July 24, 2007
OK, some of you are expecting my annual.........we survived our trip to Manchester email....................
so here goes.
The forecast was not going in our favour. Chance of showers, chance of thunderstorms. For the 4 days of our planned trip.
great. we can deal with rain, and with a little wind, and maybe some fog. but t-storms? 
Nope.
As of dinner time wed night, it was a no go. so, we did not pack our clothes, our food or get stuff ready.
We did not call anyone. I just couldn't get up the gumption. So, we went out for dinner, stayed up late watching movies, got woken up at 3am by a HUGE raccoon trying to come in the bedroom from the deck......Sparky was having a fit. so, we sure didn't get a good sleep. woke up at 8am and decided to see the first patient of the day to talk about his teeth (hygienist was working while i was spose to be off sailing......) and he happened to be a US Coast Guard .....so we chatted about the forecast......which was now changing..........they were predicting dense, patchy fog. visability 1nm. chance of rain/showers , but they had dropped the t-storm word. I asked him what he would do......... and after passing his "quiz" (he asked lots of questions about our equipment) , he said "I'd go." So, I went upstairs and talked to Jenn. Who was ........asleep . it really still looked like a crappy day, but we were both thinking, what a drag it would be to have 4 days off, and have the weather clear , and be stuck here and miss the whole trip. So, after an hour of debate........we decided to pack, and get on the boat and ............then decide. So, we did, and by the time we made it to the boat, it was noon. Now, it took 8 1/2 hrs last year...so I'm thinking , this is pretty stupid. Am i being a bad captain again?The last thing Priscilla said was "Be Safe" and here we are , leaving 6 hrs later than we should, and heading off into crap weather, with a strong chance of fog. Hmmm. So, we left. We figured, we could always turn around. We decided motoring was a good idea. . And not long after we went by Race Point, (the northwest tip of Cape Cod) we stopped seeing any land at all which normally you can see the whole way . It was quite overcast. Here's Jenn having lunch ...
I started telling Jenn how nervous I was about getting into Manchester in fog, or after dark , and at this point, she made an executive decision to increase our throttle and get the boat going as fast as we could. I went along with this idea. Soon, the fog appeared. It wasn't pea soup, but visability was definately on the reduced side, so we did all the things they taught us in school (except the "slow down" part). We rang the brass bell every few minutes, and kept a sharp look out . And it was a damn good thing. 30 minutes later I see a large white boat speeding right towards us out of the fog. So, since it seemed to be heading a tad to my Starboard, i turned our boat sharply to port, figuring i would show him a long black boat instead of our nose and it would help him see us . He got so close to us that as he passed he hollered at us and we could hear him ...............Wonder what he was saying? He hollered "We've got a tuna on the line". And as he flew by, we could see all the fishing poles off the end of his boat. Obviously , i had no desire to see his lines wrapped around our prop , so we held our course, for quite a while, long after he disappeared. 10 minutes later we resumed our original course. Jenn and I both looked at each other and said.........well, that was exciting. A half hour later , another white boat appeared (why are they always white ???) on our STB bow and went flying by. He was towing an inflatable. How odd.
Anyway, thats all we saw for the rest of the trip. No planes, no lights, no boats, no shoreline. Nothing. Then it rained for awhile. Finally , at about 6:45pm , out of the haze, we saw the buoy at Newcombe Ledge, and were quite pleased. GPS rules.
Here we are approaching the first mark, which ironically is Newcombe Ledge buoy. Harry says that the locals call it "the groaner" .......which makes sense, since the horn .........does sound like a groan.
We did well off the line, and not too bad on this downwind leg. Here's a shot looking back towards Boston.
Unfortunately, the wind totally died . Harry and Jenn did everything they could think of to help move our little boat along,,,,,,,,including hanging their butts over the rail to increase our waterline,,,,,,,, it didn't work, but it sure was funny.....
and the race was called at 4:30. So, that's all she wrote.
That night, Jenn and I enjoyed the most gorgeous sunset I think we have ever seen and went to bed on the boat , planning to rise early to head back to Provincetown.
Red sky at night , sailor's delight !!! And it sure was. 8-10kts NE all the way, which was on the beam and "tackless" as Harry and Jenn were joking. Jenn and I had the best sail of our lives, it was so much fun, that when we got to Wood End, we refused to drop the sails and turn into the wind for home, instead we continued on to Truro, getting the boat up to 6.5kts under full sail and tacked back to Long Point , and then for the icing, buzzed both the Bay Lady II and the Hindu. Life is grand.
Cheryl L Andrews, DMD