September 3 and 4 -- Port Jeff to Cockenoe Island Anchorage to the Harlem Yacht Club, 17 and 29 Miles

We are home. Continuing to live aboard the next ten days or so but home.

Cockenoe Island and its spit extending quite a bit east, (to the right) underwater, is a tiny lump of land at the eastern end of a group of islands called the Norwalk Islands. They protect Norwalk and Saugatuck from the winds and waves of Long Island Sound. I had thought to possibly go to Northport on the north shore of Long Island for our last night away, but once out in the Sound it was clear that crossing to its Connecticut shore would make for a better ride. We feared too little wind and it was indeed light, and from the southwest. Northbound across the Sound was sailable, though slowly. we made between 4 and six knots. A short passage on a steamy hot day; why not sail slowly, give the Yanmar a break and take advantage of the water cooled air contitioned breeze. We were headed too far to the east, toward Fairfield, CT, where I had planned to tack and go west to Norwalk. But during the three hours the wind came very gradually but steadily about 35 degrees to the south and with each increment we turned a few degrees further west until me were almost parallel to the Connecticut coast, making landfall near Cockenoe, our track a long curve.  Lots of room for lots of boats and our Rocna got well set. I had planned to dink over to explore the island, having never been here before, but it was so darn hot and Lene was engrossed with her tennis watching so I just stayed put and rested up for the final passage home the next day.
The next day was windless, six hours to motor the 29 miles. Then a laundry, dinner abord and reading before bed.
And an article called "Nova Scotia Idyll" has now come out in the September issue of Points East magazine, starting at page 26. I wrote it, condensed down a lot, based on the facts in the posts to this blog about our summer cruise there in 2017. It is the sort of article I wish I had been able to read before we went there. pointseast.com
So while we will be reaclimating to city life, the sailing of 2018 is far from over.

September 1and 2 -- Newport to Chocomount Cove on the North Side of Fishers Island,to Port Jefferson, 34 and 55 Mil

The first of this pair of days was a lovely sail and since we did not get off the boat (in either port) I have no land based activities to report. We planned to stop at Stonington CT, where Dodson would rent us a mooring for $58. But NOAA forecast only five to ten knots from the southeast at night and so the security/cost of a mooring seemed unneeded and a bother. We have walked the one lovely main street of historic Stonington many times and saw no need to go ashore there. So we looked for an anchorage. One, on the east side of Mason's Island, where Past Commodore Tom keeps his boat, "Rally Point", would have done nicely and his is a very hospitable Club, but it is exposed to the southeast. Chockomount, on the north side of Fishers Island, on the other hand, was new to us, ideal for the wind, and we anchored in 24 feet of water with 80 feet of snubbed chain, and were the only boat in the broad cove. Great view of the Connecticut coast. well lighted by the several towns across Fishers Island Sound. The land on Fishers is all privately owned and no access to the island itself by dink was available from Chocomount had we wanted to go ashore.
How we got to Chocomount: There was so little wind in Newport Harbor that we raised the main while on the mooring. We passed this craft docked by Fort Adams

while motoring out and then the Crystal Symphony, the very ship on which we cruised Alaska, June 2-10, anchored in the harbor. Of course, it got here by sea through the Panama Canal while we flew between the coasts.

Once out in Narraganset Bay, the wind was a broad port reach and not really strong enough to fill our big sails which flopped about. Once we got away from land the wind built. After the starboard turn and gybe off Point Judith, we were on  a broad reach, almost a run. I connected the preventer lines to protect against the accidental gybe and we sailed slowly until the wind built up a bit more. To get more speed we would have had to steer north of west --  close the beach and I saw the possibility of avoiding that by sailing wing on wing, with the genoa out to starboard. This worked for about an hour and a half, until it too had us closing the beach. But by then the wind was sufficiently south of west and we jibed the main and sailed on a port broad reach all the rest of the way along the western half of the Atlantic coast of Rhode Island.

We saw the big modernized but intentionally old fashioned looking hotel on the hill and then Watch Hill Light.

We sailed through Watch Hill Passage and most of the way through Fishers Island Sound to our cove. It is circled by the large homes of the rich-who-do-not-want-to-be-famous. Underway almost six hours at an average speed of 5.9 knots with a lot above 7.5 but a lot of time going in the fours as well. A warm sunny day with good visibility and enough wind to actually sail. Hooray.
I recalled making the same passage with my friends, Jim and KC, before this blog started, when it was cold, grey and nasty and we had to beat into it all the way. This time, just the opposite. And we timed the tide right too. Sunrise at Chocomount:

Though Chocomount was nice, my  mistake was not going 20 or thirty miles further with the good sailable wind on the first day, becaust the next day's long passage from Chocomount to Port Jeff was windless. Here is a view of the Connecticut coast to starboard  from eight miles away (the white dot on  the horizon is a 53 foot power boat
(AIS told me her length) half a mile away) and next the North Shore of Long Island, from six miles off our port beam. A bit boring, won't you agree?

Well actually there were brief interludes of weak wind, but from behind us, at speeds less than our six knots of boat speed over the bottom, causing a couple of knots of apparent wind on our nose. The main was up throughout but it did no work.

In Port Jeff we chucked a right, anchored behind the beach and checked for possible dragging. In came a boat that looked like it had a Harlem YC burgee. And a Past Commodore Burgee, too! It was "Thai Hot", Bob and Laura's Island Packet, in from Block Island. I had helped him sail her back from Bermuda in perhaps 2008, and he crewed with me on ILENE's big passage in 2010, from Hampton Virginia to Tortola, BVIs.  Again it is a very small world. And here are views the next morning around the anchorage.
Thai Hot with the Port Jeff smokestacks to her port side and the town further left.

The west, north and east sides of the anchorge with one of the ferries just come in from Bridgeport through the cut in the beach.

August 30 and 31 -- Cuttyhunk to Newport and Lay Day There, 26 Miles

First, let me note that this is the 600th posting to this Blog over the last eight years. The computer told me this.
We tried to sail but were about 25 degrees north of our direct course west and not going so fast even with full sails and the motor. After an hour of this Lene asked how long it would take if we motored along the direct route. So: in with the genoa and then steering on the route and the computer reported that our ETA was later, not sooner. Meanwhile, when Lene asked for me to reduce heeling while she cooked breakfast, I motored south of the direct course so that after breakfast, when we put out the big sail agian, we could beat toward the waypoint. Once rounding the mark to head north up into Narragansett Bay, the engine was no longer needed. But shortly thereafter the wind just about died.
 In any event the passage took about five hours. The harbormaster assigned us to a mooring on the eastern side of the harbor, rather than on the eastern side where we had always been before -- lots of room between boats but a longer dink ride than usual.
What is changed here is two additional new dinghy docks, One is at the northeast corner of the harbor and the other much further south than the one old dink dock in the heart of town, near the Seamans Church Institute. So the docks and no longer crowded. And the one at the south end is in a Sailors Visitor's Center (on the Anne Street Pier) which has rest rooms, showers ($1.75 for seven minutes of water), and  a large area with good free wifi. That Center is where the last three posts to this blog were prepared while Lene got her hair done and watched some of the US Open. We had planned to shower there but very dark and threatening skies, plus the forecast for rain chased us back to the boat to close the one open hatch and we showered in the cockpit instead. Too bad that it did not rain during the night. ILENE could use a rinse to shed her salty crust. We shopped both days, had a lunch at CRU, near the Tennis Center and saw BlackkKlansman, the new Spike Lee film. I checked the oil, the belts, the zinc in the refrigerator's condenser and the distilled water in the seven batteries. Everything seems to be OK.
Tomorrow we will reenter Long Island Sound, almost home.

August 28 and 29 -- Scituate to Redbrook to Cuttyhunk, 42 and 32 Miles

The passage from Scituate on Boston's south shore across the west side of Cape Cod Bay, through the Cape Cod Canal and to Redbrook is always problematic, consisting of three legs: to the Canal, in the Canal and from the Canal to the destination.. Last year it was our roughest ride of the cruise. The solvable part of the problem is timing the departure to arrive at the Cape Cod Bay end of the Canal when the tide has turned to ebb, the favorable tide. This was solved well with a 7:45 am departure with the tide turning fair at noon. We sailed, on a close reach and arrived at one pm. We were going very fast, 7.5 knots for  awhile, and Lene asked if we should depower the sails to slow down to not get there too early. But I replied "Let's put these miles 'in the bank' in case we slow down later", which we did. The forecast was for the wind to build in the afternoon , so we wanted to get the passage done before it got too strong.
Here is a photo of the entrance to the Sandwich Marina to the left and the local restaurant which we enjoyed while outbound. 
The second problem with this passage is that the prevailing winds in Buzzards Bay are from the SW while the ebbing favorable tide current is to the SW, causing big choppy waves close together. If there is no wind of light wind, this can be easily handled, but with strong prevailing winds, most every afternoon, the second half of the canal is very hard on the boat and its cats. I had always thought that the canal ran from Sandwich to the Mass. Maritime Academy near the railroad bridge.

This is the part seen in the photo with land on both sides. But the railroad bridge (I think it is always "up") is the midpoint of the Canal which also includes the more open waters at both sides of the well- marked Hog Island Channel, out into Buzzards Bay. And that part is where the water gets so violent. I took us out of the channel, to its side, a bit shallower, where the seas were less violent but Alfie gave a scream of frieght and was consoled by Lene. 

We had another problem within the Kingman Yacht Center, the marina where we have stayed four or five times before. We entered at near low tide with a full moon, making for lower low tides. We made it through the long twisting marked channel but in the mooring field, proceeding to our assigned mooring, with sails down, of course, and a lot of wind, we heard a knock and came to a stop. I was able to grab a different mooring so we were held roughly in place if we came off of whatever we hit, but while all the other boats close around us were facing the wind, we were broadside to it. Lene called the marina which sent out a man in a workboat with a powerful outboard. He used out spinaker halyard to tip us a bit, causing the "rock" to loose its grip on our keel. He explained that the moorings are large concrete blocks and in trying to reach our ball, we had contacted the block of the adjacent mooring. In such tight spaces we were going very slowly so I doubt much damage was done to our keel. But in tipping us, the halyard rubbed against and broke our radar reflector. We will need a new one. Not too expensive.
This was our third consecutive dinner with friends. Lee and Patty are from home. he is in my book group and we visited their home in Hyannisport two years ago and met them at Redbrook last fall. Neither two day friends not half century friends, but 21 year friends. I've been very guilty of late of failing to take enough pictures. Lene has been doing a good job as ILENE's Communications Officer and I would like her to become the boat's Photographer as well.
Next day was an all sailing day. We left the twisty channel at near high with an extra three feet of water under our keel and then covered the 18 mile "route" to near Cuttyhunk by four passes across Buzzards Bay, with our "track" measured at 29 miles. The first crossing was west, then south, west and south again. The first crossing was with main and Genoa but as you know we have to furl that sail to make each tack and Lene asked for the small jib on the remaining three tacks and we gave up some heel but not much speed with it. In Cuttyhunk, we took a mooring but did not lower the dink or go ashore. So I'm not a Gentleman afterall because Gentlemen don't beat to windward, but is was a lot of fun. Six hours underway, with 1.4 of them with the engine on.

August 26 and 27 -- Portsmouth to Manchester by the Sea to Scituate, 40 and 23 Miles

Here is a view in the morning sun of all of the Isles of Shoals, at which we stopped while outbound. There we had a free mooring provided by the Portsmouth YC, while in Portsmouth proper we paid the reasonable $32 and thanked the members.
Not enough sailable wind from Portsmouth until Thatcher Island, off Cape Ann. This was the longer of the two legs of the passage. Sail up but not enough wind. We tried sailing off course on a close reach but not enough wind to make it worthwhile. Once around the Cape, we turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way using the genoa at first and then the small jib and finally only the main. It was not clear that we would have a mooring at Manchester; the club did not answer their phone. But was saw "Sea Quester, by name, on the AIS and called them. Jamie used his influeence and got a mooring assigned to us, by name and lat and lon, in the outer harbor. This is acually the Atlantic, but the big bay, off of which Gloucester, Manchester by the Sea , Salem and Marblehead are all ports, is somewhat protected by a group of off shore islands. Half an hour later, the owner of the mooring came alongside and told us to get off his mooring. We did so, of course and called the club by VHF. It sent out a young man to point out another mooring to us. Jamie and Lori had worse luck: Someone unknown to them or anyone else at the Club had taken their mooring and left their boat. So they tied Sea Quester at the Club dock.

useful for off loading all the stuff that was aboard for their cruise.











Here are views from the Club of the inner harbor and the outer harbor.

They invited us to what are frequent socials on the club veranda. They bought me a drink chit and free soft drinks offered by the club whetted Lene's whistle. There were lots of tasty edibles some provided by the Club and others by various members. Had we known I would have whipped up something to make a contribution. They introduced us to their fellow cruisers and after an hour of this, drove us to a local eatery in town where we were one of three couples. And they got us back to the dock to make the last launch ride back to I
Next morning the wind was from the northwest, the best direction for a passage to Scituate on the Boston Area's South Shore. But not enough of it after the first couple of hours, so another motoring day. We passed through a constellation of freighters anchored out and saw the outline of Boston's skyline on our starboard beam through the haze. I took down the main without help from Lene, who was chatting with friends, gradually, without heading directly into the wind. And while doing so, noted a pretty white lighthouse. When the job was done, i looked at the chart and saw that the light was Scituate's and we had motered about 1/4 mile past the entrance channel.
We tooka mooring at the Satuit Boat Club, lunched, and took the launch to the clubhouse for showers. Then walked about a mile to town to provision. As much as I like sailing, I think Lene likes provisioning. We buy some groceries, especially perishables, nearly every opportunity and this was no exception. But we eat well and of healthy foods. We carried our bags only to the nearby Harbormaster's office where he called our launch which picked us up in town and took us to our boat.
A few hours later it was time to have dinner with Hugh and Arlene. He served with he on the USS HAmmerberg, ending in 1967, and they live in Boston. They came out to dine with us and we ended at the same place in Scituate where i had first tasted Lobster, Mac and Cheeese. And it wass just as good this time. Hugh had just come back from an Alaska cruise with kids and grandkids so we swapped Alaska stories and got caught up. We had not seen Hugh for about four years, when he visited NY with grandson Levi and toured Governor's Island with me, as reported in this blog. Hugh is a good sailor. So on two consecutive nights we dined out with quite different friends: Jamie and Lori whi we knew for two days and Hugh and Arlene who I have known for 51 years!

August 24 and 25 -- Five Islands to Jewell Island to Portsmouht YC, 22 and 50 Miles

We are really homeward bound these days with longer passages to eat up the miles. We had planned to stop in Portland. Lene loves the vibe of that city and I like it too. The Centerboard YC in South Portland, with launch service across the harbor to the heart of downtown could not accomodate us. We next tried for a mooring at Peaks Island, nearby, but $65 per night with no showers or launch service. Yes, we can aford it but I don't like to pay it. Portland is pricing itself out of reach for middle class sailors. It seems that whenever a port becomes known as a place for $uper Yacht$, it means that the people with big money have bought the place to the detriment of others. While we were enroute, toward Portland,with winds from the south predicted, we thought of anchoring in Jewell Island and cancelled at Peaks. The sail started as a motor passage but eventually the wind came up.
We have been to Jewell about six times with various guests and it is a great and convenient spot, with great hikes to interesting spots. We entered from the west, for the first time and were the second sailboat present. We put out 50 feet of chain The air was so quiet that though the hook of the snubber line fell off the anchor chain, we did not notice until hauling anchor in the morning.
This visit we did not even lower the dink to hike ashore. As we were getting comfortable a dink was  floating past us to the other boat, a Sabre 362 named "Sea Quester" (Nice pun in there!). Jamie and Lori were in it. Almost home from a one month cruise to New Brunswick with four other boats from their Club.. They spent the last fourteen summers before 2018 cruising Newfoundland. We asked if they wanted to hang with a line on ILENE and later if they wanted to come aboard. Yes. But they had to board from the side because the dink blocked access to the swim platform.

They knew the Saga 43 because they had also made friends with Liz and Mark of "Saving Grace" who we met in Baddeck and who stayed in our apartment for a few days last fall while heading south. Jamie and Lori are nice folks with interesting professions, who live outside Boston and keep their boat at the Manchester YC in the tiny harbor of Manchester by the Sea. They declined libations but invited us to visit their Club and break bread with them two days later.
In the morning the air was so light that we put up the main while still on the anchor. Once clear of  Jewell, it was a one waypoint straight shot to the entrance to The Piscatawa River, in which Portsmouth, NH is located. The wind was almost sailable on a closehauled port reach, but not quite. The sails helped a bit but it was a motoring day. Lobster pots are not dense here but a vigilant lookout for them was required. Along the way, the shackle holding the block of the mainsheet to its traveler track gave way. I replaced it with a spare. This last happened in much heavier wind off Hyannisport in 2016 and should not happen! I have to get a more heavy duty shackle. Also, the Velcro strap that secures the starboard side long tube-batten at the top of the stack pack slid off and I shoved the tube back in and resecured it.
Once we got to the waypoint we turned to starboard we had a brief sail. But the water's in the river were ebbing strongly against the incoming wind creating very rough waves and with the course being a run, after one controlled jibe, we stowed the sails and motored the last two miles to the Portsmouth YC. Grabbing the mooring meant that Lene had to maintain a speed of about three knots in the water to inch forward while I tried to grab the bridle by boat hook-- no pickup stick. Third try did it. The Club is small and its $32 fee quite reasonable. We took in the launch, took showers, filled our four one gallon drinking water bottles and walked the few blocks to the store which was closed for a catering engagement.

The fuel dock opened early and we got to is earlier and fueled up before departing at 8 the next morning.

August 22 and 23 -- Harbor Island to Oar Island Cove to Five Islands, 5 and 17 Miles

Sp what happened to that lay day in the rain anticipated at Harbor Island? Well in the morning the weather report foretold gusts to 25 knots from the NW that night, which made Harbor Island unsuitable with its exposure to North winds. So we moved and looked for a better protected spot. The cruising guide suggested several nearby coves, but noted how chancy they were in terms of finding a space within them -- filled with lobster boats and private moorings, though you can ask and maybe there will be a welcome. That would be fine on a nice day; they were all near enough and if the answer is no, we could move on to another. But it was drizling already and foggy, though with almost a mile of visibility.
So we selected the Oar Island Cove, nestled between Hockock Point on the mainland to the NE and Oar Island to the SW. The cove is less than a quarter mile from where we had taken a mooring from the Audubon Society at Hog Island late in July. We had seen into Oar Is. Cove from there

and that there were many lobster boats but our trusty cruising guide said that there was room to anchor in 14 feet at low (24 feet at high) outside the lobsterboats. Another advantage of Oar Island was that our pink track on the MFD from Hog Island to Port Clyde ran right past Harbor Island, making it into the "route" to follow through Muscongus Bay which is beautiful with many small islands but which also has many underwater ledges. So it was a five mile lobster-dodging motor of following the breadcrumbs to the anchorage though it was five miles north when our objective was to go southwest, toward home. We did not like the first spot we dropped -- too close to the island, but the second was quite suitable. Oar Island Cove has a very muddy bottom, which provides a good holding power for the anchor but made lots of work for the salt water deck washdown pump. As I was finishing securing the boom, the snubber, the wheel, inserting the canvas connector between the dodger and bimini and closing the clear plastic front window of the dodger, the rain began heavily and lasted for three hours. A great opportunity to scrub the topsides of accumulated dirt and scuff marks with soap and brush - no rinsing needed.
After lunch I persuaded Lene to join me in a voyage of exploration of the area by dink. I lowered its aft and and let gravity remove the accumulated water through the drain hole. We looked at the place's "attraction"

the remains (ribs) of the 273 foot "Cora F. Cressy", built in 1902. When her sailing days were over she became a casino and finally a house of ill repute before being sunk intentionally at high tide. Her ribs remain and are used by the lobstering industry, which operates a big red factory.

We also visited the mainland dock of the Audobon Society, where people, supplies and food come to be ferried across to Hog Island, and spoke with a staffer there.

But the predicted strong NW winds did not materialize that evening.
The passage to Five Islands was a beautiful sailing experience. The winds were indeed from the NW and strong, but not to 25 knots. They were gusty making our speed quite variable, slow in the lulls and fast in the puffs. It came from our starboard side while we were heading south along the east coast of Pemaquid Pount.

We saw the lovely homes and the lighthouse that we had passed in fog on the passage from Linekin Bay to Hog Island.

Out past the point the plotted course was west and a beat and it appeared that we could not make it without several tacks in tight waters if we followed the route plotted. Tacking the Genoa is a tough job in big winds. We also noticed that the autopilot, which we use so much of the time, seemed to not hold very well. Auto steers while we work lines together, one (me) cranking in the furler while the other (Lene) eases out the sheet. And without that third hand the plotted course was not a pleasant one. So a change of plans: instead of going west, north of The Hypocrites, and them southwest to enter the Sheepscot River to Five Islands, we turned southwest first and passed south the Hypocrites and by the White Islands before going more west and tacking to head up the Sheepscot. On the SW course, with the wind about 60 degrees off the starboard bow, we made eight knots. And while we were heeled, it was much less so than would have been the case before the keel was lengthened. I think the boat was tested today and passed the test.
Later we hit a lobster pot. Maybe it is harder to concentrate on avoiding them when there are fewer of them. An alternative potential theory: the lines leading from the floats down to the traps on the bottom, 80 to 120 feet below, are not vertical but slant because the wind and current pull the float along the surface of the water. So, maybe the new deeper keel catches the lines unless we give the floats an even wider berth. Who knows? I think we shook off what we caught, but will dive to confirm this in the morning. After the tack we put up the small jib rather than the genoa. With less power, facing the wind and the river's current and tacking upsteam at four knots, and knowing that there are only three available moorings in Five Islands, the free ones provided by the YC, we motored the last two miles.
The mooring field is created by five small off shore islands, tightly packed and has 35 feet of water at low tide. We circled around in in looking for the available moorings and found one. The attraction here is the Five Islands Lobster Company, where he dined at one of their outdoor picnic tables on the best "bugs" we have had this cruise.

 Lobster company left, then a bit of the Sheepscot,  ILENE center and the Yacht Club  behind her on one of the islands.
Then shopping to a small country store about 3/4 mile up the road for provisions. We dinked over to the YC to thank the folks there for their mooring. One undesirable feature of Five Islands. There is no potable water available other than in small bottles for sale. We have enough for two days, plus the water in our tanks and wil refill our gallon jugs tomorrow.