Season Wrap-up, and Current Status

The beginning of last fall was dominated by this big party we threw in October (our wedding) so we didn't have as much time for sailing, mountain biking, or really anything but wedding planning and preparations.  We had hoped to sail away on Tri-oomph, accompanied by our wedding photographer, immediately following the wedding ceremony, but it was sort of cold, the tide was coming in pretty fast (didn't want to get my dress wet!) and we were sort of over it.  We did have her anchored right next to where the ceremony took place on the marsh, colors flying, for optimal scenic effect.  It was all really beautiful.

The day after the wedding we did get out for a quick sail with some of our guests who had stayed an extra day or two to visit with us.  It was pretty brisk, though, so we didn't stay out for too long, and as it was we were all chilled and it was dark by the time we got home.

Cody was sent away for work for a few days the week after the wedding, and my dad and his guest stuck around for a few days.  We had some decent weather so I took them for a sail on Friday.  The wind was blowing though, and it was my first time taking the boat out without Cody.  We survived!  Kudos to my dad and Suzanne for not asking me a million times "are you sure you know what you're doing?"  We didn't sail much, and I only flew the jib, but it was nice to get on the water, and super confidence-boosting that I didn't run us into the rocks that the wind was trying to push us against.  Also, I was able to raise and lower the motor myself (not an easy task, thanks Crossfit!) and get it started.  And motor us home against a stiff north wind and an outgoing tide.  And get us back on the mooring.  I know, it doesn't sound impressive, but those things are actually really difficult, and I stayed cool and never freaked out.  So, you know, when me and Cody get sick of each other somewhere down in the Abacos and I strand him on a sand bar, I'll know how to get the boat home.

After the last of our guests departed and Cody came home from work we got out for our last overnighter of the season.  It was getting cold and we wanted to pull the boat out of the water for the season so we could start getting it ready for our summer plans.  We anchored behind Plum Island where it was very cold and very beautiful.  Almost all the boats off of Great Neck had been brought in save a couple lobster boats and we didn't see another soul on the water.  We spent an extremely cold night, then woke up and made pancakes and coffee.  Waking up on our boat is basically the best feeling.  We sailed a bit and then headed in when we got hungry, happy that we'd gotten out one last time in our inaugural season of boat ownership.

What now?

We found a place to store Tri-oomph up at the Cape Ann Industrial Park for next to nothing (as far as boat storage is goes) and there she's sat since December.  We have an extensive list of renovations we are making and repairs that need doing before we depart in (OMGOMGOMG!) about 5 weeks.  We don't have any projects that are yet 100% done, but when the whole thing is set I'll take some good pictures and explain everything we've done.

This past weekend we organized a boat painting party, although it was really more of a marathon.  On Thursday Tucker and our Danish friend Jake removed the pontoons and sanded with Cody all day.  I had class until 2 and then came over to help finish it up.  That night after the sanding was done we did any epoxy work that needed to be done in the hopes that it would be fully cured by the next day.

On Friday we primed anything that would be getting painted green - the work on the bottom of the boat will have to wait until this weekend or next because we need to jack it up and do some glass work on the skeg.

On Saturday we taped off the areas we would be applying non-skid coating to, and did our first layer of paint.  Cody's mom, Kevin, and Noble came to help.  The non-skid coating is a powder or sand (depending), and it gets thickly dusted onto the first layer of wet paint.  Cody had bought us some really nice, rubberized non-skid, but we quickly ran out.  I ran down to Rose Marine where they sold me a quart of sand for $17.  They joked that I should just go to the beach.  Well, it was super fancy, clean sand at any rate.  Near the end of the day we ran out AGAIN and Rose Marine was closed for the day.  I called Ace Hardware and they had a product that one might use on stairs or other surfaces you want to be non-skid and I made it in 15 minutes before they closed so we could finish the damn first coat.  So!  Now we have 3 different types of non-skid coating.  If anyone is doing this to their boat and need some advice, we're here for you!

On Sunday we applied the second coat of paint.  I had a class to go to in the afternoon so this was mostly all Cody, Noble, and our friend Andrew.  We had masked off the non-skid areas so those actually received their first coat, and it was difficult to not spread any loose non-skid around into the areas that weren't supposed to have it.  It also took a ton of paint to get into all those nooks and crannies.  The area where we'd applied the sand from Rose Marine is so rough that you could easily take the skin off the soles of your feet, and you can still see that the sand is black through the paint.  We'll likely be applying a third coat on these areas to save our skin and hopefully obscure the color of the sand.  Hmm.  Well, we'll see.

So, huge thanks to everyone that came out to help us, and loaned us equipment, and were generally awesome and supportive.  It was huge deal to get the boat (mostly) all painted and it looks terrific!  It's remarkable how much the paint had faded over the years and how ridiculously bright and shiny she is now.  I don't think I have to tell you that she'll be the hottest boat in the water (not that she wasn't before).

 At our super-scenic wedding ceremony.  (Photo Credit:  Lindsay and Scott Hesston!)

 We even did our engagement photos aboard Tri-oomph.

 Our last, cold night!

 Sweet elixer of life.

 Plum Island at dawn.

 Sanding!  Super-respirator and tyvek.

 We have to get new decals, and I want to make sure we get the logo right.

 Epoxy work.

 Primed!  She's ugly in white.

 Everyone came out to help!

 And . . . umm?

 So shiny!

Serious non-skid.

Best Weekend

I was informed by my mom that in this post I did not sufficiently express the size of the swells and the sense of chaos as we motored through the mouth of the Merrimac on our way to Newburyport.  So, in the interest of accuracy, I will elaborate:  I was sitting on the bow because our boat is fairly stern-heavy and with three of us in the cockpit we were having a hard time keeping the boat flat.  I was pretty nervous about all the boat traffic and the rocks and the swells, and I know Cody was pretty tense trying to navigate the boat through it.  But my mom said, "Wee, this is fun!"  And I was happy to know, at least, that she wasn't perturbed by the conditions.

The weekend after my time on the Gamage I was eager to get out on Tri-oomph.  After I finished work on Saturday evening Cody and I loaded up and had an amazing night sail out to Folly Cove.  The wind was perfect - steady and strong - and night sailing is amazing.  We weren't working with any navigational tools so we sort of guessed where to head based on our knowledge of the shore and what few lights we could pinpoint as landmarks.  It took us about an hour and was honestly one of the funnest sails we had all year.  Night sailing, man.  

As we doused canvas and motored into the cove the bioluminescent plankton in the water glowed bright around the prop, leaving a trail of light behind us.  It was pretty magical.  We spent the night in our now-familiar anchorage, cooking dinner and watching a movie on the laptop.  

The next morning we went for an early swim, drank coffee and did some work on the boat while at anchor.  It was wonderful.  We hadn't planned much for breakfast - I think we might have had a couple apples - so we decided to sail up the Annisquam to The Market restaurant.  They have a dock out front so we tied up and went inside for a late breakfast, running into Winnie (my companion on the Gamage) and several other friends.  I'd be lying if I said we didn't feel pretty baller stepping off our big green boat while the restaurant patrons sitting on the deck ooh'ed and ahh'ed (well, they might have . . . )

That day the big race of the Gloucester Schooner festival was going on so we decided that, seeing as how the tide would allow it, we'd go through the Blynman cut bridge and anchor in Gloucester Harbor to watch the schooners come back in.  My interest in schooners was very high after my weekend aboard one.  

The Cut Bridge.  We'd been intimidated by it for a long time.  First of all, our boat has a 16 foot beam (that's the total width), much larger than the average sail boat, and the cut is 30 feet wide.  Also, we have a wimpy 8 horse motor and I'd heard stories about sail boats without enough horse power having problems heading through.  But we'd have to get used to doing things that scare us if we wanted to ever get anywhere on our boat.

Motoring up the Annisquam was fun (we only ran aground once!  It was low tide . . . ).  People LOVE Tri-oomph.  There was a lot of other boat traffic and almost everyone waved and gave us the thumbs up or said something nice about our boat.  We reached the cut bridge and it was down.  We radioed into the bridge operator - scary!  I had looked up what channel he was on and we spent several minutes in discussion about what to say to the guy.  Like, "Blynman Bridge, Blynman Bridge, this is the Tri-oomph, come in."  I think Cody was feeling the pressure when he radio'ed in, but the guy was super nice, kept calling Cody "Cap", and told us it would be a few minutes before the bridge came up again.  We asked if the river-to-harbor traffic had the right of way and he assured us that, yes, we did.  When the bridge came up we motored forward, following the motor boat in front of us (but not too close!  The wake from a big engine can make it even harder on our little outboard).  I sat on the bow (my preferred seat) to keep an eye out for any hazards, and in we went!  It was so easy, and we felt pretty dumb for being so worried about it.

It was a hot day, and we had several hours before we'd see the schooners come back in, so we dropped anchor and spent a few hours swimming and doing work on the boat.  We were getting hungry so we motored over to the town dock to tie up and run to a grocery store and to get more fuel.  Because we're so wide we usually fold up one of the outriggers when we're at a dock with limited space, but even so we took up a lot of room, making it difficult for other boats to get in and out (but not impossible).  We divided our tasks - Cody went to get fuel while I headed to the Common Crow to get provisions.  A scant 15 minutes later we were back at the boat and loaded up to head back out.  Cody had gotten fuel but hadn't been able to find 2-stroke oil.  Oh well, we'd figure it out.  

We headed back into the harbor, dropped anchor again, and grilled veggie burgers and kale (ha!  That's what happens when I go to the store) while we watched the schooners come in.  It was a little hazy so the visibility wasn't great, but it was still super cool to see those big ships come in.  Thanks to the wonders of technology (iPhone!) we were able to research the one's we were curious about and find out lots of cool stuff.  In addition, my time aboard the Gamage had educated me on various aspects of schooners so I could identify features that I wouldn't have had any clue about before.

Finally the ships were in and we had to head in. We made it back through the cut with no problem and stopped at Cape Ann Marina for 2-stroke mix.  Fully fueled, we motored back up the Annisquam and sailed into Essex Bay.  The tide was right to bring Tri-oomph all the way into her mooring, and we were home.

It was a perfect weekend on the boat, and really gave us a feel for what the day-to-day life of living on a little boat would be like (in a word, awesome).  

 Closer . . . 

 Closer . . . 

 Closer . . . 

 Ahhhh!!!

Schooners coming in on a hazy day.

Adventure on the High Seas

Note:  Why did I schedule a flight to California with a 4 hour layover at JFK?  Yeah, I don't know either.  At any rate, I'd probably just be sitting at home staring at my computer anyway, so if you take away the screaming kids and an extreme desire to start drinking it's basically just like home!

I spent most of the spring wishing it was July and hot outside.  Out on the water with the wind blowing it basically feels cold all the time, unless it's 90 or above.  So even when it felt warm on shore we'd get out on the boat and I'd wish I'd worn warmer clothes.  Well, it turns out July was kind of a bust, sailing-wise.  Whenever we could go out there was no wind, and when we were stuck at work or otherwise engaged it would start blowing a little better.  The result of this was that we didn't sail much in July and August.  Still, we got out mountain biking quite a bit and stayed busy planning our wedding.

A friend of ours, Timbah, had been working on the Ocean's Classroom schooner, the Harvey Gamage, all spring and summer and we had really been hoping to get out on it at some point.  That opportunity came at the end of August, but unfortunately Cody couldn't take any time off of work.  I decided I wanted to see the ship even if it meant going on my own, after all, Timbah would be there!  So I booked an Amtrak ticket down to New London, CT, to meet up with the Gamage when the last round of summer students got off.  We'd be sailing north to the ship's home port in Portland, ME, and it would take about 3 days.  I found out a day before leaving that Timbah's sister Winnie would be coming along , too, and we were on the same train down to CT.

We got off the train with some indistinct directions on how to get to the dock we would find the Gamage at.  We looked out across the water and saw a huge white boat - was that where we wanted to go?  We stopped a lady on the sidewalk and asked her if that was the Gamage, pointing at that ship.  "You mean the Eagle?" she asked.  Umm, maybe not . . . we kept walking.  As we grew closer we realized that the ship we were looking at was the USCG Eagle - it's like, 3 times longer than the 129 foot Gamage.  Not quite!

We found the dock that we thought was right and sit down to wait.  A woman was also waiting to go north on the Gamage, and as it turned out she was the Captain's wife!  She also has a captain's license and had some wonderful stories of sailing all over the world.  When their kids had been young they had sailed a 39 foot trimaran down to the Caribbean for 14 months!  I loved that story.  I asked her the question I ask everyone who's sailed South along the Atlantic coast - Intercoastal of offshore?  They had gone intercoastal because they'd had small kids, but she voted for offshore!  I love hearing that, who wants to putt along on a 2-stroke engine through a crowded waterway when we can sail in the ocean?!

Anyway, the ship arrived and, after the kids had unloaded, we hopped aboard and were off!  We were broken into groups with the crew member we were guests of (in our case Timbah) and told what would be expected of us.  It was much more naval than I'd expected.  Honestly I'd had little expectations, but I had sort of thought of it as a pleasure cruise.  As it turned out, we'd be working just like any crew, in 4 hour watches, doing whatever work needed to be done, including cleaning the heads and steering the boat!

We had an easy day and had a short watch the first day on the boat, then headed off to get some sleep.  We were roused at 3:45 AM and told that we had to be on deck in 15 minutes for watch.  "uhhhhhh . . . ok."  And honestly, that morning watch was so freaking cool.  There was a strong wind coming out of the north and the waves were kicking up.  Watching the sun rise over the Atlantic was amazing.  We had hauled the sails up the day before - quite a production on a ship as large as the Gamage, let me tell you, but we were mostly just burning diesel to get to Portland on schedule, given the northerly wind.

Around mid-day we stopped to drop anchor in Buzzard's Bay.  Due to the unfavorable wind and the timing of the tide we couldn't go through the cut.  We had to wait for the tide to change.  It was a lazy day sitting around the ship after we'd completed our work.  Timbah asked the first mate permission to go swimming while we were at anchor and she consented, so me and Winnie suited up to go with him. As we were swimming around in the very warm water I was reminded that Jaws took place off the Cape, and that this was shark territory!  Okay, I'm being overly dramatic, but sharks are scary.  Just as I was telling myself that I was being silly the first mate leaned over the railing and yelled, "Timbah, you and your guests have to get back on the boat right now!"  Oh god, I thought, there's a shark!  We're going to die!  I hustled and swam back to the ladder, but Timbah and Winnie were swimming at a more leisurely pace.  We climbed back on deck and the first mate told Timbah that she was very angry at him because he hadn't asked permission for us to swim with him.  Ummm, what?  Wasn't that implied?  Well, as it tuns out she didn't like Timbah, which is ridiculous because he's a really kind and remarkable person, and she just wanted to be mad at him.  My Jaws fantasy slipped away.  Oh well.

Later that evening, after we'd hauled up the anchor and proceeded toward the canal, I got an email from Cody that his mom had a health scare and was in the hospital.  I was terrified, and felt horrible that I was off on a cruise while everyone in the family was having such a scare.  It turned out to not be anything serious, but it sort of put a damper on the rest of the trip.  I was beside myself until I finally talked to Cody and learned that everything was going to be OK.  If it wasn't for Winnie and Timbah I probably would have jumped off the boat and tried to swim to Boston.  That wouldn't have ended well.

I was, needless to say, a little preoccupied for the next day and a half I spent on the boat.  But we still had fun.  At one point the wind switched and started coming up from the South and we really got the sails going.  Raising and lowering sails of that size is amazing.  It takes an incredible amount of cooperation and well maintained equipment.  At one point Timbah asked the captain if I could climb the rig - the ladder leading up from the outside of the deck to the top of the mast.  I made it about halfway up and decided I was all set.  It's crazy up there with the boat rocking and the sail moving around!  I can't imagine having to climb up to the crow's nest in a storm to fix the rig.  <shudder> Terrifying.  But I was glad I went up, even if I felt like a weeny for only going half way.

We ended up anchoring outside of Portland for the night because it's a very tight harbor to navigate a huge ship like the Gamage through.  We were woken at first light to haul up the anchor (the windlass was broken and we had to use a series of block-and-tackles and a lot of muscle) in the rain.  That was quite an experience!

We got into port and me and Winnie walked to the Amtrak station to take the train back to Boston, then jump on the commuter rail home.  When I finally got home at 6 PM that night (Cody called me to ask me to pick him up some beer - I think he needed it after the weekend he'd had!) I was beyond exhausted and so relieved to see everyone home and healthy.  Whew, what a stressful weekend!  But I learned a lot on the Gamage, ideas to try on Tri-oomph.  Little things, like how to clean dishes without using much fresh water.  But also a new confidence being out in the ocean.  Being on a huge wooden ship made me feel like Tri-oomph is a toy, but that also makes it seem a lot more manageable.  And it made me really want to go sail our own boat!

 Dawn on watch.

 Look at that canvas!

 The deck.

 That is one mighty anchor.  500 lbs, plus 150 feet of heavy chain.  

Our location at anchor.

 The Gamage in CT.

I climbed that!