Aisle ah hoe

 8/6- Laundry Cove, Isle Au Haut ME

   The day started with the wind like some people think the earth is - flat. It was another in a string of beautiful mornings. We just sort of hung around waiting for the wind to fall off the edge. Around 10am the breeze roared to life and away we went. It was coming of course from directly where we wanted to go so we got the sails up and commenced with our tacking drills. None of the tacks was very long as the reach was narrow here and we had to get around the green can. After 5 or 6 tacks we got around the can and settled into a nice close reach. 

   As we passed Greens Ledge we turned more westerly and the wind proceeded to disappear. As we were drifting onto the ledge and in the middle of a field of lobster pots we put on the motor. Within minutes the wind picked up again so out comes the Yankee. That lasted 20 minutes or so before the wind went missing so we put the motor on. Of course 10 minutes later the wind re-emerges and out comes the yankee. 

   I finally decide I’ve had enough and we roll up the jib and motor. We only have a couple of miles to go anyway. We do have to squeeze between two islands with a very narrow and shallow gap. Just to make it more exciting the charts show a big rock in the middle of this channel. We glided right over it and dropped anchor in Laundry Cove. 

   Here we find a couple of Cape Dorys who joined us for a bit. We got together and had a happy hour so we could meet everyone. Turns out that there were musicians onboard and we got together after dinner and played some music and enjoyed another spectacular sunset.

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sailing

 5/20- Boby Owl Cove, Broad Creek, Choptank River    We finally got to go sailing today. We put up the main sail and cruised out of the Wye River where I ran out the stay sail. When we made the turn to head for the Eastern Bay the wind was on the nose. We short tacked a few times before putting the motor back on to bump us around the point. Once there all three sails were up and we romped down the bay until the wind collapsed.      We had a choice here, we could continue sailing slowly and go outside of Poplar Island or turn the motor on and take the short way. We chose the motor as the wind was dying. Poplar Island is being extended with spoils from dredging operations. This inside track is a bit winding but near the southern end it gets very shallow. You have to follow a winding cut that is unmarked.     After we squeaked through there it was just a long couple of hour haul to the anchorage. This is another sweet anchorage which is kind of ...
Read more

Leaks

 5/14/2025- Rock Hall MD   Well it poured last night. It was the kind of rain that made me glad I was on a boat. It was a good way to test for leaks. Boats are always springing leaks usually right where you least want them.     Boat leaks are also notoriously hard to track down. I have a porthole that leaks and despite having sealed the outside with a whole tube of caulking it still leaks. Water will come from pretty far away to spill out in the worst places. It gets under the headliner and travels down the length of the boat. I swear it leaches uphill even. I have even gone so far as to dye the water to see if I could figure out where it was coming from.     Well this porthole of mine that has the notorious leak was in perfect form this morning. As the rain crashed down outside the leak magnified and dropped a deluge right on my face. It was almost like taking a quick morning shower. I decided to just get up when it filled my mouth up with water....
Read more

City Island

 6/7- City Island NY    We slept off the effects of barely sleeping the last two days and awoke fairly refreshed. We did a bunch of boat chores before heading into shore.      We watched as the yacht club was launching a couple of boats. They have a railway that they use with an engine that is almost 100 years old. It is all run by volunteers at the yacht club and launching is included in your dues. It’s a pretty sweet deal.      We walked down the main street which is pretty much the only street. They must have blown the budget on dead end signs because every side street was a dead end at the water. There was a street fair going on so we walked around before doing some provisioning at the local market. On our return to the boat it started to pour and we got soaked. I guess we should have taken the launch.      We then visited with our new friends on their Cape Dory 31 and the they came over to our boat. It was fun talking to a...
Read more