Cold! Rain! Winter Is Nigh!

SHIP'S LOG:

After several days of crappy weather, it turned beautiful last weekend and Fred & Bob(the Pukers) took the weekend to move our boats up to Portland for haul-out. The weather for sailing was perfect but the difference between a ketch of 11 tons and a sloop of 6 tons showed up dramatically. The wind was blowing up the Sound and Fred plotted a course to sail inside along the coast. Once out into the Sound at the mouth of the Thames, Fred & Thalia's sloop bounced over the waves while ABISHAG tried to plow through them. It meant that every wave slowed ABISHAG and it took time for her to build up and keep up speed. TAHKEELAHH is a Catalina 30 sloop simply pointed better than ABISHAG. A ketch just doesn't point with a sloop but would be better off the wind when she could use her Mizzen and Mizzen Staysail. Unfortunately it wasn't how we were sailing. It also didn't help that she pounded through the waves rather than ride over them. Then again, that is her design. She is build for heavy weather and rough water and her hull design deals well with it, very stable but it costs her speed. And going with no crew, I was not able to handle her as efficiently as I could have had I crew. So I eventually went to "the Iron Genoa" and motored to the mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook. Fred, Thalia and Bob had a great sail and we began motoring up the River toward Hamburg Cove.

It was an easy motor . . . except for the powerboats. It was amazing that so many of them were total ignorant or were completely disregarding the "rules of the road." Evidently the fact that a boat is LEGALLY responsible for ANY damage caused by their wake was completely foreign to them. While it was more of an annoyance to us, those who filled the river with canoes and kayaks were actually in danger of swamping and capsizing and those causing the wakes and waves paid no attention. I failed to photograph the most egregious. I suppose I should have but the idea only came late in the trip.

The trip up the river was very reminiscent of the trip on the ICW. Even "Bubba & Scooter", or at least their northern cousins were present. My visit to Hamburg Cove was a first for me. It is a beautiful spot but it was as crowded as a Walmart Parking Lot on Black Friday! Two raft-ups just behind us carried 8 boats on one and 14 on another. We arrived after dark and were lucky to snag a mooring for the two of us. Bob's wife, Livy, provided us with a gourmet treat of a Chateaubriand which was cooked on the grill. Thalia provided the equal compliments to it and we feasted and were stuffed. It was decided that the partiers that surrounded us, who made a lot of noise, were all younger than us and that the noise was a function of age. Thank goodness they ran out of gas and quieted down. I slept like a rock though I gather that for some reason, the others did not.

Sunday morning, watching the sun come up in the still waters of the Cove, was wonderful. It was something I have been doing for over a year now and, with the fact that I am now facing a winter, I really soaked it up.

We left about 10am and motored slowly up the river. We had the chance to experience tricking the bridge tender. At the East Haddem Swing Bridge, a bridge that opened on the half-hour, we probably wold not have made it as TAHKEELAHH was limited on her motoring speed. I was able to get close enough to the bridge to reqwuest and by waiting until the bridge was fully open and motoring through as slowly as I could, it allowed TAHKEELAHH to get close enough so that the tender left the bridge open and let her through. I participated in a few of those on the ICW.

We stopped for a late lunch of grilled marinated chicken and wine in a small creek and really sucked up the wonderful weather. We probably should have passed it or taken less time because by the time we got to Portland, it was dark. I never did like mooring in the dark but you have to do what you have to do.Thankfully, the dock master stuck around because there were boats other than our, who were behind us, and because we were all going on moorings in the dark. He also provided us with transport to shore after the boats were all secure. It was a great but sad trip for it was the last of the year.

Winter should happen in the next day or so, winter being when ABISHAG is hauled out of the water. Then the real fun begins - decommissioning the boat. That really makes winter a reality!