June 27 – Cuttyhunk

So I got the best birthday present ever! A new charger to replace the one that wouldn’t cooperate with our generator and we therefore managed to leave the dock having sold the car too!

The Elks

We left New England Boatworks at about 2:00pm on Friday and motored then sailed down to Newport to arrive just in time to gather all our stuff to start the OCC’s Southern New England Cruise. The initial event at the Elks went off well – cheap drinks are always welcome! 10 of the 18 registered boats in attendance, with the others still stuck in Virginia due to inclement weather. A good night had by all…

Unfortunately, we did have a serious incident when we got back. Laurie was continuing her toilet training of boat cat Bella when Bella suddenly got spooked and managed to savage Laurie’s little finger with a seriously deep cut, almost slicing of the pad of her finger. We managed to staunch the bleeding and got it cleaned and bandaged…

41 North

Saturday was ours! It was a beautiful morning and while other boats had decided to leave for Cuttyhunk, we decided to hang around in Newport for a day – and we were glad we did. It was so relaxing – even though we did various chores, we ended up at a super bar, 41 North – and sample their cocktails! Yummy!

We bought a couple of lobsters and a couple pounds of mussels and brought them back to the boat where we devoured them…

Laurie was then rewarded by Bella both pooping and peeing in the head – no more need of litter aboard!!!

Reaching!

Sunday morning was equally beautiful and we decided to make our way to Cuttyhunk. There wasn’t a lot of wind, but the seas were flat so me managed to sail at between 6 and 7 knots most of the way – in just 10 knots of wind! Lovely!

Cuttyhunk

Olive Oyl coming in to Cuttyhunk

Retirement agrees with Laurie!

Mike and Jane

We ended the day with a beach barbecue – using some disposable grills we’d purchased in Sweden. They worked – sort of – and we had a good evening with the crews of Jamin, Olive Oyl, Grayce and then Blue Yonder joined us just before sunset.

This is what retirement should be like…

We had a good weekend in Essex, CT with the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA). There was rather too much classroom type stuff for us – and it focused on the US East coast and Caribbean/Bahamas, rather than straying further afield – but we met some interesting folk and had Mike and Jane stay aboard Toodle-oo! with us.

Unfortunately we found out that our generator based charging system is NOT operational and after various email messages back to New England Boatworks, it’s decided we should return to have the large capacitor in the generator replaced – and if that doesn’t work, we’ll swap out the charger for a different make…

This made for a rather boring delivery type event back to Portsmouth – 11 hours mostly under engine…

Today, instead of having NEB replace the capacitor, I had to do it because they’re short staffed. – sounds easy, but involves taking the generator off it’s mountings in order to get to the bloody thing! So I rigged a block and tackle to the boom and used the winch to raise the boom – and the generator… In the end the capacitor is good so it was a wasted effort. New charger is on it’s way… Then I noticed the bilge pump was not operating – so spent the rest of the afternoon in the bilge installing a new one and it’s switch!

Meanwhile… shortly before we left for Essex,  I took our VW GTi to the dealership to fix something that wasn’t broken(!), then drove the 3 miles to Carmax to sell it. In those 3 miles the engine light came on – the turbocharger needs replacing! So that’s what Laurie was doing all day today! We just don’t seem to be able to catch a break!

Tomorrow will be hectic – picking up the car, selling car, finding a way to get home(!), replacing chargers and testing them out – along with a whole slew of other things we’re supposed to be doing – like getting ready for the OCC’s Southern New England Cruise that we’re leading!!!!

This is harder than work by a long stretch!

So we finally left the dock behind! Problems with wind generator, diesel generator and 220V charger that held us on the dock for the past week are all remedied, and we set sail!

Autopilot is great!

Blue Sky, 10Kts across the beam! What a way to start retirement!

This weekend we’ll be attending a Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) in Essex, CT – a 2 day trip – and here we are anchored at the halfway stop, Fisher’s Island – after a great sail on a warm sunny day with 10kts of wind mostly on the beam with which Toodle-oo! managed to eek out 7 knots! Not bad considering how much stuff is aboard!

Home for the night. Posh Fisher’s Island – complete with unlocked WiFi to poach!

Finally, we are living the dream!

You know how you ‘Find Stuff’ when it’s time to move…? Well, Laurie found her massively expensive GoreTex Dubarry boots – which she’d lost for months and had decided someone in England must have stolen them – eat your words Honey!

But then… rooting around in one of the several ‘Billy’s Memories’ boxes, I come across a folder with some old papers in it… A regular treasure trove… I can understand that for memorabilia I

A letter from my Brother? Is that his EKG – along with his Birth Certificate???

picked up my parents Birth certificates – interesting reading with one from China, the other, India. But somehow I also have my brother Steve’s birth certificate… How come??  Then, who’s is this EKG from???? He doesn’t look too healthy…

Then get this: an air mail letter from my brother! – My brother actually wrote to me??? Bizarre!

Anyway, the U haul is all packed up and ready for disbursement tomorrow, car is ready for sale and we’re ready to leave the dock if NEB is finally finished with her on Wednesday or Thursday…

First week of retirement has proven to be somewhat more hectic than we imagined…

We decided to take it slow on our first non weekend… We got in our new (old) dinghy – a little green thing with a 2.5HP outboard on it. Planning to sell the sailing puffin – just didn’t quite cut it… Wechugged out to Toodle-oo! with a plan to go to Potter’s Cove, just a couple of miles across the bay at the top end of Prudence Island – and we’d be by ourselves, with no reason to get off, so we decided to leave the dinghy on the mooring… We left at 4:30pm.

Nice little sail with no need of engine and we anchored in the busy cove – surrounded by countless power boats and the odd sailboat. We were pretty certain the power boats would leave before dark – which they did, leaving a nice quite spot. It was nice to decompress in the cockpit as the sun went down.

The evening was rather foggy and by morning it was wet (as expected) so before the heavy stuff set in, we decided to high tail it back – arriving at the mooring at 11:30.

The dinghy was there – but no engine! Some bugger had raided the dinghy in the past 20 hours! We’d only owned the thing for 3 days! When we stopped in at the Harbormaster’s office – they said they’d seen the motor on the dinghy at 9:00am that morning – commenting that neither was registered! So someone had filched the thing in less than 3 hours! Bastards!

What a way to start retirement!