The voyage to Newport, part 2

By Sailor Keddy -
4:30 came early the next morning, but we had to be on the canal by 6 to get the current. The day did not start well; Folicle, my dingy, had her bow line caught in my rudder. After that was freed, we made our way towards the canal. Though once in it, the engine was dead within a quarter mile. This begs the question: of what use is an engine if it is completely unreliable? I told Maria to make a note in the log book to the affect of "captain has decided to remove engine." Since boats are not allowed to sail down the canal, we had no other choice but to radio for assistance. None other than the United States Coast Guard showed up 10 minutes later. They towed us to their base, about a half mile back from where we had drifted to. At this point, I called my tow company and we were back in the canal within an hour. About an hour after that and we were through the canal and once again under sail, this time in Buzzards Bay.

The wind was out of the north for the first few hours which put us on a nice beam reach. The northern breeze died just before noon; the telltale of a wind shift. It blew directly from the west from then on, which was bad news for us. We had to tack all the way to Newport, in gusty 20 to 25 knot winds with the boat heeled over a solid 35 to 45 degrees. This was active, intense sailing. There was one sail change in particular that was the most troublesome. This was just before sunset; the wind was increasing again and we had to get the genoa down and put up the smaller storm jib. Accomplishing that in 20 knots of breeze with 4 to 6 foot rolling seas in Rhode Island sound was difficult, if not a little dangerous. On our approach to Newport, we also had to mind the fish traps just outside of Brenton Reef and keep about 2 miles offshore. Finally, at 3 am Thursday morning, we dropped the hook in Brenton Cove, Newport Harbor. That day alone, we sailed for 21 straight hours.

More on my new job and Newport life soon...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Comments

Joshua said…
sweet blog dude. I know you said the trip was hardcore but this is ridiculous!
May 13, 2010 at 5:53 PM
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