Monthly Archives: May 2015

Sailing Season Begins!

Toodle-oo! spashed as planned on May 13th (well done Brandon and everyone at Pirate Cove Marina) having been washed waxed buffed and had her hull tidied up with bottom paint where necessary.

Bridge up a ramp
With everything fitted and installed, we took a short trip down to Newport while Abigail was visiting, where we anchored and then dinghied across to Fort Adams to watch the In-Port Race of the Volvo Open Round the World Race. It was an interesting event – though the race it’self was a bit of a procession…

Mapfre Great Start

Gusty           Mark Rounded
On the Sunday, (having listened to the foghorn all night!) we up-anchored early enough on a misty morning  to not get blocked by the exclusion zone that was due to be set up in the East Passage, and headed through that passage and out to sea for a trip up to Mattapoisett, summer home for Toodle-oo!, some 45 miles.

Misty Morning    Foggy Newport Morning

Leaving Newport

Leaving Newport

Winds were OK to start with, but turned very light so we ended up motor sailing into Mattapoisett some 8 hours later, and because our mooring was not prepared, took a guest mooring – where she still lies a couple of weeks later…

The following weekend was Labor Day weekend, and unfortunately, Laurie had to work on the Saturday, so I arranged to have our squash team join us for a trip over to Hadley Harbor. Wind was light to moderate on the way over, but came up boisterous on the way back, with Toodle-oo! having a blast crashing through waves at 9 knots! Fortunately, the team managed to keep it together – no spewing required!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rick, Kim, Doreen and Dave…

Laurie got a reprieve for the rest of the weekend, so we had a great sail across to Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday with winds up to 28kts on the beam! We got to Vineyard Haven in record time!
Unfortunately Vineyard Haven has allowed the mooring field to encroach well out into the anchorage now, so in the windy conditions, we opted to take a mooring within the breakwater rather than have a really rolly night. That perhaps was not the best decision as our mooring put us just a few feet from the rock breakwater – blocking our view to everything.

Our return from VH was uneventful – we got through Woods Hole before the tide changed against us and then hung out in Hadley Harbor for a while while I rigged the Monitor Wind Vane (Self Steering gear). We used the Monitor to come back across Buzzards Bay, and it turns out that the complete re-build I gave it during the winter months was worthwhile, with the Monitor being able to hold a course within about +/- 10 degrees in moderate winds. Good enough, and I’m sure with practice we’ll improve.

We were back on our borrowed mooring by lunchtime and had a lazy afternoon!

Sure feels good to get back on the water!

2015 Sailing Season Schedule

Here’s Toodle-oo!’s plans for the summer:

  • June 13thMYC Spring Round the Bay race
  • June 19th – July 4thOCC Southern New England Cruise
    Mattapoisett, Cuttyhunk, Block Island, Shelter Island, Block Island, Menemsha, Edgartown, Hadley Harbor, Marion, Cuttyhunk, Newport, Bristol, Mattapoisett. (Phew!)
  • July 18th & 19th:  Padanaram?
  • July 31st –August 9th:   Around the Cape Summer Cruise
    Mattapoisett, Provincetown, Nantucket, Hyannis, Hadley, Mattapoisett.
  • September 3rd – 7th: Labor Day Weekend – Cruise to Gloucester
    Possible stop in Scituate?
  • Sept 12th: MYC Fall Round the Bay Race
  • October 10th – 12th: End of Season Cruise
    Mattapoisett, Menemsha, Portsmouth
  • October 17th: Decommission at NEB, Portsmouth.

There are loads of weekends in between in which we’ll be sailing too…

 

Lying to a Slip Without Fenders?

Here’s something I learned while visiting the Isle of Man – John Galpin showed me this method of tying up to a slip without fenders – so as to save the look of the gel coat… Trust me, John’s blue gel coat on his Whale and Dolphin survey boat looks immaculate!

 

Slip

 

Line A holds the rear of the boat away from the starboard dock and prevents the boat from moving forward.

Line C prevents the boat from moving back into the rear dock

Line B prevents the bow from moving towards the starboard dock

Line D prevents the bow from moving away from the starboard dock.

It takes some practice to set up – but it’s a neat way of holding the boat stationary and away from the dock. When leaving our boat for a while however, we lay out a few precautionary fenders… 🙂 (we also add a few lines for good measure!)