July 9 -- Sandwich to Provincetown, 23 Miles

Such a short hop that we were able to sail almost the whole way, under genoa only, on very broad reaches in light winds for five hours at slow speed. Almost all of the 23 miles were a straight shot across Cape Cod Bay and we jibed twice to stay near the lay line. When speed over ground fell below three knots we motored from noon to one. But most of the journey was slow, steady, uneventful and pleasant under warm sunny skies. What moew couls one ask for? More wind. It came up as soon as we doused sails in P Town harbor

While underway I called the Raymarine tech rep and learned how to put in the line projecting our course over ground from the bow of the boat, and to make the image of the boat smaller so it does not block as much of the chart.. Little by little I am coming to appreciate the new electronics. Another feature: though our masthead wind speed measuer was broken by birds, the computer shows a yellow arrow on the screen giving us an approximation of the wind speed and direction. I'm not sure of its input for that information but it is approximately right.

But a rude unpleasant surprise awaited us at the P Town Marina: $2.50 per foot for a mooring is rather outrageous. I don't believe I have ever seen such a high price before for a mooring. Yes, we can afford to pay $107.50 per night for lodging on vacation, and I did pay it, but, as I told the Marina: "Never Again!" Such pricing may be the way of the future but the thing that made it an outrage here is that we not only paid more, but we got less. I have been here about six times and the benefit of the marina's moorings was that they were located behind the seawall, providing protection from waves. But the whole area behind the seawall has been "developed" by being filled with docks and private moorings for big boats, leaving us out from behind the seawall's protection where we had a rolly night. Next time we will either explore the competitor's moorings, closer to the tip of the Cape, or simply trust to our Rocna and use the dinghy.

The seawall is the low white line to the right, a big white docked boat is seen over the top of the bow of the green sailboat behind us and the rest of the docks are represented buy the large (small in the photo) concrete pilings seen the the left of the green sailboat.

I walked to the Stop and Shop to pick up a prescription for oral steriods sent in there by our internist for Lene's sciatica and checked out a book store and some galleries. As you know, Lene sends out an email with a Readers Digest condensed version of this blog (in her own more personal and emotional voice) to about 80 of our friends (thus competing for readership with me). She mentioned her problem and got a large number of replies expressing sympathy and providing advice. The best of the advice came from Dr. Bill, who we met up with again last summer in Nova Scotia and Maine. He is a retired orthopedic surgeon, called, spent time to take a detailed interview and prescribed rest, with large numbers of pillows under her knees. He did this so adamantly that  Lene finally agreed that exercise was not a solution to this problem. Nurse Roger is getting a chance to help. Lene is allready showing improvement. We dined aboard.