I usually try for a relatively short passage on a cruise’s final day; keeps the mate happy. 8:45 to 2:15 is 5.5 hours but the only good unassisted sailing was coming north out of Huntington Bay. Then the wind was behind us, from the east, and at twelve knots. Very nice wind for going north or south, but going west there was too little relative wind and the faster we went the less relative wind. The engine was on for 3.2 of the 5.5 hours. Our speed was slow. We eventually sailed with just the Genoa, and the wind 170 degrees from the starboard bow.
And I sorely missed Autopilot during this passage. When AP works it aids both the mind and the body. The body part is easy to understand: I do not have to steer the boat, working the wheel gently back and forth to keep us on the straight and narrow. After a few minutes, when I have lost keen attention, AP steers straighter than I can. AP also helps mentally. I don’t sail in a “set it and forget it” mode, but rather I look at the chart plotter every few minutes because AP can go off by a degree or two. If it is off, pressing the “Plus One” or “Minus One” button changes our course one degree at a time to get us back on. But currently, those two buttons are not working and even when I can get us on course, with AP steering, the worst part of its current nasty perniciousness is that after a random one to three minutes it will silently shut itself off and the boat will veer sharply to one side or the other.
So I hand steered and with the wind so far behind, the risk of accidental gybe is ever present. After a while we furled the last sail, the Genoa and it degenerated into a pure motoring passage. When we got past Execution Rocks I took the Yanmar to 2500 rpms, twenty percent above normal fast cruising speed, for ten minutes. This was to test it (close to home in case it failed the test) and to “burn out” carbon deposits that grow in it at lower speeds. Was that test fast enough or long enough? I don’t know.
We off loaded and we’re back in our apartment at 4:15, the end of the second short cruise.
SUMMARY:
Eleven days, but with two rainy lay days in Block Island, only nine passages. 259 NM averages only 24 miles per passage. We were (A) on moorings five of the ten nights that we were away (one free at Glen Cove), (B) on anchor five nights and (C) spent one night at an expensive dock. We had three dinners off the boat, one at Milford and two at Block Island, and one lunch in Westerly, via dinghy. I count four of our nights at “new” ports, but they were actually new neighborhoods in old ports. 1. Behind the seawall at Glen Cove is a stone throw from the Seacliff YC. 2. The Milford YC is in Milford, where we usually anchor out behind Charles island in The Gulf, or go further in to the Milford Landing Marina. 3. Our anchorage in the Pawcatuck River is very close to our old friend, the Nappatree Beach anchorage. And 4. Price Bend, while more than a mile away, is close by the four other places in Huntington Bay we have been.
With the Huguenot planning to dredge its dock area, the docks must be temporarily removed, which requires us to be hauled early this year, by October 9, making for a short sailing season. But we are not done yet!
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