We awarded 3 charts to Summer Sailstice sailors;
Congratulations to Collenne who is moving her boat Mariah to Holland, MI from the Chesapeake. Her mast has been taken down and the 18-wheeler arrives next week. We'll be sailing Lake MI and possibly other of the Great Lakes, she will now have a new chart to get to use when exploring new waters!
Rob recieved a chart of Buzzards Bay. In the age of charts going digital Sail-World.com - USA Government to stop producing paper charts it is nice to have the support of a company still printing charts!
From the desk of Captain Rob:
I keep my boat, Bay Poet, in Rock Hall, MD on the Chesapeake Bay. I am a die-hard printed chart user. I posted a blog entry BEFORE Sailstice but I am sure my crew have at least a couple of appropriate photos to share. I will research that and get those to you. My blog can be found here: http://captrobchichester.blogspot.com/2013/06/my-heart-beats.html
For Summer Sailstice this year, I was assisting a friend in relocating his Hunter 356, Soleares, from Fair Haven, NJ to Quincy, MA. I have known Chris for several years. He reconnected with a college love and they married. The challenge was that while Chris lived in New Jersey, Jeanine lived in Massachusetts. I have a 100-Ton Master License and Chris knows I have done deliveries. He was crew on one of them. He asked me to be the Master of record to move Soleares. I planned our route and set our departure time based on the need to reach the west end of the Cape Cod Canal before slack before ebb on that Saturday.
We left Fair Haven before 6AM that Friday, getting the first opening of the day on the Oceanic Bridge over the Navesink River. Once out in Raritan Bay, we caught a little boost on the ebb current. The winds were marginal that day but we were able to sail until late Friday night. The weather was otherwise spectacular for the first weekend of summer. My watch ended at 2400 hrs Friday. The winds really slackened so Chris and his brother kicked up the engine and motored through the early morning hours. Our friend Jane relieved them at 0400 and I spelled her at 0800. By that time, we were on our way past Block Island. When we reached Buzzards Bay, we decided to top off the fuel tank from the jerry can to be safe. We were pretty sure we now had enough fuel to motor the rest of way if necessary. We reached the Cape Cod Canal entrance near max flood. Between our speed through the water and the tidal current, the GPS was showing better than 10 knots SOG. It was a fast and pleasant ride through the canal and then we were in Cape Cod Bay.It was late afternoon and the winds were building. We sheeted in to head up towards Plymouth and enjoyed some robust sailing. There were not many other sailboats visible. And this was the night of the Mega full moon!
Once we reached the vicinity of Duxbury, we bore off to avoid some rock ledges that stood just off the mainland coast. As we came even with Minots Ledge Light, we decided to furl the sails and make our way towards the channel to Quincy. I took the wheel and Chris navigated us buoy to buoy through the darkness. Finally about 2AM, we came to Soleares' new home. Chris asked me to dock the boat and we landed along an outer finger on a floating dock at Captain's Cove.The trip had gone almost exactly as planned. The next morning, Jane and I got up, showered aboard, and then picked up our rental car to head back to New Jersey. Two and half days on a sailboat was a magnificent way to pass the Summer Sailstice! Chris does have some photos but they are currently in NJ while he is now in MA. He promises to get me those at his earliest opportunity.Thank you so much again. I am looking forward to using my prize and will do so with great pride!
Thanks Rob! That is a great story. I have never sailed Buzzards Bay but have studied the chart for my 100ton exam and can imagine the areas you navigated quite well. Enjoy your new chart! -Abby
