Pleasure Cruise

My mom came to visit over the summer and we decided to sail to Newburyport.  It seemed reasonable enough, you can pretty much see Newburyport from our house (not in a Sarah Palin/Russia sort of way, but actually in fact).  We figured we'd get up there, tie up to the town dock, and get some lunch.  The wind was at our backs and we got our spinnaker flying for the first time!  It took a little trial and error (truth be told, we're still not 100% sure that we've ever rigged it correctly) but up it went!  We even had my mom at the helm for a little while.

As we came up to the mouth of the Merrimack River that we would have to travel up to get to Newburyport there was lots of boat traffic and big rolling waves.  The large mouth of the river is made very narrow due to a break water coming in from either side, and people stall their boats right in the current and cast their lines, because apparently that's the best place to catch fish.  We hadn't timed the tide right and we were going against a strong current, in big waves, with power boats drifting this way and that, in a 16 foot wide boat, with nothing but our little 8 horse motor to push us along.  It was pretty intense, but Cody navigated the obstacles well and we made it past the mouth.  

It took us about 2 hours to make it from there to the town dock (it had taken us only 2 hours to get from home to the river) because we were going about half a knot against the current.  Ouch.  Eventually we made it and found a slip at the very end of the dock so we didn't have to try to parallel park our boat between two pristine yachts.  We walked up to Grog, a fantastic little pub in Newburyport, and had lunch and cocktails, then walked around for a bit before deciding we should probably try to make it out out of the river before the tide changed and we had to go against the current the other direction.  We barely made it, and this time, at a slack tide, it only took is 30 minutes to get from the dock back into the bay.  We were heading into the wind on the way home, though, so it took us significantly longer to make it back.  We stopped for a swim, and then the wind picked up so that we were moving pretty good, even though we had to tack back and forth to make any headway.

Not much of an exciting story, and really we were due for a pleasant day on the boat, but it feel so awesome to get somewhere on our boat.  It's like the first time you do a long ride on your bike (only with more sitting and much more alcohol) - the world looks so much different than when viewed from a car.  When distances are put in terms of how long it takes you get there under wind power they take on a whole new meaning.

Cody's working on a find sunburn.

 At the Newburyport Town Dock.

 Fly, spinnaker, fly!

Cheer!  They serve tiny beers if you want one.

Party Boat

I just realized that we're getting super close to dropping the boat back in the water and I'd better start moving on the backstory!  Also, I'm supposed to be studying for my Coaching exam and, uh . . .

One of our desires for the boat was to anchor up at Fiesta to watch the Greasy Pole.


I mean, right???

Our good friend Mac Bell told us we could tie Tri-oomph up at his dock in the harbor for a week, so we planned to sail over on the last day of the Greasy Pole and leave her there until the 4th of July for optimal firework viewing.

We made a concerted effort to take all of our friends out on the boat at some point over the summer, and due to the fact that we can only comfortably seat 4-5 under sail we had to do it in very small chunks.  Cody called up his friend and erstwhile tree climbing boss Doug to accompany us on our trip around the island that morning.  Doug was game, it looked like a beautiful day, so we loaded up and headed out.

We had some decent wind heading up towards Rockport, but as we came around the corner the wind died down and the waves started rolling in.  Rolling.  Rolling.  Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Umm, I may have been mildly hungover.  It's possible.  Whether due to that in combination with the waves or the motion of the boat itself, I got seasick.  So very seasick.  Couple that with nearly nonexistent wind and I spent about 3 hours puking off the bow of the ship.  I was so happy that Doug had come along, because he was able to chat with Cody and help him with the boat.  I was completely incapacitated.  We ended up having to motor the last hour or so because we weren't moving.  As we pulled into the harbor I tried to right myself and help us get to the dock space, which was so tight that we had to fold up our outside outrigger to fit into it.

Once off the boat I implored Cody to call a taxi, but instead he called our friend Josh who came to get us right away.  I sat on the street corner racked with dry heaves and wishing I'd never heard of Gloucester for a half hour while Josh got stuck up in Fiesta related traffic at the rotary.  The salvation I'd thought would come as soon as I got off the boat was nowhere to be found.  Ugh.  Finally we made it home, and on Doug's advice I drank some Alka Seltzer.  Oh my god, you guys, Alka Seltzer is the shit.  In the space of 20 minutes I went from nearly catatonic to ready to head back out to watch some Greasy Pole!  Seasickness is no joke.

Cody and I had told our friends to meet us at the dock if they wanted to head out to watch the Pole, and when we arrived we had a party crew waiting for us.  I think we might have had 10 people on board?  It was crowded, but we found a good vantage point to watch, and my friend Kurt, a Gloucester native, hollered at anyone who tried to anchor in front of us with enough drunken belligerence that they moved on.  After the greasy pole we tied up to Andrew and Jenny's boat and grilled some dinner.  This is what boating life is all about.

 Gloucester from the water.

 Epic tie up.

Unloading wet cushions and empty beer cans.

I felt anxious leaving Tri-oomph anchored downtown, but I had to come back out the next morning to clean up from the party so I'd be able to check on her.  It was really cool hanging out, cleaning my boat while people were tearing down the Fiesta decorations on that foggy Monday morning, and while fishing boats unloaded on nearby docks.  It made me feel like I'd gotten my Gloucester members card, finally.  Between the guests, the booze, and the sail over we'd managed to get beer and salt water all over the floor and upholstery in the cabin, so getting her spotless again took some time.

She sat on the dock for the next couple days with no problem, except for an incredibly gross brown stain that formed all along at the waterline.  Harbor water.  Don't swim in it.  On the evening of the 4th of July we motored Tri-oomph about as close to the fireworks as the Coast Guard would let us, ate some dinner, and watched from the best seat in the house.  We decided to just anchor in the harbor for the night, which makes for a rough night and morning getting bounced around by all the wake.  But there is no where better to wake up then on our boat, so we arose in good spirits and enjoyed our morning in the harbor.

We decided to bring her home that day, and debated between trying to motor through the cut bridge or sail around.  The wind seemed good and we had just missed the tide for going through the cut, so we opted to sail.  I'm not quite sure what wind we were feeling in the harbor, but once we got outside there wasn't much to speak of.  And, we didn't have a full tank of fuel.  And, it was really hot out, and we didn't have much food or water.  Baking in the sun with no wind made me think longingly of that terrifying wind from several weeks prior.  It took us over 6 hours to weakly sail, and sparingly motor, around to Crane's Beach.  We knew Tucker and a whole armada of people were there and we'd be able to get some fuel from Tuck to finish our motor home.  Then we missed the tide and had to leave Tri-oomph at Conomo Point.  C'est la vie.  The lesson here is that it is incredibly difficult to estimate time en route on a sailboat.  Too many variables.

But!  We'd made it around the island and home, we'd partied at Fiesta, and we'd watched the 4th of July fireworks from our boat.  The hiccups are just part of the ride.

Boat for Sail (Sale?)

One Sunday towards the end of May we headed out for a sail with our friends Jenny and Andrew.  They have a monohull that, at the time, was out of the water for painting.  Jenny grew up sailing, she has a pretty good idea of what she's doing, and Andrew's been sailing a lot longer than I have, and they've both learned from sailing with some pretty experienced people.  They're good people to take on the boat because when you say, "Can you trim the jib?"  they know what you're talking about and it makes for a lot less work.  We had a great, fast sail out to Rockport - our first trip around the island!  We anchored in the harbor there, ate some lunch, hung out.  The water was freezing!  We'd talked about swimming to shore for ice cream but no one really felt like getting wet.  After a couple of hours we pulled up anchor to head home.

As we were coming across the tip of the island between Rockport and Halibut Point the wind really started kicking up.  At first it was fun!  We were cruising!  I was sitting out on the upwind outrigger when Cody said, "We need to reduce sail."  The wind was blowing so hard out of the southwest that he had let the main all the way out so we could hold our heading.  We decided to just drop the main (we'd never tried to reef our sail before) and sail on the jib.  At this point both Andrew and I were out on the ama, and Cody handed us our nice offshore lifejackets to put on.

The swells picked up as we went further around into open water and the wind kicked up even harder when the landmass wasn't blocking it.  It was a rough ride.  As we'd crash down after each gust me and Andrew would get soaked.  This honestly went on for probably 45 minutes.  I was pretty unhappy at this point - freezing and scared and thinking that I could pretty well take a pass on the ocean and be just fine thankyouverymuch.  The swells probably weren't that big, but between them and the gusts heeling us over there were times when our ama felt like it was a good 6 feet out of the water.  I'm a mountain girl, right?  The ocean is full of sea monsters and scary things, and it's unpredictable.  My level of experience with it was nonexistent.

We weren't making much headway and decided to come back towards shore so we might be a little more protected.  We pulled into Folly Cove to talk about what to do and to put up the storm jib.  Heading out again, we weren't able to make much headway staying close to shore, and we ducked back into the cove.  This time we decided to try motoring close to shore.  Our little 8 horse wasn't cutting it, though, and we were burning through fuel too fast to make it anywhere.  We returned to the cove a final time.

At some point in all of this I'd told Cody that I was concerned and freezing and not having any fun and I didn't want to try sailing in this.  After a bit of an ego struggle, we convinced the guys to anchor the boat in the cove and call for a ride.  The cove has a nice sandy bottom to anchor in, but the swim to shore was ridiculously cold.  I was so ridiculously happy to be off the boat at this point that I didn't even care.  We got a ride home from Andrew and Jenny (Thanks for coming out on the boat, guys!  It was . . . fun . . . ) and packed up out belongings to go back out to the cove and sleep aboard to make sure she didn't drift into any rocks or break free.  The only hiccup in the plan was that it was Sunday evening and we had to go to work the next day.  

In spite of all the stress and waffling and not being sure if we had made the right decision Cody and I ended up having a really nice night.  We got some food from the Lobster Trap, a little fried seafood place within spitting distance of where we were anchored, and had a nice night hanging out on the water.  (The wind had actually died down to a very pleasant level by 6 or 7, and we briefly considered sailing home before realizing that we'd each had a couple beers with dinner and it probably wasn't a great idea.  Good to remember, though, that in the summer when it gets gusty in the afternoon it often dies down in the evening.)  We'd brought our dinghy with us so we didn't have to swim again.  There are some insane mansions on the water along the cove and we were tickled to think that we were getting the same view for free.  4 AM came way to soon, and we had to paddle back to shore so Cody could make it to Boston for work on time.  I got to go home and squeeze in a few more hours sleep before heading to the shop.

We had to bring the boat home that night or spend another night, and early morning, on the water.  Our crew from the day before wanted to help, so after work we loaded up and had a gorgeous sail back to West Gloucester.  It felt good to finally make that trip, and reassuring to have Tri-oomph back on her mooring.

(The not-so-funny lingering reminder of our crazy day on the water was the ridiculous sunburn we all ended up with.  Too many hours of sitting on the outrigger with my legs dangling over the water netted me the worst sunburn I've ever had on my shins.  Ouch.)

 Couldn't be much prettier, huh?

 Sailing home!

Thanks to Jenny for this super cute color coordinated one.