Sailing weather

Serious fun

When we pointed our bow north from Portsmouth, the forecast was for the southerly wind to get up to 15 knots and for Friday to be completely calm. Therefore, in order to avoid motoring long distances, the plan was to cover as much distance as possible going north and chill on Friday. Best case scenario: cover 55 miles to end up at a quiet anchorage in New Meadow River. There are a few interesting spots according to reviews on Active Captain.

10 o’clock. We’re doing 3 knots. I start looking for places to tuck in south of Portland. At 10:30 we were at 2 knots. Ok, patience is a virtue, but there are lobster pots to avoid. Turn on the engine so that we have control. Turn off engine: 2.5 knots. Great. We’ll wait. Worst case, we go to an anchorage south of Cape Elizabeth. I turn to Mark:

 — The past few days we’d get wind at 11.

 — What time is it?

 — 10:45.

 — Ok, let’s wait.

At 11 the ripples move in, the spinnaker really fills in. We’re doing 5 knots. Right on course to New Meadow River. Mark is driving, I figure we still have to feed the kids, so I start the water for pasta. Kids are bored because we are not planning to jibe any time soon.

Pasta goes into the pot and Mark yells from the helm: “7.5 knots.” Alright, we’re sailing. And it’s easy. The boat heels a bit, of course, but all is under control until Mark points accidentally into the wind and the spinnaker heels us over.. “8.5. Sorry.”

Kids and I eat, then I take the helm from Mark so that he can have lunch. Waves are light, behind us on starboard. Wind feels fairly light. Speed 7.5 knots steady, peaking up to 9 as we’re sliding down some of the waves.

Leo asks when will we get “there”. By this time, it looks very reassuring that we can get to the anchorage between Bear and Malaga island. We have 32 miles to go to the entrance of the bay. To activate Leo’s bored brain cells, we assume that 7 knots will be our speed. It’s 13:30, when should we get there.

Surfing the next wave I catch the speed at 9.5 knots. 20 minutes later 10 knots. A few minutes later 10.5 peak. The speed barely falls below 8 knots. Helm is fine, definitely not beginner-level, but the boat is fairly well balanced. Except for the waves which one has to navigate. When the speed stops dropping below 8.5, I ask Mark whether we should douse the spinnaker. “Are you crazy? Why?”

Mark takes the helm and within a minute says, “I see what you mean. How do we douse it?” The boat (more likely the hydrogenerator) is rattling when the speed goes over 9.5 knots, clearly we’re pushing Salty Ginger. If we had Alice, we wouldn’t have to douse, but with just the two of us and two kids, something going wrong under such loads just seemed a bit too precarious.

I went on the foredeck to douse the sail. Mark put us on a broad reach so that the force on the sail was not so strong, the mainsail shadowing the spinnaker. Peter fed me the sheet so that the spinnaker could go into the sock. The amount of pressure on the sock was quite large. Leo fed me the halyard. The spinnaker is in the bag. We’re doing 6 knots under mainsail alone. Under genoa and main we’re up to 7.5 knots, accelerating to 8.5 on the waves. Control is easy, we have 11 miles to the entrance of the bay. 

As we approach the first little rocky island the wind decreases. Plus we have to be on a broad reach. With the available sea room I call Peter to fly the sails wing and wing. He helps to bring the genoa to the starboard side. It’s a bit tricky with the waves behind us, but 6 knots is still respectable on a run.

10 minutes later Poseidon is out to dinner, we turn on the motor and, as calculated earlier, at 18:30 we’re at anchor and a seal pops its head to say hello.

From a distance

The water was much warmer than we all expected. At 23.5C, we could hang out in the water much longer than ever before. Even Peter took a dip! The cove with no wind was quiet and peaceful. A few boats went by and that was about it.

As we were finishing up dinner, we observed a thunderstorm somewhere above (or maybe even west of) Portland. We couldn’t hear the thunder, but the lightning was amazing! Lighting up clouds with pink and purple hues here and there, and then and occasional lighting bolt shooting down. Above us dark blue skies and then stars. Sure, mosquitoes came out, but not in such a swarm that we had to go into the cabin.

Kids fun

As forecast, the morning was windless. I was the last one to roll out of bed, woken up fully when one of the kids dropped a fishing sinker on the deck right above my head. Fish was not taking the lures, so we gave up fishing.

Over coffee, Mark continued on replacing the rubber of the hatches. 4 years ago, I was able to get 2 replaced. The rest totally seized and it was impossible to get the screws out. Mark persisted and now only two remain with old rubber. HUGE THANKS!

We lowered the dinghy, but since Peter was adamant about rowing, Mark convinced Leo to stay on the boat to swim and chill, while Peter and I rowed to Malaga island, took a walk and then rowed back. The path was fine, guarded by mosquitoes. We learned that the island used to be a mixed racial community in mid-nineteenth century, but the settlement has been abandoned more than 100 years go. This island is curated by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

Before Peter and I left the boat for our short trip, we managed to stop a lobster fisherman who was surprised that we hailed him and thought that something was wrong, but then happily sold us 4 lobsters, so our lunch situation was fully resolved.

Once the lobsters were eaten, we were ready to go places. The wind was so light that it was clear, that we had no chances of sailing. Instead, Peter hopped into the dinghy and Leo went onto the air “pillow”.

Peter gave up after a while, but Leo persisted and stayed on the inflatable for a while, until he fell off the 3rd time and it was clear that he was cold. His teeth were chattering and he was shivering. Half way through his “escapade” I glanced at the onboard thermometer and realised why he could stay in the water so long: water temperature 24.5C. What? This is Maine! Where is the cold water?

Potts Harbor

We tried fishing on the way, but that was totally unsuccessful. We pulled into a huge bay, marked as Potts Harbor on the chart.Well protected from the south by shallows, an island wrapping it to the north and the east, but so bit that it still feels rather exposed. Fishing was equally unsuccessful as the entire week. Then Peter had a brilliant idea: he wanted to get into the dinghy, drop an anchor and fish. I tried persuading him to just drift instead, but he insisted that I find the dinghy anchor. The anchor is a bit heavy, but that did not dissuade Peter. I asked him to drop it not too far, so that just in case I could swim out and help him. By the time he wanted to weigh the anchor, I was quite sure that he actually needed help.

I put on my swimming suit, but by the time I jumped in, he head the anchor out. Turned out that he wrapped the line around the anchor when he dropped it, so the anchor and the line came up twisted. Now Peter knows that one does not just throw the anchor and the chain as a big clump overboard.

Having gone through the exercise of lifting the anchor once, Peter decided to heed my advice and just drift downwind while fishing. He said that fish did bite on the hooks once, but he came back empty handed.

After that the rowing party started. Leo went out rowing having seen Peter out. I started writing this entry, so Peter decided to start cooking dinner! (Mark was on the last latch rubber replacement.) After dinner, Leo went out for 20 minutes, so that Peter would have 20 minutes to row before it was completely dark. In the meantime the setting sun gave us stupendous colours, lighting up 180 degrees of the sky in an unbelievably beautiful manner.

Tied up

Since Alice established her reputation as a real sailor, kids became very interested in knots. Both of them now know how to tie bowline, clove hitch, two turns and two half hitches, figure eight and timber hitch. Peter is a bit more adept at that than Leo, but in a rare show of graciousness, Peter constructively mentored Leo to help him learn to tie some of the knots.

To test that the knots that are supposed to get untied actually do get untied, kids put lines on the winches to tension the knots. The only rule was not to use the electric winch so that they don’t rip the deck apart. Peter was amazed when not only I, but he could untie a bowline that he tensioned quite hard. Sailing experience at its best!