After passing through the Cape Cod Canal, we spent a week on Buzzard's Bay. The wind was in that sweet spot of 15-20 knots, and we had fun tacking back and forth across the Bay. We made several stops along the way at Onset, Hadley Cove, and Westport. In Onset, it was time for pizza. While in Maine, we heard about a fantastic pizza restaurant but never made it there; amazing lobster rolls on every corner, but not much pizza. In Onset, however, we found a place called Marc Anthony's. Packed with Bostonians on vacation, Marc Anthony's was a trip: line out the door, cash only, tables packed, with Marc Anthony himself manning 3 princess phones mounted on the wall taking delivery orders, f***ing expletives flying. Flour-covered employees hollered out order names over the crowds and loads of Bostonian children talked loudly with thick accents. Kelly and I stuck out like sore thumbs. Interesting place, but the pizza was just OK. (Marc, if you should read this please don't sick any of your guys on us.)
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| Just a small tanker passing in the Cape Cod canal |
In Westport, we had a nice experience at the Tripp Marina. You have to snake through the rocks and ripping current to the mooring field, but the location is beautiful - sand beaches and more osprey than we could count. The guys at the marina introduced us to another liveaboard couple.....from IDAHO. Lincoln and Cat Lewis had sold it all, bought an old Suburban in Idaho to drive east, and purchased a nice 38-foot cruising boat from Tripp. They are learning to sail and will move south down the East Coast for the winter. Kindly, they took us to a better pizza place and the grocery store 7 miles away to provision for our passage. We hope to cross paths with them again downstream. A former colleague and friend of Kel's, Dale, also came down from Boston and joined us for dinner on the boat. It is always fun to talk with passionate, adventurous souls.
Skipping forward....our sail from Massachusetts was rambunctious and fun. Kel and I sailed for 48 hours in 16-20 knots of wind off the starboard stern quarter. A short 3-5 second wave pattern made things interesting, and we watched Flipper our Hydrovane work its magic as it guided us up and down the wave swell. On several occasions, the approaching waves met the boat with a loud slap on the hull or a splash of spray into the cockpit. Add to that a lesson learned about moving around the deck at sea without shoes: my port little toe ran into a starboard-side jib sheet car and quickly snapped. Luckily the fracture was simple and I was able to snap it straight. It's been buddy-tapped to the neighboring little piggy and I'm actually doing fine. Swelling and bruising have now gone away, and I just have to wait for the bone to heal. Sorry guys, I'll be keeping the toe; no Capt 9-Toe. This video gives a little perspective on the seas, but you really just gotta be there.
Skipping forward again: we motor sailed in light winds up the Delaware Bay, down the Chesapeake Bay, and are nicely located in our first slip in the last 2 months in Annapolis, Maryland. Here, we'll get the boat ready to haul for some routine work and the addition of new hydraulic autopilot system. Don't worry Flipper, you are not getting replaced. Friday we head to see Chris for a couple of days, followed by a trip to Idaho, Oregon, and Texas. Iolair will wait for us here until October 7th and then we'll begin preparing for our trip south to the Caribbean in November.
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| In the Delaware Bay, these encounters are non-stop. |
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| Chocolate water and radioactive horseshoe crabs on the Delaware Bay |
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