Relax Lah!

You know the drill – up early and motor endless hours in either no wind or wind on the nose watching for lobster pots….  Two exciting things did happen.  First (we think) we saw a sun fish; one of those huge floating flat disks that often cause keels or masts to fall off on Sydney to Hobart’s.  It was nosing about, munching on jellies no doubt, when we came close by.  It wasn’t fussed and kept on about its business, huge dorsal fin bobbing about in our wake long after we had left.  The next exciting thing was doing 9.8kts through the Cape Cod Canal.  Talk about a roller coaster ride – we had, at fastest & with a strong current, been doing 6.6kts along the coast!  Wahooeeeee!

Zipping along Cape Cod Canal

All this speed meant we reached Woods Hole in time to hear the Coast Guard announce a small boat alert and more storms.  Great!  We managed to secure a spot deeper into Hadleys than last time, much to the annoyance of a big blue power boat who came in on our tail.  Despite those warnings, we woke in the early morning to a mill pond, the other occupants of which did not appreciate our early (Saturday) morning engine noise and clanking 100 feet of rusty chain.  GS didn’t have to shout rude remarks to a deaf Cap’n as she hauled up the anchor, so at least they were spared that.

Passing Traffic on the Cape Cod Canal

We noticed that the sea water was changing back to a nice tobacco brown shade, the sun was warming and we were back to t-shirts & shorts.  A nice big swell was rolling in courtesy of Hurricane Igor, busy pummelling Bermuda, as we crossed sacred waters (America’s Cup battleground) out of Newport, Rhode Island and said a few quiet Hail Mary’s.  Perhaps one day the competition would come back to planet earth and sailing; money, ego and power, wouldn’t be the important things at stake.

River-side viewing from our cafe on Mystic River

The Motleys set their sights on Mystic Seaport and I think it might be safe to say that we actually did some sailing.  We surfed past Watch Hill into Fishers Island Sound along with a catamaran named “Breaking Wind” imagining their VHF radio conversations with officialdom.  This kept us amused for a good couple of hours until we pulled into Noank Village Boatyard, up a lazy Mystic River.  The Boatyard has the best hot showers!  Let me tell you, there is something special about free-flowing hot water in a generously sized cubicle that is reviving.  That and a nice cold beer set us up.  Just what the doctor ordered!

From: Scituate, MA  Lat/Long: 42 12N  70 43W  Date/Time: 18/9/10: 0620

To: Mystic, CT  Lat/Long: 41 19N  71 58W  Date/Time: 19/9/10: 1635
Time Taken: 113nm (17.5hrs)  Distance (this year): 1191nm (216.5hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 4831nm (915.5hrs)   Fastest Speed: 9.8kts**
Weather: Winds turning SW 10-15kts; Seas 3-5ft; Rhode Island Sound seas 4 -7ft
(**Cape Cod Canal of course!; then back to 6.6kts)

Old Jonah He Lived in a Whale

Lighthouse, Cape Cod

Provincetown has whale watching tours reputed to be second best in the world (rated on chances of seeing whales).  Summer is also the time these great beasties mooch around Stellwagen Bank – their summer holiday residence.  GS wanted to take a tour.  Cap’n Blanched at $32 a head, especially when we already had a boat…. 

We left Provincetown early to make use of forecast W winds to push us as far down east as Penobscot Bay, Maine in an overnight trip.  Stopping each night is easy (and very achievable up and down the New England coast) but we’d get to Maine in time to turn around and scoot back to Deltaville.  The Cap’n said this way we’d also cross Stellwagen Bank, so GS had the binos ready.  As luck would have it, the Whale Watch tours passed us full steam ahead, and our headings were similar. 

Then it all happened.  In the distance, great spouts of water were blown high and huge tails rose and fell in slow motion.  As we neared the pod, one rolled on his side and repeatedly slapped the water with a big white fin.  The noise alone was scary enough.  The Whale Watch boats moved on following the pod (possibly 10 or more whales) as it breakfasted and played.  WJ3 continued on her course to Maine.  We saw a huge splash, maybe 500m away and watched as a whale breeched.  The show moved on, but not in our direction. 

Cape Cod to Bar Harbor dodging whales

We were still chatting about our good fortune an hour later when the Cap’n spied another spout in the distance.  We’d happened upon another pod.  Though not so lively as the last, lazy tails slapped water and spouts blew all round us - at a respectable distance.  Then suddenly one surfaced, no more than 20-30 metres on our port side.  This was indeed a close encounter.  He wasn’t interested in us (thankfully) and continued on with his breakfasting as we gaped, stared and said things like “oh, fruit”. 

Real Maine Lobsters

The rest of the trip wasn’t nearly so exciting even though a huge moon lit the slow roll of Atlantic swells making viewing easy.  But it was freezing!  Early next morning, closer to the Maine coast, we saw a couple of seals.  Their lovely whiskery faces and big eyes staring in surprise – as if we’d just caught them in the act of robbing from a vast field of lobster pots.  Who could blame them?  We celebrated our arrival in Maine.  In August (just).  We’d really made it.  Celebrations involved a secure mooring, local beer AND a huge lobster feast. ($US11 a pound…envious???)

From: Provincetown, MA  Lat/Long: 42 02N  70 11W  Date/Time: 30/8/10: 0845

To: Southwest Harbor, ME  Lat/Long: 44 16N  68 18W  Date/Time: 31/8/10: 1400

Time Taken: 170nm (29.5hrs)  Distance (this year): 812nm (154hrs)

Distance Total (since 2008): 4452nm  (853hrs)   Fastest Speed: See Note**

Weather: Winds W-NW 5-10kts; Seas 3-5ft; We didn’t notice the Friday tropical storm warning at the end of the report – doh!!

(** 10ft tides no less; abundant rock ledges makes anchoring interesting!)

Wild, Wild West

Actually, it really is the wild east but nobody could deny Provincetown’s umm, lively character.  Yet another artists’ colony high on Cape Cod’s outstretched arm, Provincetown attracts performance artists, show-offs and a gay old crowd to its hub-bub.  Described as colourful with quirky stores and vibrant nightlife, this village marks the Pilgrim’s first landfall in 1620.  Five weeks later, they boarded the Mayflower and set off to Plymouth for less hostile territory.  

Kalmar Nyckel at Dock in Provincetown

Now galleries brimming with high-end landscapes sit comfortably next to tattoo parlours. Restaurants blot out any coastal views along 3 miles of main road.  But who needs it when touts are dressed in costumes that would have the Village People salivating.  A nearby spa is spitting a steady stream of soap bubbles to fill any empty space.  Clothing shops, gift shops, ice-creameries and interesting leather goods stores line the other side of Commercial Street.  A young man in a tall red hat and short skirt (jolly nice legs) bicycles madly through town advertising an evening of theatre, a comedian tells us about her upcoming show, street musicians play everything from classical to hip hop.  A girl in bunny ears and a nice 50’s style summer frock sits in the gutter, sobbing.  She has lost (or made) $25 – I can’t quite make it out.  Her nice young man is comforting her.  He has on a similar frock. No ears, but a large white bunny tail is (badly) stitched to the back of his dress.  The old man nearby, in a tuxedo twisting balloons into animal shapes, hardly notices. 

Classic Beach Cottages

Provincetown is a place to see and be seen.  The Motleys took a trolley bus tour (40 mins) and we saw the village, beaches, cranberry bogs, lighthouses and the Pilgrim Monument, 252 feet of granite soaring above the coastline.  We had taken our bikes but peddling up Commercial Street into a surging current of humanity was impossible.  Besides we couldn’t take it all in.  The back streets are full of classified, classic cottages – Greek Revival, Gothic, Victorian and Old Cape Cod.  Some were built by whaling captains, while others were floated over to the village (yes, on barges).  Now they and their gardens are primped and preened within and inch of their lives.  It’s Martha Stewart gone Rococo.  Mind you, Provincetown has cred.  Writers, the likes of Tennessee Williams, Norman Mailer and Eugene O’Neill, and artists including Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock found inspiration here.  Who could not with all those tanned, well oiled, sculptured torsos?  For those of you who enjoy Black Adder, Cape Cod will never mean the same again…

From: Woods Hole, MA  Lat/Long: 41 30N  70 42W  Date/Time: 29/8/10: 0715

To: Provincetown, MA  Lat/Long: 42 02N  70 11W  Date/Time: 29/8/10: 1400

Time Taken: 44nm (7hrs)  Distance (this year): 642nm (124.5hrs)

Distance Total (since 2008): 4282nm  (823.5hrs)   Fastest Speed: 10.8kts**

Weather: Winds NW 5-10kts; Seas 3-5ft; breezy Buzzards Bay & mirrored pond Cape Cod Bay

(** In the Cape Cod Canal, going with the current obviously!)

Cape Cod Legs

Actually Cape Cod is shaped a bit like a body-builder’s muscled-up arm.  But more on that later…

Block Island - the place to be seen

First stop after launching ourselves out of Greenport’s secure Stirling Harbor, was Block Island, a gateway if you will to the world famous Narragansett Bay.  Yes, that’s Newport, Rhode Island, folks…home to America’s Cup.  And yes, we probably have lost interest since those heady days in 1984 when we actually won it.  You wouldn’t recognise those “yachts” now, they look sculptural and sleek – perfectly at home on the lawn of some museum of contemporary art.  Or in Melbourne, on that nice new freeway to outatown.

Newport is a bit like Pitt Street on a bad day, so we hooked into Block Island – a cosy weekend retreat for Rhode Island locals (remember those Store Beach weekends).  We didn’t stay to explore the Island but did enjoy the evening’s VHF16 comedy with the rest of the anchorage.  Seems a light plane was buzzing boaters and people on the beach.  Reports were filtering into the Coasties of this dangerous behaviour.  Some local hoon was adding his own anonymous (perhaps serious) contribution to the mix of hysterics and hysteria… "load dat gun and shoot deh mother#$%&*$”.  I thought we’d left the red-necks behind in down home Virginnie.

Woods Hole Museum

Next stop was home to marine science geeks, Woods Hole.  The current that runs here has to be seen to be believed; so too are the speedy ferries.  We anchored well out of the action, but given a wind change, we moved deeper into Hadley Harbor and calmer waters.  Wise move.  Our bumpy dinghy ride into Woods Hole was like a jet boat “jumpabout” ride.  Still, we liked Woods Hole and explored its free aquarium, its university-style buildings, laboratories and grounds and met some wonderful folks who were justifiably proud of their museum.  They told us that Hyannis nearby was the first holiday home of the Kennedy clan.  Cape Cod, with surrounding islands, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, had been (and continues to be) destination central for the seriously wealthy.

Whoosh Trolley

We jumped aboard the local whoosh trolley for a quick ride into Falmouth to restock our larder.  GS has seen an antiques market on the way in but decided not to stop.  Of course on the way out, she spied a stall of antique quilts and blocks.  STOP the bus….stop. the ….  too late!!  Oh Nooooooooooo!!   Never mind, a few beers watching the sun go down and listening to a band (free) strum, crooning tunes for university intellectuals…”she ‘ad skin like spinach an’ greens an’ her kiss like ham an’ beans” took her mind off it anyway.

Pie in the Sky (but not our local at Cowan)

From: Greenport, LI  Lat/Long: 40 57N  73 05W  Date/Time: 26/8/10: 0900
To: Woods Hole, MA   Lat/Long: 41 30N  70 42W  Date/Time: 27/8/10: 1350
Time Taken: 81nm (16.5hrs)  Distance (this year): 598nm (117.5hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 4238nm  (816.5hrs)   Fastest Speed: 6kts**
Weather: Winds W-NW 5-15kts G 20kts; Seas 2-4ft; clear
(** Sailing – doing 6kts; a good few days sailing; some motoring)