July 12 -- Rockport to Isles of Shoals, 23 Miles

11:30 to 3:30. Why such a late start? Lene wanted to watch Wimbeldon on her iPad, and to order tickets to a play for which the electronic box office did not open until 11. And we had to arrange for the payment to Mars Metals in Canada for the lead slab to be afixed to ILENE's keel.

But excellent good news. Lene's sciatica is vastly improved. She will be back 100 percent soon. My dire fears that this cruise would have to be terminated for medical reasons have proved to be unwarranted. The show goes on!

I replaced a missing cotter pin and wondered how it went missing. I turned an upside down coupler of the main to the mast right side up and considered ways to temporarily  repair a small tear near the bottom of  that sail's luff on a temporary basis before the rough fall winds make it worse. At the end of the season, Paul Beaudin at Doyle Sails will do it on a professional permanent basis. Finally I gave consideration to a problem with the connection of the boom to the mast.

hey are connected by an aluminum fitting on each which two fittings are connected to each other by a stainless steel bolt, a fancy one with hooks welded on top that are needed to put in a reef and a hole for a shackle that holds that corner of the sail. We there is a squaking that grease has not resolved. visual inspection shows that the boom is moving, maybe a 32nd of an inch by eyeball. I think the stainless bolt is wearing away the inside of the holes in the aluminum fitting. I think this can wait until the fall, though it is annoying, but it obviously must be attended to. [Insert photo here.]

Once underway, the seas were confused and rough from the prior storm but the wind was light and in front of us.We put up sails to stabilize the boat but motored all the way. I steered 15 degrees to the lft to get the sails to fill. As the time passed, the winds gradually came aft to a beam starboard reach, which permitted me to sail the course to the waypoint but get even lighter. Hardly any traffic on this bright sunny Thursday afternoon.

We passed the tower of the light on White Island, which had been visible from way off, to port

and the hotel on Star Island to starboard.

The cute ferry "Thomas Laughton", passed us on her way back to Portsmouth from Islas of Shoals.

We took a free mooring that the Portsmouth YC maintains here in Gosport Harbor, which did not get crowded.

We dinked ashore to the dinghy dock at Star Island, as usual, and then ran into a problem with the very polite college kid who was working there: "No dinghys allowed." "So how do yacht people get ashore", I asked. "You have to take our launch but it is not working today."  Hmmm.  "Well you can use your dink to tow one of our wooden rowboats out to your boat and then row it in."  Finally we showed him -- and his manager --  the page in the Hotel's own website which said that no more than seven dinghys can tie up at the dock. Problem solved. It is a magnificently beautiful place.

The website also said that yacht people could dine in the hotel, if space is available, reservations preferred, for $18 for a communal family style meal. But that did not happen because the hotel was completely full of guests that week. Don't worry, we have plenty of food aboard.
We looked at the cove on the back side of the islands where we anchored last fall on a dark and stormy night.

Today it was so clear that we could see the New Hampshire coast, seven miles away, the black line at the horizon.