The title says it all. Our grand Maine tour is over. Now prep for Bahamas!

It’s a bit bittersweet to be back in Cataumet. Parker’s is a great place to layup your boat. Skip the chartroom and grab an under for the lobster trap.

No wind motor day today to position ourselves from the canal transit. Then we are in home waters! Distance does make the heart grow fonder

Had a very nice beam reach will we turned the corner at Milk Island. We tried tacking west only to be foiled. This boat was never designed to go to weather.

It’s a little sad when you have to turn the boat south. Time for some Adulting.

Close to the end of our Maine adventure. Life events clearly got in the way. We shall return.

Time is running out to get east and visit with family. Right now we are just happy to sail. Unfortunately, not much of that is going on.

After hanging out in a fairly remote anchorage I needed a change. Let see how Bailey Island treats me.

Morning with little wind had me motoring from Falmouth to The Goslings. I am a little exposed at high tide with the wind and seas rolling in between the islands but we should be ok for the night as the forecast has wind abating after midnight. I hope to replace all the porthole glass tomorrow after fixing the companionway ladder today.

We have been taking it slow this summer. We plan to break downEast next week.

L

Repositioning to drop off the non-retired member of the duo. A quick motor and we are back close to civilization. Tomorrow we head to Freeport for the drop off. Have not seen any great whites yet!

We left the tranquillity of the upper Sacco River to full on 20+ knots of wind. We reefed the main and Yankee to no overburden the old gal. We had seas from 3-5 feet swells with 5 second period pretty much from the stern. Overall, it was a spirited sail till we reached Jaquish Island. A squall loomed from the west causing us to hurriedly dowse the main and Yankee. We had sideways rain bordering on hail and had 20-25 knots from every point of the compass. We motored through the somewhat narrow cut between sloop ledge and Oak Island. From there it was straight shot to Snow Island. We sure hoped we would miss the drama. I should have heeded more experienced sailors advice! But now we are farther east and you cannot beat the snow Island Anchorage!

Very nice free mooring at the mouth of the Saco River (Camp Ellis #4) to ride out predicted front blowing through. We hope to grab our first lobster roll and a good night sleep. 3 more available, come on down!

Lazy day with Laura still working India time. Portsmouth Yacht Club set us up with fuel and water. There was little wind leading us to motor to the “Pool”! We will relax here a day or two.

Light wind from the N-NE dictated we motor from Gloucester to Portsmouth. We did have a Minke whale and porpoise sightings. The full enclosure helped. Looking forward to continuing east in a few days.

What started out as a quick jump to Onset turned into a full day adventure. I misread the Cape Cod Canal current charts and found when we arrived that it was in peak Flood stage. So, we squirted straight through and made a beeline for Gloucester. There was little wind from East Greenwich to Onset. On the other side, we had 18-20 knots from the “Right” direction for the first time in a long time. The wind drained out of Cape Cod Bay slowly overnight demanding more motorsailing. As we closed Gloucester, we found heavy fog was the weather for the morning. We scraped our way into the inner harbor and picked up a town mooring at 6:30am local time. We hope to sail to Portsmouth NH for a few days before heading north for the summer. Time for a nap!

In spite of the forecast calling for spicy to salty weather, we shoved off from Cape May around 10 am. We motored for the first few hours waiting for the wind to settle in and to catch up with svScoot and svCalypso2. The forecast called for significant sustained gusting. Overall we saw very mild conditions resulting in a broad reach till we separated company with our buddy boat friends. We turned for Montauk expecting building wind. This never materialized and we spent a good part of the remaining journey rolling with just the headsail deployed. The wind totally abandoned us off the west coast of Block Island. All in we burned about 15-20 gallons of fuel. Only did the wind return with a vengeance as we were docking to offload the boat. I think we raised the waterline by an inch or so. We had a good welcome home by friends after tucking away Redshift on the mooring. Now, a month of refitting begins.

Left Hospital Point at 8:30 am. Encountered two container ships working their way into Portsmouth. We stayed outside of the channel on the starboard side and were not called out. We steamed into a commotion of the USS Truman Aircraft Carrier returning from deployment. Tugs firing off water cannons and plenty of security was on hand. We were contacted via VHF to remain 500 yards away at all times. It certainly was a challenge for us to remain that type of distance. After the hubbub, we crossed the bay exiting using the Chesapeake Channel. It was pretty much a straight shot to Cape May with great sailing till the middle of the night when the wind and boat speed dropped below 3 knots. We fired up the motor and made our way to the Cape May inlet at 12:30ish. We dropped anchor in the crowded anchorage near green#7. We were done with motoring and will stay till be find suitable sailing conditions.

Hoping for a good Weather window for Narragansett Bay

And like that, the Bahamas Cruise is over. Off We go refitting and planning for our Nova Scotia/ Maine Cruise!

Long run from Tuckahoe Point to Atlantic Yacht Basin. We made the right decision of skipping Bellhaven as very strong winds from the south funnel there. We picked up the anchor with no snags at 9pm and had a nice headsail run down the Alligator River through the drawbridge. It is one of the pillow that request registration numbers and record boat names. We took care to follow the nav aids as one boat near us ran aground. The ride across the Albamarle was sporty with short chop and gusting to 20 knots. We decided to stop at Coinjock at an up and coming “marina”. Greg at The Landing was very nice and helpful. He currently has space for 2-40’ boats with 50 amp power. He is developing a small full service marina on the east side 100 yards north of the bridge. It will be away from the hubbub. There is lots of development going on so the money is flowing in. We slept in and made the beak for Atlantic Yacht Basin. Ran into many old and some new friends. We plan to leave the boat for a few weeks while we do some adulting.

See the trip update.

Mile Hammock was cosy till an early morning squall hit hard. Lightning splashed across the sky while gusts built. I noted 39 knot gusts but I am sure we saw 45 at least. Once the storm abated, there was no wind. So close to everyone in the harbor fired up their motors and hightailed it for Beaufort. Dropped anchor in Adams creek across from Oriental, NC.

I did swear I would never do the ICW again and here I am doing the ICW! Pretty boring other than running hard aground between Wrightsville and Figure 8 bridges. Thank the Gods I have 57 ponies under the hood!

It’s been a good run with some ups and downs. Eluethera and the Exumas were all that and more. The Abacos were busy but allowed me some downtime. I was able to pick up a nice 2-stroke outboard at National Marine in Marsh Harbor. One downside was losing my refrigeration about 2 weeks into my stay. A new controller module just installed has my back up and chilling. We are staged for the offshore run to Charleston and I for one am looking forward to be back in the states.

Some say you can buy a new 2-stroke outboard in Marsh Harbor. So far, I am oh-42. Many of the shops were destroyed and never reopened. No selection at the car parts store and National Marine closes @ 2pm. So, I’ll give it a shot tomorrow. The motor from Lynyard Cay was twisty and turns and has a different vibe when compared to the Exumas or Eluethera I hear the Jib Room is the place for dinner and drinks!

Too much of a good thing is the old adage? I enjoyed my stay in Eluethera but left plenty to discover on our next trip south. I was thinking the Abacos trip was going to be a quick drive by but Mother Nature is thinking differently. Let’s find out what the big deal is with the Abacos, shall we? Near perfect beam reach run from Spanish Wells to Little Harbor Cut. The old girl was rolling from beam to beam with the heavy swells rolling in from the east. I was planning to go through the North Bar Channel but all the cool kids were making tracks for Little Harbor. Anchored off Lynyard Cay in 17’ of water with wind rising from the south. Time for the anchor alarm to earn its keep.