May 16-18 -- First Old Salts Sail - Between Two Work Days

On the pre-sail work day I put the second reefing line through the sail, inserted the newest electronic chart chip in ILENE's chart plotter, took the unique number of the new EPIRB so it can be registered with the Coast Guard, and thoroughly cleaned one and a half of her heads.

Next morning I helped the Club's House Chairman, Fadi, to paint the rail of the deck that faces the water for a couple of hours. The floor of the deck had been done before the work party, in a yellowish-grey preservative paint, its broad flat surface easily rolled. The rail, however, is a sort of picket fence, with a lot more small surfaces. It soaked up its barn red paint. The picture shows folks on the deck during the Going Into Commission ceremony this coming Saturday, so the Club wants our home to look good.
Then after lunch, The Old Salts set out for what was the first sail of the season  and my crew rated the wind a "ten".

Peggy at the helm, then Rita, Marcia's friend named Carol, Marcia and Walt. That the bimini is not up yet lets in more light, making for better photos.We used full main and small jib, cleared Eastchester Bay after a couple of tacks and headed out to half way between Ex. Rocks and Matinecock Point on a starboard beam reach achieving an average of close to seven knots.

We overtook this pretty older yawl with all her sails aloft like a knife through butter. There was plenty of room for the only two boats out that lovely warm weekday in the young season. After the turn it was a beat on the way back with the wind instrument showing 27 - 28 wind units -- more than enough.  We were only underway for about 2.5 hours because we needed "wine time" and I had to get back in time to get changed and up the the theater, half a block from Broadway where Lene was starring in the one act play she wrote, "A Pregnant Lunch". I had pre-theater dinner with Rhoda and Lloyd who enjoyed the play.

The next work day was a paperwork day, at home, and just too much fun to properly call it work.  Using an index chart and a cruising guide I laid out the first draft of that portion of this summer's cruise to get us from the Harlem to the Bras D'or Lakes, in Cape Breton Island, the northern part of Nova Scotia. I estimated the distances between ports, to be refined later.

City Island is in the extreme western end of Long Island Sound in the lower left of this chart and the Bras D'or lakes are the white spot under the ball point pen's shadow in the upper right. It is only 662 nautical miles each way as the crow flies, and the chart shows it is pretty close to a straight line, subject to minor changes, tacking and the in and out mileage for each port.
Actually two major sailing events are set to start on June 17: The first, is our summer cruise while the other involves a convention of billionaires and their professional employees and is called the America's Cup. The first race of that best of thirteen series will take place in Bermuda, weather permitting on June 17. At speeds of up to 50 knots (YIKES!) these races, sprints actually, will each last a projected 20 minutes. (Between now and the Cup's June 17 start, the Louis Vuitton cup will decide which of the five challengers to Larry Ellison will race against his crew in the Cup.) By contrast, we hope to make six knots and our cruise, God willing, will end in mid September. Theirs is a whole different ball game and will be widely reported by major media. ILENE's event will be more exclusive, reported only in this blog and occasional emails from Lene.

Here is my plan:
June 17 - City Island, NY to Block Island, RI  - An overnight. Estimated 17 hours, the trick is to time the tide rushing through The Race.
June 18 - Lay day
June 19 - Block to Nantucket - Doable in 14 hours of daylight. I'm toying with passing south of Martha's Vineyard and avoiding the tidal flows through it, but encountering perhaps stronger N-S tidal current through Muskeget Sound, between the Vineyard's shoals and Nantucket's. Anyone with ideas, local knowledge of such a route? Advice would be appreciated.
June 20 - Lay day
June 21 - Lay day
June 22 - Enroute to Shelburne NS  - An overnight, 36 hours
June 23 - Arrive in Shelburne
June 24 - Lay day
June 25 - Shelburne to Lunenburg - Shelburn to Halifax are two long day sails
June 26 - Lay day
June 27 - Lunenbrg to Halifax
June 28 - Lay day
June 29 - Lay day
June 30 - Halifax to Shelter Cove in Popes Harbor
July 1    - Popes Harbor to Liscomb Harbor
July 2    - Lay day
July 3    - Liscomb Harbor to Whitehead  - Halifax to St. Peters are four much       shorter day sails.
July 4    - Lay day
July 5    - Whitehead to St. Peters
St. Peters is the SW entrance to the Bras D'or Lakes via a canal there.

So that's nine passages in 16 days.

Once at St. Peters, the cruising guide lists 40 different marinas, towns, anchorages and mooring fields, many of them containing several options as to where to stay. So we won't be able to visit them all but we want to take in a variety of towns and totally secluded anchorages from the best of them, and the good news is that they are all close, 2-3 hours, max from each other.
The odds of following this plan exactly are near if not absolutely zero. First the tides have to be checked. Weather may intervene. The Admiral must be consulted and she may have different ideas. And finally, as I learn more about the area, I suspect to learn that some of the ports that sounded good may be problematic and others better. But it is a plan and I'm excited.

PS: Thinking ahead, the return trip, with prevailing Southwesterlies, is projected to take longer and will also take longer because after we get back to Shelburne, we hope to swing clockwise around the south end of Nova Scotia to the town of Yarmouth, and thence across the Bay of Fundy to the Mt. Desert Island region of Maine and a lot of hops all along the way to home.