I’ve always felt somewhat temporarily disconnected and not well correlated with clock and calendar but this weekend seemed extremely out of faze to me. Usually weekends go by in the blink of an eye landing me in the office on Monday morning wondering what happened to the weekend. This past weekend felt very different and left me wondering; “did all that really happen in just four days?” Seemed so much longer.
It started Thursday evening; Susan and I were planning to go sailing for the first time this year. We hoped to go to Block Island and incorporate a shake down cruise with some fun on the island. That was our plan anyways. We were on the highway, on our way to Mystic when we got a call from our canvas maker, Jim, informing us that the new bimini didn’t quite fit. Our solar panel frame had to be shortened in the fore-and-aft direction one inch in order for the bimini to fit properly. Jim agreed to leave his pipe cutter on board so that we could shorten the frame that evening and he would then show up early the next morning to install the bimini. So Susan and I spent Thursday night modifying our solar panel racks. Jim showed up as planned first thing next morning and I couldn’t be more pleased with how it all turned out. Plus, he had made us a very beautiful and functional set of winch covers that are the envy of our dockside neighbors.
Once the bimini was squared away we cast off for Block Island and had a delightful sail there in light winds. It was an indescribably wonderful feeling to raise the sails and experience Gypsy’s dance through the waves, driven by the power of the wind. I enjoyed some time up at the bow, taking it all in; the sky, the sea and the motion of the boat. We were finally sailing again, whoo-hoo! As we approached New Harbor on Block I. I noticed more dinghies on Coast Guard beach than I’ve ever seen before; not a good sign and sure enough, as soon as we entered the harbor we could see that it was chock-a-block with boats and more arriving every minute. After a quick spin through the anchorage we decided to head to the Harbor of Refuge at Point Judith, Rode Island expecting that to be less crowded. After two hours of running we were delighted to arrive there and find only a handful of boats occupying that huge harbor, ahhhhhhh. 
We wanted to try reversing our anchoring roles. Up to this point Susan had manned (womanned?) the foredeck and handled the ground tackle while I drove the boat during anchoring. That was with our old Delta anchor that weighed a respectable 44lbs. hooked up to 300lbs of chain. Our new Rocna is a tighter fit and weighs 73lbs. making it significantly harder to handle. Susan’s a strong woman who loves a challenge but I see no need to tax her limits. With the change in our routine we were grateful for loads of sea room available at the Point Judith anchorage to refine our drill. Things worked well and we secured the boat at 7:30, had dinner and then took turns reading to each other from the book “And the Sea Will Tell”. It’s a fantastic, true murder story by Vincent Bugliosi about a double homicide that occurred on Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific in the 1970s. Palmyra lies along our own path through the Pacific and is a possible destination so we’re doubly intrigued by the story. It’s one of those cases where truth is stranger than fiction. If you are looking for a riveting read in the way of a murder mystery, I highly recommend the book.We spent the entire next day doing boat chores intermixed with reading “And the Sea Will Tell” to each other. Besides enjoying a laid back day we managed to get SailMail up and running. We now can send and receive email through our SSB radio while we are at sea which delights and amazes me. When I started sailing over forty years ago we’d be ecstatic whenever we could talk to another boat that was within eyeshot of us. The old tube radio we had was so wonky that it was out-of-order more that it was in. SailMail is a non-profit association of yacht owners that operates and maintains this email communication system for its members. The association maintains a world wide network of SSB stations in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service.
We hoped to go back to Block Island the next day but our diesel engine wouldn’t start.
So we sailed off the hook with the plan to sail back to Connecticut, anchor behind Ram Island for the night and then call for a tow into our marina if needed. We sailed off the hook and enjoyed a boisterous sail home in 18-22kts of breeze. When we got to Ram I. we tried the engine one more time and got lucky. So we dropped sails and motored in under our own power, anchor ready just in case. In the process I got a fright and Susan got a lesson that we won’t soon forget. When it was time to drop the main sail she reached forward unthinkingly and nonchalantly popped the main sheet out of its jam cleat. Unfortunately it wasn’t wrapped around the winch and in 22kts of breeze it pulled her violently forward; ripping an inch long flap of skin off her hand at it pulled her to the deck. Now I know Susan to be a tough, gutsy woman, even so, I was taken back when without hesitation she bit the loose flap of skin off, spat it out and went immediately back to lowering the sail. What a woman! We got back to our dock in the early afternoon after a bit of a crash landing (nothing broken or scratched) in a strong cross wind; with the help of several of our good dock mates we got the boat wrestled into position. At dusk we took a walk around the center of town and lingered near the lift bridge to enjoy the moon rise over Mystic.
The next day we were up early for some yoga on the dock followed by a walk up and down the river. I never tire of looking at the various boats that inhabit this place.
They range from yesterday’s and today’s luxury yachts to a quaint house boat (it’s for sale if you’re interested) to the numerous and unique little wooden boats that ply these waters.
Susan finished scrubbing out the water tanks and around noon her daughter and her friend showed up for visit. We took our dinghy out for a harbor tour and then enjoyed lunch in the cockpit. Around five just as we were packing to bring our four day weekend to a close our friends Jack and Marcia of Rights of Man pulled into the marina unexpectedly. The last we knew they were headed for Europe. We immediately invited them over to hear their fresh sea stories. Susan unpacked the food & drinks and laid out a beautiful spread; we all sat around our cockpit listening to their tales from the high seas. They had hit some bad weather (storms & doldrums), experienced some equipment failures (engine & AIS) and turned back after five days at sea. Their departure had seemed a bit rushed as they left without a shake down cruise or any substantive sea trials. They have postponed their departure until this fall, same as us. Now they’ll have plenty of time to sort out their boat issues and we’ll have some wonderful neighbors this summer.117 days
