, like replace the thru hulls, check the bottom paint and repaint if necessary, and install new macerators on our black tanks (fun one, that!). On top of that we need to winterize the boat before we leave Baltimore. If possible we'd like to go see FLIBS (Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show), which is the last week of October.

Another placid day on LIS.

Oh, and we have a condo rental in Tampa that starts Oct 15. 

It's feeling like a busy month to me.

Port Washington. Look at all that space between boats!

Newport -> Old Saybrook -> Port Jefferson, anchor/ball

It was a tricky call after so many days of winds but we decided to make the 6 hour run from Newport to Old Saybrook on Tuesday. Good thing, too. We had a good ride. A little lumpy leaving Newport -- which always seems to be true -- but the rest of the day went from ok to excellent.

Once in Old Saybrook we tried to grab a ball in the North Cove. We've been there a couple of times already, including on the way up, but for some reason it felt more crowded. It's a very tight field. Highwind (who left Newport a number of days earlier) was on the hook in the middle of the Connecticut River. We opted to simply raft with them.

Moonlit night in Newport

Russ and I took the dinghy into town to dump some trash and recycling as well as do a little shopping.

Wednesday we got up and out quite early. Highwind has plans to stay on the north side of Long Island Sound while we're heading for the south.

Long Island Sound was almost totally flat all day long. We had an amazing trip across. Once in the bay there were any balls available for us to use. We snagged one, we took naps, then headed into town for some excellent Indian food.

Tomorrow it's onto Port Washington, where we'll be for nearly a week.

Sept 11, beeline to Port Jefferson

Peaking sun at dawn

Excellent food at Curry Club. One of our favorites places to eat.

This submarine-thing is a cruise ship tender. While in Newport
these things came in and out constantly. You can just spy
one of the cruise ships behind it and Goat Island.

Continued stay in Newport

The Breakers, summer cottage of the 
Vanderbilt family, from 1895 - 1972 when it was
sold to the Preservation Society

Due to weather and Russ fighting a cold we've extended our stay in Newport. Sadly, we haven't been able to explore town much as we didn't want to spread whatever Russ has. It isn't Covid, btw. He's taken a number of tests, all completely negative.

I have plans on meeting a friend in NYC next Monday for a couple of days. The weather looks like it will cooperate in making a beeline to Port Washington. From there it's just a 45 minute train ride into the city.

But for now we're bobbing a bit on the water, despite cloudless days and cooler temps.

Now, you can tour it. It's one of several mansions in Newport
that you can visit, but most say it's the grandest of them all.

We did an escape room (tomb themed if you couldn't tell)
with Hanna's folks, Rebecca and Keith. Russ sat out
due to his cold -- not a good idea to be in a small room with folks.

Woods Hole -> Cuttyhunk -> Newport, ball

After a lovely and quiet night near Woods Hole we planned on going to Cuttyhunk. Cuttyhunk is the western-most point on the Elizabeth Islands; After lies a stretch of open water until you hit Long Island. Well, there's a small island in between but, pfft! It's open water.

We thought we'd stay at Cuttyhunk and head to Newport in the morning. But the weather was so amazing, and that open water was like glass. Moreover, it wasn't clear how nice it would be in the morning. It wasn't going to be nice by the afternoon, and we're not fans of small weather gaps.

Hard not to run when the water looks like this.

So after some lunch and naps Russ and I headed onward to Newport.

We'd had made ball requests in Newport a couple of days ago. We were put on a waitlist. So when we arrived, given we still hadn't heard, we start looking at anchorages. Russ decided to just call the harbor master and see if anything was available. Sure enough, they had a ball. Go figure! We could even stay for 4 nights.

The mooring field in Newport. One of the biggest
we've ever stayed at.

That's what we plan to do. I've been wanting to do the hike here, and we didn't get a chance to a couple of months ago, either due to weather or timing. Fingers crossed!

Boston to Wood's Hole, anchor

This is a long one... so buckle up!

While we love Boston it was time to be moving along. The folks at Charlesgate Yacht Club are very gracious, and we're looking forward to staying with them in the future.

First everyone needed to either fuel up of pump out. Task one for the day was get across the Boston Harbor, and while Highwind fueled up (the docks are in separate locations at this fuel station), then we switched. Worked well -- pumped out, fueled up, and ready for the day.

The first 5 or 6 hours we a little choppy. Not the worst we've experienced, but it made watching for prop traps particularly fatiguing. 

Once done we got a "break" going through the Cape Cod Canal. something I was looking forward too. Especially since we had the tide with us, adding 4 knots to our speed. But the boats going the other way all felt they needed to make up the -4 knots with speed, making for massive waking. There are "no wake" signs when you enter, but clearly it's optional.

Passing Highwind on Cape Cod Bay.

The last hour or so was on Buzzard's Bay, and it was ideal. Wonderful water, blue skies, moderate temps. It was a nice end to a long 8 hour run.

We had plans on taking a ball at the marina in Woods Hole, but when we arrived there was only 1 ball available, even though we thought they reserved 2. Since we were ahead of Highwind we swapped texts and decided to anchor in the inner harbor, specifically Hadley Harbor. Hannah and David spent a night there on the trip up a couple of months ago, and raved about it. But it, too, was full. So they dropped a hook (that anchorage was also full but he eeked out a decent spot -- apparently, this is a hot spot on Labor Day Weekend), and we tied up to them.

Like we've done so many times before...

The evening dinghy ride back from dinner
in Woods Hole.

Once set we all piled into dinghies and headed to explore Woods Hole, which was hopping on this Labor Day. We needed 2 dinghies since Hannah's folks, who are boaters too, were aboard Highwind for a week.

We've always known that there might be some occasion where we'd have to do an emergency release, and odds are it wouldn't be in great conditions. Well, that time had come.

I woke to the boat bouncing around 11:30. The winds had come up significantly (20-25 knots) and we were bucking, which isn't unusual or even uncomfortable. There had been "small craft advisories" all day, so this wasn't a huge surprise. On a whim I checked my phone. David who was still up, and had been texting us about the worsening conditions. Nothing other than "I'm still monitoring" type of texts. But I remembered there was a low point near us. I went up to the helm to check our depth. Sure enough we had 2.3 feet under the keel. In bouncing conditions this didn't please me. I texted that info to David, and the decision to reset was made.

Engines on within minutes, lines were tossed and inQuest got away from Highwind. It's one thing to  maneuver in a crowded anchorage on a moonless night surrounded by rock, it's another to do that in a 20 knot blow. With Russ on the bow and the use of our spot light we got out of Highwind's way so they could reset. They hailed to come on back.

After a few minutes (staying station was NOT fun even for that short time) they hailed all good. We carefully rejoined them, another small feat but it all went well. By the way, Hannah's folks were a huge help as they had a crew of three catching lines and getting us snugged.

Engines off we all took a breath. Our depth went to 17 feet, so we were relieved. However, we managed to get closer to some other boats in the anchorage. And we didn't feel comfortable with that in these winds -- boats swing, and with 2 boats tied together we swing differently. And these winds were forecasted to last well into morning.

We all looked at charts. Outside this small anchorage was a much larger one, more exposed to the weather, but (I noticed while coming back from town) was totally empty. We picked our anchor points ahead of moving, giving each boat a destination before heading out. That helped with coordination. This time we'd drop separate hooks and discuss next steps in the morning.

Engines on again, lines tossed, and inQuest headed into the wind through the small channel, bucking while crossing the narrowest point. Yep, this could be a rough night, but at least we'd have space to swing. As we turned toward our spot we got just enough shelter that the ride calmed a bit.

Highwind and inQuest, side by side.
Alas, it wouldn't last.

We dropped our hook, which caught wonderfully, then put out a ton of rode. Next we decided to put up our dinghy (which had been attached to our hip all this time). Given the rougher water it would only keep bumping into our hull all night. Putting it up in this weather was tricky -- we both wore PFDs for the process.

But after ALL that we were finally able to rest. The night was a little bumpy but not the worst we'd experience. By the time we went to sleep it was 2 am.

So, why didn't we just do this anchorage to begin with? Because this anchorage was off the main channel. Woods Hole is what high speed ferries pass through between Newport and Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. Their wakes finally got us up and out of bed around 7 am.

We took a walk to the Nobska Lighthouse

After breakfast we lowered the dinghy and scoped out the rest of Hadley's Bay. To our surprise there were a couple of mooring balls available in there, and it was dead calm. We dashed back to inQuest and texted Highwind.

And that's where we are spending this evening. Which is looking to be oh so much calmer than last night.