Log of September 3 & 4, 2008

Pleasant night @ anchor in P-town
Good sky, tasty provisions, etc.

0530 Anchors aweigh, bound out & north.

0830 42° 07.0 N/70° 25.2 W GW taking over from Doc. Making good ~225/5kts.

1255 47° 17.98 N/70° 20.54 W tacked to Stbd.

By dawn the breeze was moderating and we set out with hopes of making better progress than yesterday. As we got out and clear of Race Point, the waves were still impressive, but not quite as short as the day before. But with two big wave trains crossing, some were very big and steep. Every now and then we would fall off a big one. And I think it was one of these which broke the mizzen mast step, a problem which showed up over the next few days, but was only properly diagnosed by the yard crew at Brooklin Boat Yard after the boat was hauled.

Later we learned that Steve White had been in the same area that day in Vortex, his Swede 55, and had broken the main bulkhead falling off one of these same transient cliffs.

As we came back inshore toward Cape Ann on the starboard tack, the seas calmed down and it became clear that we were going to be able to make good progress if we kept going overnight without exhausting ourselves. The wind was moderating as well.

1527 42° 28.7 N/70° 31.6 W Set Mizzen & unrolled jib--Left 1 reef in main. Wind veering so we are able to make good ~355M.

1555 Stopped engine--Making 4.5 kts+ under full sail.

1700 Back under power. Londoner on the Port Bow. Making good about 030M/5kts.

1955 42° 47.5 N/70° 22.7 W ~058/4.6kts.
GW 5:30-8:30; Tom 7:30-10:30; Doc 9:30-12:30
GW 11:30-2:30; Tom 1:30-4:30; Doc 3:30-6:30
GW 5:30-8:30; Tom 8:30-11:30; Doc 11:30-2:30
Motorsailing in a light easterly. About to heat Chili for dinner-clear sky sliver of a moon.

There are two variables I tinker with when setting up watch schedules on these deliveries. One is watch length and the other is overlap. In this case, I set three hour watches and had us stand one hour alone with an hour overlap before and after during darkness, with a full three hours alone during the day so we could catch up on our sleep. Sometimes I stretch the day watches to four hours, but that seemed as if it would be tedious this time.

2030 Breeze died - dropped sail & increased rpm to 1700 to maintain ~4.8 kts.

2314 42° 59.3 N/70° 08.4 W; 055M/5kts. motoring, sails down.

0024 Thursday Sept 04, '08. 43° 03.4 N/70° 02.5W; 055M 5.5kts.

0134 43° 07.7 N/69° 57.1 W 055/5.0kts Tom just cam on & reported a possible pee bucket emergency, which turned out, happily, to be a false alarm.

The pee bucket reference will be obvious to anyone familiar with North Wind. She is equipped with a composting head. It works well, but does require the pee bucket be emptied quite often.

0326 43° 14.4 N/069° 48.4W 050/5kts.

0430 43° 19.12 N 69° 43.68 W 050/5kts
light S wind fill in?

0526 43° 22.4 N/ 69° 40.6 W

1040 Monhegan ~4mi on the Stbd bow.
Sunny, hazy, warm morning. Light westerly, but not enough to sail.

1050 New course 055M for Whitehead I.

1145 Set sail jus W of Monhegan's N end.

With the afternoon ahead of us and a nice sea breeze filling in, we turned into day sailors and looked for a pretty route through the islands rather than just following the shipping lane up the bay. The added advantage was that it got the light breeze onto our quarter and the boat came alive.

1500 After setting sail we headed between Burnt I and Allen I, turned west to go south of Davis I and then back E. through Davis Straight. We then "followed the cable area" [Curtis & Rindlaub] into the mouth of Port Clyde & then continued out past Mosquito I. before turning n. toward the mouth of Tennants. Now we have gybe & are carrying a perfect 10 kt breeze down onto Whitehead I and the Muscle Ridges on a stbd tack. We are considering holding on for Pulpit if the wind holds.

1628 Exiting Fisherman I Passage bound for Pulpit. 060M ~5.8kts.

1900 Anchor down in Pulpit--the usual spot--Nice run over at about 4-5kts against the ebb. Impressive clouds, but no rain or big wind shifts. All is well. Dark & Stormys all around, salad & chili to follow.

23oo To bed, having solved the problems of the world.

A nice ending to a somewhat boisterous delivery with a lovely afternoon sailing through the islands and ending up in a favorite destination. The "usual spot" is straight in to about 16 feet of water a little beyond where the schooners anchor.