Anton and his family left Salty Ginger today, so now Alice and I are double-handing the voyage to Boston where we plan to be on Saturday afternoon.
We cleaned up S.G. this morning which was absolutely necessary:
a) Yesterday's spray covered everything in salt. Not only the decks, but even the instrument panels which are well hidden from direct saltwater spray had crystals of salt.
b) Leo was "feeding" the fish with breadcrumbs, but many of those crumbs were left in the cockpit creating a slippery surface for any kind of footware.
c) Well, it was just time to clean up the quarters.
After that Alice and I did a quick walk along the harbor to get some greens and fruit and quickly left the mooring heading south. Our plan was to get to the Isles of Shoals so as to make a landfall in New Hampshire which is supposedly popular with Portsmouth sailors, but otherwise seems like a place that is hard to get to without a private boat. Between leaving a bit late and the lack of cooperation on the part of wind at 5pm we realized that this plan was no longer wise. Yes, we could make it, but it would require 3 hours of motoring which is not that fun compared to the previous 3 hours of peaceful sailing that we thoroughly enjoyed.
ActiveCaptain indicated a possible anchorage 2 miles away from where the wind said good-bye with room for 5 boats, and the possibility of "a marvelous place for your dog to have a run" on mudflats. The raving review went on to with "the firm half sand, half mud is like velvet underfoot". Sold! Especially since we were approaching the place close to low tide. To make things better, the water temperature was at 18.8C, which seemed balmy compared to 15-17C water that we've been seeing in the past few days.
The water was very refreshing, but warm enough for a 10-minute dip with the sun still shining. However, once we were ready to go to the mudflats, we put on a few layers: I had a T-shirt, a hoodie, and a windbreaker, although still wearing shorts. Alice similarly had a few layers and shorts. I guess we needed to warm up the core after that water after all.
The mudflat was very velvety indeed. It's sort of like stepping onto a thin carpet on top of a surface that easily gives under the pressure of the foot: firm, yet very soft. As soon as we stepped into the water we saw some sort of tiny crustacaens that were zipping back and forth. Then we saw a hermit crab that was keen on eating a snail. Alice picked it up, but it was not releasing it's prey anyway. Once in the water it kept dragging the snail. Maybe to find a place to eat it?
As we walked around we found much more marine life: crabs, muscles, oysters, tiny sea horses, more snails and hermit crabs. It's like being in an aquarium except you get to walk through the exhibits! The krill (or whatever they were) kept bumping into our feet, the hermit crabs paused and hid any time they saw our shades, snails left long traces in the sand. Overall, incredible place!
I took a few pictures https://goo.gl/photos/B7bd4TVDqrHne9Vy8 that are of mediocre quality, but at least may give a sense of what we saw.
Our culinary enjoyment tonight was made possible by the fish that Anton and Katya caught. We grilled the mackerels that have been sitting in the fridge, and they were absolutely excellent! Thank you!
The stop behind Stage Island was possible by a lack of schedule (at least until Saturday afternoon) and lack of a concrete place where we had to be tonight. That sort of flexibility is one of the things that I was seeking from this vacation, and I'm very grateful that it materialized. We have no concrete place where we want to be tomorrow -- we'll just go to the place where the wind takes us. After all it's a sailing vacation!
We cleaned up S.G. this morning which was absolutely necessary:
a) Yesterday's spray covered everything in salt. Not only the decks, but even the instrument panels which are well hidden from direct saltwater spray had crystals of salt.
b) Leo was "feeding" the fish with breadcrumbs, but many of those crumbs were left in the cockpit creating a slippery surface for any kind of footware.
c) Well, it was just time to clean up the quarters.
After that Alice and I did a quick walk along the harbor to get some greens and fruit and quickly left the mooring heading south. Our plan was to get to the Isles of Shoals so as to make a landfall in New Hampshire which is supposedly popular with Portsmouth sailors, but otherwise seems like a place that is hard to get to without a private boat. Between leaving a bit late and the lack of cooperation on the part of wind at 5pm we realized that this plan was no longer wise. Yes, we could make it, but it would require 3 hours of motoring which is not that fun compared to the previous 3 hours of peaceful sailing that we thoroughly enjoyed.
ActiveCaptain indicated a possible anchorage 2 miles away from where the wind said good-bye with room for 5 boats, and the possibility of "a marvelous place for your dog to have a run" on mudflats. The raving review went on to with "the firm half sand, half mud is like velvet underfoot". Sold! Especially since we were approaching the place close to low tide. To make things better, the water temperature was at 18.8C, which seemed balmy compared to 15-17C water that we've been seeing in the past few days.
The water was very refreshing, but warm enough for a 10-minute dip with the sun still shining. However, once we were ready to go to the mudflats, we put on a few layers: I had a T-shirt, a hoodie, and a windbreaker, although still wearing shorts. Alice similarly had a few layers and shorts. I guess we needed to warm up the core after that water after all.
The mudflat was very velvety indeed. It's sort of like stepping onto a thin carpet on top of a surface that easily gives under the pressure of the foot: firm, yet very soft. As soon as we stepped into the water we saw some sort of tiny crustacaens that were zipping back and forth. Then we saw a hermit crab that was keen on eating a snail. Alice picked it up, but it was not releasing it's prey anyway. Once in the water it kept dragging the snail. Maybe to find a place to eat it?
As we walked around we found much more marine life: crabs, muscles, oysters, tiny sea horses, more snails and hermit crabs. It's like being in an aquarium except you get to walk through the exhibits! The krill (or whatever they were) kept bumping into our feet, the hermit crabs paused and hid any time they saw our shades, snails left long traces in the sand. Overall, incredible place!
I took a few pictures https://goo.gl/photos/B7bd4TVDqrHne9Vy8 that are of mediocre quality, but at least may give a sense of what we saw.
Our culinary enjoyment tonight was made possible by the fish that Anton and Katya caught. We grilled the mackerels that have been sitting in the fridge, and they were absolutely excellent! Thank you!
The stop behind Stage Island was possible by a lack of schedule (at least until Saturday afternoon) and lack of a concrete place where we had to be tonight. That sort of flexibility is one of the things that I was seeking from this vacation, and I'm very grateful that it materialized. We have no concrete place where we want to be tomorrow -- we'll just go to the place where the wind takes us. After all it's a sailing vacation!
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