Th 3/5. BOS-STT + RT Fast Ferry smooth as can be, tho AA sure has packed the max possible seats in the cabin, with an aisle that one person can barely fit through. Footloose taxi was waiting when we got through C&I. driver said he's never seen anyone pack as light as us, which i thought was great.
Jeanette, Dalus and Winston welcomed us like family. Dalus says business is down with the economy, but not too bad. we have Pegaso, the same boat we messed up last year by running over the jib sheet. job #1 was to put stopper knots in all the lines! boat was in good shape with a few exceptions. as urbanites we always lock the companionway when we go on shore, so i checked the lock. it locked easily, and then would not unlock. OMG - we would have come back from our first trip ashore and been unable to get into the boat. also toolbox and throwable PFD missing.
Fri 3/6. missing stuff arrived. Locksmith came promptly and got to work. i asked him if he'd seen Winston, and i turned around and there he was. said to the locksmith "i mention Winston's name and he appears" and the guy replied "Winston will live forever". Winston gave us a brief boat briefing, as we've now been on the 332 many times. actually the mate noticed that "Pegaso" had been painted over a barely-visible "Ophelia", and we had had Ophelia as a Moorings boat.
The wx report was for building winds and swells. Winston said it would be a little weather-y. With some help we managed to squeeze Pegaso out of the usual very tight berth with no worse than banging the BBQ, and headed to the Bight with a reefed jib only. Bight quite full at noon. moorings all taken in our favorite kelly's cove, so we took one in the next scollop inward. did nothing but hang on the boat and have a dingy ride. all moorings taken by 5 or 6. cool temp and strong wind not so great for swimming.
Sat 3/7. Wind 20-25, seas 10', and forecast was for strengthening through the weekend. so, we decided to head for n. sound anyway. i quickly had my NE Patriots hat blown away. the SFDC wasn't so bad, sheltered from the swells and with enough north in the wind so port tack wasn't too bad. you can see highly reefed Pegaso near Peter I here:
http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/page_view.pl?p=3nsB06Dwe reached Cooper I around 11:30 and started motoring. took 2500-2700 RPM to maintain speed against the seas, which really built as we approached n. sound. the surf on Mosquito I was spectacular, but we were too busy steering the boat or being terrified to take pictures.
It was an even greater pleasure than usual to enter n. sound. as we set out to find a mooring at BEYC, we were amazed to find the mooring field almost completely empty, like finding a street with no parked cars in Boston. we took our favorite, close to the swim area near biras creek. from here it is about 100 yards to a dingy dock in front of the bathhouse, extremely convenient, and very sheltered. however, we had to pick it up first. first try, i rushed forward to help the mate. i was holding the mooring line, she was fiddling with the bridle, when a gust of wind blew us back strongly enough to jerk the line violently out of my hand. second try we blew off while she took a few seconds to put the boathook away. third try she did everything very quickly and got moored.
as we sat there with the wind howling, we said how, sitting in n. sound with such conditions, we would have never considered going out! since we hate and mistrust the stupid mooring bridle scheme, we decided to rig a backup line from the ring on the ball. i started to get in the dingy with the line, and.....it was full of grey goop. even tho i had checked that the dingy gas can was closed, i found that by turning the cap a bit harder than "hand tight", there was a whole extra turn to go. took a whole roll of paper towels to clean out the dink, and then i ran the second line. lesson learned - be very careful that the gas tank is closed tight!
we stayed 5 days in n. sound, 3 at BEYC and 2 at Leverick - sorry if it's too boring - limin' on the boat and beach, snorkeling, dingy riding, and visiting the various restaurants. the full moon at night was wonderful, despite the cool wind. saw some flying fish. lots of talk at BEYC about how quiet things were. someone said 60% occupancy. shops were deserted. it may be the economy, but for those few days the problem was that nobody was crazy enough to sail to VG! when the wind eased off, the boats started to come in. i looked for TTOL flags and hats, but didn't see any. Tu 3/10 there was no diesel on VG. i was told the fuel barge had to turn back due to seas, and yes, as we departed Wed 3/11, a fuel barge was entering n. sound.
Th 3/12. departed Leverick and headed SE in moderate conditions with a single reef. however, the forecast was for winds and seas building again, so we headed for Marina Cay instead of Cooper I. we hadn't been to MC since the 90s and i'd forgotten that it is a beautiful spot, and extremely well sheltered. the thimbles on the Moor Seacure moorings were all worn thru a bit - we rejected two before getting one we thought was OK. more on this later. snorkeled the reef but there wasn't much to see. ate at the beach restaurant.
that evening, stepping from the dink onto the swim platform, i stepped into empty space, falling and catching myself by the elbows on the platform. the result was a hard whack in the ribs by the platform and a hard whack on the back by the dink. i was in considerable pain and we decided to stay two nights at MC, especially since the weather was coming up again.
Fri 3/13. i was feeling better so we got in the dink and rode around, and stopped at Trellis Bay. had a latte at d bes cup and bought some things at Aragorns.
as the wind came up that night, a loud grinding sound began. as the mooring bridle slid through the grooved thimble, the forepeak was resonating like a cello. the mate became extremely upset and there was nothing to do but try to fix it. so i waited till a lull in the wind, and simply pulled the loop in the mooring line on board and put it over the cleat, that is, moored normally like we do in NE. it barely fit but using some light line to keep the thimble in place we had a secure moor with no sawing and no sound effects.
Sat 3/14 - last day. it seems that the effort with the mooring aggravated my injury. we considered motoring back to RT, but i couldn't let some bruised ribs reduce us to the level of stinkpotters. we put up a reefed jib and were soon surfing the following seas at 4-5K. however, i did use a winch to furl the jib. as i made the U-turn for portside approach to the end of "C" dock, it was nice to hear the guy on the cat we docked against say "you make it look easy".
talking things over with Winston later, his theory was that the christmas winds didn't come at christmas, so we had finally got them in march.
for 3/14 - 3/15 we stayed at the Mariner Inn and walked around RT. tried the botanical gardens on sunday and they were locked shut, tho nobody knew why.
3/16, took 10:00 RT fast ferry for 2am flight. i thought we had way more time than needed. however, with very slow unloading and C&I, were not on the street in CA till after 12. then, the lines at AA were horrendous. because of my accident we were going to check the bags, but when the surly attendant said "that will be $30" we simultaneously said "are you kidding? no, thanks!". made flight with about half-hour to spare.
i'm happy to be sailing in the ilons no matter what, but the wind, seas and cool were a strain on the mate. i think a land-based trip may more be appealing to her now. if i want to go back sailing next year i'll have to go with someone else.
