King Neptune's jokes

 The forecast winds for Wednesday were north in the very early morning, shifting to NE, and thento easterly in the afternoon. Since we wanted to get to Cuttyhunk island we thought that departing early would be best to have the most time with more favorable winds. Teenagers were still asleep when we raised anchor and left Block island.

Outside the channel we were greeted with a stiff but manageable wind that got us to the northern side of the island where we could tack and head pretty much east. Quickly the wind strengthened, so first the genoa, and then the mainsail were partly furled. Salty Ginger became as responsive as a sailing dinghy as she fought the waves making 5-6 knots. The seasickness of the crew was minor, but sent Sasha and Sasha napping. The good thing was we were heading straight towards Cuttyhunk!

After a couple of hours the wind subsided quite a bit, both sails were fully unrolled, everyone came up on the deck. Mark and the girls played a game, we cooked some pasta. Although a bit salty because I didn't add enough fresh water to the sea water, the late lunch brightened the mood.

However once we were done eating, King Neptune decided to take a nap so we had to turn on the engine. It wasn't that bumpy, but there was not much to do.

Later in the afternoon northeasterly wind came up. We tried to unroll the gennaker (dubbed mini-spinnie), but the top didn't want to unroll evenly. We brought it down, raised it unrolled, but we couldn't make progress towards our destination, so it was doused and we motored straight into the wind to get to Cuttyhunk.

The island has a dredged pond in the middle with evenly spaced moorings for about 70 boats. We saw the harbormaster as we entered and he said that he has exactly one spot left and we can take it. Yay!

We got to the island 20 minutes before the lobster shack and the pizza place were scheduled to close. After a long day on the water it was nice not to have to cook!

Birthday pizza!

Back on Salty Ginger we sang Mabry happy birthday and relaxed.

The forecast for today calls for southerly winds that are supposed to steadily get stronger over the course of the day. So, we left early (teenagers still sleeping) to try to avoid a very bumpy ride to Newport. And no, the winds are more SSW, so we are on a close reach as opposed to beam reach. At least the sea is rather calm! Thanks, King Neptune!