s/v Moosetracks: New England to Maine

We left Port Washington after our 2 free nights on the mooring and made a short stop also at the free town dock. We have got to say this place is a model for cruiser friendly and we felt we repaid their hospitality by shopping and eating out here, a fair trade indeed.

Our next stop was intended to be Port Jefferson but the wind gods were testing us. We got 15-20 with 25 knot gusts against us on the incoming tide. So our tacking angle was way over 100 degrees and that meant a lot more distance to cover and we couldn’t make it before dark. So we picked our back up stop of Northport Harbor and anchored in the lee of the wind in a calm bay for the night. The next morning we were up early and the wind had died so we motored into Port Jefferson. This is the antipathy of Port Washington, lots of moorings and not even a town dock for free. So we anchored out by the Sand Breakwater and walked the beach for the afternoon. We met a lovely couple on s/v Blue Dog, Shannon and Lee who are living aboard and working from the boat. This means they have kept pretty much to the US coast so we had to tell them about the Bahamas to whet their appetite and get them to consider the clear and warm waters next year. They were very keen to hear about the internet connection options so they can work there, so you never know?

Classic yacht at Port Jefferson

Our next stop was Groton where we had some SSCA friends to meet, Suzanne and David on s/v Sans Cles. We took a free mooring ball at the harbor entrance which was a bonus and used the SYC dinghy dock as our friends are members. It is a lovely place with the University of Connecticut having a large campus on the waterfront which you can visit to see their marine research in action. We walked the grounds and toured the old mansion in the grounds and had a chat with a student about the marine buoys they maintain. The walk was made more special by the little poetry capsules that we stopped at which amused us no end. We finished our visit with a cook out on the SYC grills with David and Sue, they had a wonderful feast for us which went well with the great the conversation about the SSCA and our respective cruising plans. The night went well past our normal bedtime as we toured Sans Cles and discussed lots of boat projects for Sue and David before they leave later this year.

University of Conneticut

The University Police building - beautiful

Fantastic Inside too

Enjoying the University Campus

Campus Poetry capsule

UConn Bouy

After our discussion with Sue and David we had decided to make two stops before going on to Maine to meet up with Tug, Monique and CALM. No CALM means their four children not a rest at all! So our first stop was Dutch Harbor, RI, a nice anchorage in a pretty harbor with easy access to the town dock. We dropped the hook and went into town. We saw an amazing collection of buildings on our walk which included the top of the old ferry. Then we bought some provisions and Ice Cream before returning to Moosetracks. We had emailed a couple we met his year in the Bahamas about seeing them in Newport only to find they now live near Mystic, where we just left. However Ted was keen to show us Newport as it is were he grew up and Dutch Harbor was were he kept his boat. So Ted and Ginnie from s/v Firecracker met us at the town dock and took us for a ride. First stop was West Marine for a few replacements of chaffing lines. Then we toured Newport in their car, it is a wonderful town with so much history and luckily for us Ted was born and raised here so knew a huge amount about everything we drove past. Thanks for making it so special you guy’s. We finished the evening with a fantastic seafood meal in downtown Jamestown.

LIS lighthouse near Newport

Dutch Harbor - Old ferry remains

Out with Ted & Ginnie

The next day we moved to Newport, RI and again it’s a wonderful cruiser friendly place with a reasonable choice of anchoring places and a large mooring field. They have lots of town docks for a large waterfront area and the main one even has showers you can use for a small fee. We certainly felt Newport was big and popular with lots of tourists even on weekdays. We took a walk around the historic district and visited several museums of Newport history and there is a lot of it! The Newport Artillery was closed when we got there, but at the historic Mill site they were having the Black Ships festival and the cannons and men of the Artillery were there and about to have a live firing salute. It was fabulous to talk to the Artillery men and to see the cannon actually fired. We took video and posted a snippet here on YouTube Cannon firing. We stopped for a beer in the oldest tavern in the USA from 1673, just because it’s historic of course, and then had lunch for the same reason at the Fastnet Irish pub. The next day the Artillery was open and we took the video for them on a USB stick and they gave us a personal tour of the museum which is excellent and has 128 uniforms from around the world as well as lots of cannons and other artifacts. We walked around a bit more of town and visited the International Yacht Restoration School where they are restoring wooden boats, the largest being the Coronet, and talked with students who are working on the restoration projects. Then we returned to Moosetracks for lunch and to cross the harbor to see Fort Adams in the afternoon again a lovely historic site but a little neglected. Newport was a wonderful stop and we would come again and do more if time permitted but we have a weather window so onward we go.

12m Americas cup boat in Newport Harbor

Firing a real Paul Revere Cannon

The old library in Newport

The International Yacht Restoration School

The Newport Artillery Museum

Airfoil sailing in the harbor - this was stunningly fast!

The oldest tavern in the USA - The White Horse Tavern

Fort Adams

President Kennedy's personal yacht

The next stop was Onset, a quiet little town just before the Cape Cod Canal. We were only taking advantage of the harbor to anchor so that our timing was right for the canal as again they have HUGE tides and the current really does rip through the canal at nearly 5 knots. So we got up early to catch the tide and after hailing the Canal Control we found the bridge open but trains scheduled between 7-11 am with no definite times. So we took the hint and were off before 6:30. The tide was at Max Flood and we had a magnificent ride for nearly 10 nm with 10 knots average speed and a peak of 11.1 knots which is a new record for Moosetacks.

Cape Cod Canal

We had decided to head straight for Maine while the weather window was available as Tug and Monique were only in Maine for 1 week and we didn’t want to miss them all. So we left the canal straight for Booth Bay area on a non-stop overnight trip. Unfortunately our radar which was playing up was now dead so this was going to be a fun one. We were pleasantly surprised though how little traffic there is up here and virtually nothing was around all day on AIS or visually. The largest collection of boats were all together on a whale watch in the Massachusetts Bay! So as night fell we kept vigilant watch and again saw almost no traffic. The watch got exciting quickly around 11 pm when Devin heard a May Day call. The USCG got the location from direction finding and put out a Pan Pan which Devin hailed them to repeat. It turned out it was 22 nm away however another boat was on AIS closer and we passed on their details. A larger 100 ft sailing yacht was 11 nm away and responded saying they were 55 minutes away. 5 minutes later a sheepish voice came on the radio to declare all was OK. It turns out their catch of fish moved in the hold and water started coming aboard, they obviously worked pretty quick to get it moved and stop the water coming aboard. So after 10 minutes it was all over and the USCG told us all to stand down. It really seems people need to use DSC more in radios as the ship did not give a position. We are glad Moosetracks has DSC on both radios with GPS co-ordinates provided when it’s an emergency it’s a lot more accurate and much faster.

The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful and as expected; mist, rain and fog greeted us as we approached Maine some 30 nm miles out. However visibility was not less than 1/4 nm so we felt good but put on the automatic fog horn as a precaution. We did the 140 nm in 26 hours so a good average and only 6 hours motoring until through the canal and the wind built up. Now its time to relax and catch up on sleep.

The view everyone gets of Maine is FOG - Love Cove

The next day the sun came out and the fog lifted enough to see where we were. It was a beautiful set of bays behind a island and known as Ebenecook Harbor where Love Cove is one of it’s bays. We took the dinghy into the local Marina to see the local Island Packet dealer Norm Pierce who hails from here. We had a great welcome and chatted to Norm about all things IP and the upcoming Rendezvous. Unfortunately we would miss most of it and gave our regrets as Tug and Monique and the kids were due at the same time.

Ebenecook Bay

Booth Bay

So we left Ebenecook bay and moved to Booth bay harbor to await Tug, Monique and CALM. They arrived as we returned from looking around town and took a mooring ball near us. We spent the next hour catching up on their cruise and our travels. We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town and seeing the local attractions in town. Liz and Monique arranged dinner and games aboard the “Furly B” as their boat was called and had a great time with the Graves. The next day we spent at the Maine State Aquarium which is on the edge of the bay, it is a wonderful place with lots of hands on exhibits and talks by their education department. The kids had a really fun time and we all learnt a tremendous amount about lobsters and star fish as well a tour of the laboratories. After such an exciting morning we took the dinghies over to town to enjoy lunch with a harbor view. The kids really enjoyed the restaurant lobster tank which again was hands on and we could only get them away with a promise of ice cream (no not Devin’s fault). We had discovered the most delicious ice cream factory in Booth Bay and everyone wanted a second chance. After our trip to town we moved to Ebenecook bay again so Furly B was nearer home for the next morning. We enjoyed dinner aboard with Tug, Monique and CALM with games to finish off a wonderful day. So the following day with a bit of sadness and much love we said goodbye to the Graves and waved to them as they left the harbor. It was a special few days and ones we will treasure for a long time.

No one had seen Blue Lobster before!

The shark touch tank

The main touch tank

The Graves on "Furly B"

We spent the rest of the day doing needed jobs on Moosetracks and visited a fabulous museum at Love cove before moving back to Booth Bay to catch the end of the IP rendezvous. We had a lovely breakfast with the group and met several locals who were very generous in sharing their knowledge of local anchorages we should not miss in Maine. It was a wonderful group and they do truly love Norm and his wife Mary up here that’s for sure.