Week 3: The Final push to Maine

We woke up early on Thursday, July 31st eager to check the weather. We were in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts, preparing to make the passage from Cuttyhunk, across Buzzards Bay, through the Cape Cod Canal, across Cape Cod Bay, and all the way to Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. This passage is about 50 nautical miles which we initially planned to break up the journey into 2 separate days with a stopover in Onset Bay, at the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal. We woke up a little before 0500 hoping that the small craft advisory scheduled for Friday was cancelled so we could go back to our warm cozy bed to get a few more precious hours of sleep. Alas, although the forecasted winds had decreased from 25 knots sustained to 20 knots sustained, the small craft advisory remained in place with expected gusts of greater than 30 knots. With this, we made the hard decision to get up and go.

The first roadblock of the morning was evident as soon as we opened the hatch - it was still pitch-black outside! We knew sunrise was at 0530 and thus expected first light to be a little before 0500 but here we were, 0500 exactly, and there was no sign of day light. We knew that we had to enter the Cape Code Canal at about 0915 for ideal tide and current conditions, so we pushed on to get the boat ready to leave. I hopped in the dinghy with a headlamp to take Tots on a walk along the shoreline, as it would be a 10+ hour day on the boat. While I was speeding across the inner harbor in Saltine, I soon realized why it was still so dark - we were socked in by fog. Well, nothing I could do about the fog now, so I figured I would take Tots for her walk and then Abby and I could discuss the best course of action when I got back to Salty Foxx.

Dense fog in Buzzards Bay

After a very wet and dewy walk with Tots, I headed back across the inner harbor. At this point, it was about 0520 and the light was beginning to work its way through the dense fog. When I got back to Salty Foxx, we had approximately 100 feet of visibility off the bow. We knew our charts were good as we had just updated them the week before in New London, Connecticut. Plus, the passage across Buzzards Bay looked straightforward and our AIS was up and running, showing that there were very few other boats out and about. This was the first time during our journey we really wished that we had radar on the boat. We made the decision to proceed with caution. If the fog still had not lifted by the time we got to the Cape Cod Canal, we would stop at Onset Bay and wait to cross until Saturday. We had our path that we took into the inner harbor marked on our chart plotter so all we had to do was follow that exactly and we would be clear of any of the inner harbor’s navigational hazards.

We made it out of Cuttyhunk Pond unscathed and set our course for the Cape Cod Canal. The fog was still thick, so Abby went up to the bow with our foghorn to listen for any boats that were not on AIS as we slowly motored along. We deliberately stayed way outside of the recommended shipping routes to minimize the chances of encountering any large commercial ships. In the first hour, the only other evidence of human existence was a ferry visible on AIS transiting from Martha’s Vineyard to Newport. We hailed them on the radio to verify our paths would stay well clear of each other and that was that. At about 0700, the strong odor of fish overwhelmed us, and we knew this signaled that a lobster boat was nearby. We checked AIS, but they were not transmitting a signal, so we slowed down and listened intently. About a minute later we heard the low grumble of diesel engine off in the distance and soon the hull of the fishing vessel emerged through the fog about 200 feet off the bow. We waved politely as we watched them go by, throwing a line of lobster pots into the water as they went. Thankfully, soon after our encounter with the fishing boat, the fog slowly began to lift. Right as we got to the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal, the fog lifted entirely, and we were set to continue onward towards Provincetown!

We entered the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal at 0930. Although this was slightly later than we planned, it still allowed us plenty of time to safely cross if the railroad bridge was open. We hailed Canal Control on the VHF Radio for information regarding the railroad, and they verified that the bridge was currently open and there was no planned closing in the next hour, so we continued pushing on! The Cape Cod Canal is about 7 nautical miles in length and has currents that can reach upwards of 6 knots. The current is caused by a tidal range of 8-12 feet on the Cape Cod Bay side and 4-6 feet on the Buzzards Bay side. The speed limit on the Cape Cod Canal is 10 miles per hour, which is 8.7 knots. As our hull speed is just under 8 knots, we weren’t concerned about speeding. However, with the tide rushing in our favor, we saw our SOG slowly start to tick up to 8 knots and then up to 9 knots. Somehow, we were accidentally speeding in a sailboat! We lowered the revs on the engine, verified we still had enough SOW to have steerage, and continued on our way at just under the speed limit. In less than hour we had transited the Cape Code Canal and were into Cape Cod Bay!

The Cape Cod Bay crossing appeared to be very simple: 22.5 nautical miles, a bearing of 45-degrees, the wind blowing from almost due north at 15 knots, and a calm sea state. We figured we should be able to set ourselves up for a close-hauled sail where we could go about 45 degrees off the wind and, if we needed to, we could do a single tack at the end to get to the anchorage. The first hour was awesome sailing! Salty Foxx felt extremely well balanced, and we were doing an average of 7 knots while maintaining a heel angle of 15 degrees. As we entered the 2nd hour of our crossing, the wind began to increase and shift to be from the northeast, and the sea state became more jumbled. Based on the wind direction shift, we were now pointed almost due east. This meant that we were going to have tack our way across the last 15 nautical miles of bay. With the increase in wind speed, we reefed both sails to be safe which came at the cost of about a knot of boat speed. Even though we were slower, the boat heel returned to 15 degrees (from 25 degrees) and that created a more comfortable ride. As the day went on, the wind and the waves continued to pick up. The sea buoy in the middle of the bay recorded the wind speed average at 22 knots with gusts greater than 30 knots. It also recorded wave height at 11 feet with a period of 4 seconds. It was rough out there! Our speed slowed to 4.5 knots as we had to push through each wave, and the big sea state ruined our tack angles as the waves would push the bow away from the wind direction every 4 seconds. Soon, we were wondering if we were going to make Provincetown before dark. As we were out in the middle of Cape Cod Bay, there weren’t many safe harbors that we could easily divert to. We did the calculations and believed we would still arrive in Provincetown by 1800 (a full 3 hours later than expected, but still before sunset) so we decided to push on. A cold and painful 4 hours later, we pulled into Provincetown feeling absolutely beat. We found a nice spot to anchor right outside the breakwater and quickly put the anchor down near half a dozen other boats. We were finally able to catch our breath for the first time in 5 hours. We had entered the bay a little before 1100 and thought we would be anchored by 1500 at the latest, but here we were, a little after 1800 and we had made it.

Even though I was physically and mentally exhausted, I lowered the dinghy into the water and set out for shore to give Tots another walk before bed. It was this dinghy ride that solidified to me the need for a new dinghy. Saltine is an 8.5 ft Hypalon inflatable dinghy with a rollable slatted floor. This was great when Salty Foxx was living at a marina, as we could roll up the entirety of the dinghy and keep it in one of lazarettes (cockpit lockers). This meant we could keep her out of the damaging UV when not in use, and that we didn’t have to find a place to store her which kept our deck and swim platform clear. However, when using her in rougher weather, the floor rolls under the Hypalon tubes as the slats only run across her width. This causes two things: a reduction in stability which leads to an extremely uncomfortable and jerky ride, and the inability to get up on a plane. After beating into the waves to get to shore, both Tots and I were soaking wet. We quickly ran around the beach next to the dinghy dock before returning to Salty Foxx for a nice hot shower. This was one of those nights where it was worth it to take a longer shower using the water heater as it had been such a long day from the dense fog in the morning, to the canal crossing, to the jumbled sea state in the stormy bay. Utterly exhausted, Abby and I both fell right asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows. I think this was the first truly hard day of our summer cruise.

The next day we slept in until we were awoken by bright shining sunlight. This was odd as today’s forecast was for storms and a small craft advisory. Nope! It turned out to be a beautiful day with almost no wind and a calm, glassy sea. We felt a little defeated as we had only pushed on the previous day to try and beat the storm that turned out to be non-existent. We looked it up, and even the small craft advisory had been cancelled. It seemed to us as if the storm had hit 24 hours early and that we ended up going through the thick of it. To get ourselves out of this funk, we looked towards shore and discussed what we could do with this extra day in Provincetown. We didn’t quite know how long we were going to stay in Provincetown, or if we were going to go directly from Provincetown to Portland or not, so we figured we would start by getting our chores out of the way. This meant packing up all our laundry, grabbing our reusable grocery bags, and heading to shore to resupply on clean clothes and fresh food. We first walked the mile inland to the local laundromat where we divided our dirty laundry into two loads. After dividing the loads equally, we started the machines using the same wash cycle except one said 76 minutes until finish and the other said 38 minutes until finish. It looked like one machine had a glitch that doubled the washing time! Abby quickly decided that it wasn’t worth it for us both to sit here and wait for the 2 hours it would take our laundry to finish and that I should go enjoy a beer at the local brewery. I graciously accepted and headed back down the hill into town.

I walked right up the Provincetown Brewing Co bar and grabbed the last free stool remaining. I happily ordered a beer and thought about how lucky I was to have a wife that sent me to the brewery instead of doing laundry. I was quickly snapped out of my own thoughts when the two guys next to me started chatting with me and offered to buy me my next round. Not one to refuse free beer, I gladly took them up on their offer. As I continued to chat with these two, it dawned on me that there might be more going on than just the friendly offer of free beer. I had noticed several pride flags throughout Provincetown and had really thought nothing of it up to this point. I quickly tried to clear up the situation by slyly mentioning my wife would be on her way and we all had a good laugh. They explained to me that P-town (That’s what those in the “know” call Provincetown) was a popular vacation destination for the LGTB+ community dating back to the 1970s. We continued to laugh about my lack of awareness (the mustache compliments I received on my walk over made more sense now) and they continued to buy me beers even though I tried to refuse. Soon enough, the 2 hours had passed, and it was time for me to go meet Abby back at the laundromat to finish our errands. I gleefully told my story of getting free drinks to Abby and she exclaimed that it being a mainly LGBT+ community made so much more sense. She had also seen the pride flags everywhere and thought they were just doing a PRIDE event in August which didn’t make much sense as most PRIDE events are scheduled in June.

We finished our errands and started heading back to Salty Foxx. On the way, we spotted a buck-a-shuck oyster happy hour at a local bar and decided our laundry could join us for a few well-earned oysters. Our laundry bags ended up being vital as we used them to build a wall so Tots couldn’t see the other doggo in the restaurant. With each oyster, the stress of the previous day’s passage was finally lifting from our shoulders. With our bellies full, we headed back to Salty Foxx, played a few rounds of cribbage, and began discussing our plans for making it to Portland, Maine.

It was now Friday, August 1st and my parents were set to land in Portland on Tuesday, August 5th. Our options were as follows: go directly to Portland (~100 nautical miles), go to Portsmouth, NH (~70 nautical miles) and then to Portland (~45 nautical miles for a total of ~110 nautical miles), or go to Saco River (~90 nautical miles) and then to Portland (~20 nautical miles for a total of ~110 nautical miles). If we went directly to Portland, we expected the passage to take about 20 hours which meant that we would either have to leave in the middle of the night or leave in the afternoon and sail through the night to ensure we arrived in daylight. If we went to Portsmouth or Saco River, the passages would be approximately 14 hours or 18 hours respectively so we could leave at first light and still likely make it in before dark. We figured that even if we did stop in Portsmouth or Saco River, we would be too exhausted to explore the towns and thus it was probably not worth it. With the decision made to make the passage straight to Portland, we started seriously evaluating weather windows. Saturday, the winds were forecasted to be fairly light so our journey would be mostly under motor. On the other hand, the forecast for Sunday afternoon was for the wind to pick up to 25+ knots by 1600. Knowing that we needed to be there by Tuesday at the latest and wanting to be there earlier so Abby could see an old work friend, we decided to leave on Saturday afternoon at 1600. This would give us a chance to sail some of the way, as there was wind forecasted for Sunday morning, but would also ensure we were safe in Portland Harbor before the strong winds hit Sunday afternoon. Feeling good about our plan, we played another game of cribbage and went to bed.

The next morning, we awoke to another stunningly beautiful day and headed back to P-town (I was in the “know” now). Our friend, Brennan “Tickle”, had seen we were in P-town and recommended a coffee and lunch spot for us to check out. We headed straight to Kohi Coffee Company where I got an Americano and Abby got a latte. I am not exaggerating when I say this was probably the best espresso I have ever had in the States. As an added benefit, Kohi is located right on the beach, and they have a quaint little back porch with a stunning view of the beach and bay. After enjoying our morning coffees, we headed back down to the main strip in town for some window shopping. Initially, we were going to make sandwiches on the boat for lunch, but after how good Tickle’s recommendation for coffee was, we had to check out his lunch recommendation! After some good old-fashioned window shopping (which included buying a bottle of wine and a cigar), it was finally lunch time so we headed over to The Canteen. Abby ordered a Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese, and I ordered a Tofu Banh Mi to try something different. Once again, they had a beautiful beachfront back patio to sit and eat at. Abby’s Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese was so stuffed with crab that I was sure they used two crabs to make it, and my Tofu Banh Mi had a delicious mix of teriyaki tofu, carrots, mint, jalapenos, and chili garlic mayo. Truly another top-notch recommendation. Honestly these food stops were so good, we are considering going back to P-town on our way back south. After being so full that we couldn’t eat another bit, we headed back to Salty Foxx to get ready to leave.

Abby enjoying the view and her coffee from Kohi Coffee Company

We lifted the anchor around 1530 and headed to the fuel dock. We were unsure what the wind would be like out at sea, and we knew there was distinct possibility that we would be motoring for 18 hours all the way to Portland. To be on the safe side, we figured it was prudent to start with a full tank of fuel. After taking on both fuel and water, we discharged our waste tanks and cast off towards Portland. Neither of us had altered our sleep routines to do an overnight shift so we decided to do 5-hour shifts, starting at 2000, until we arrived in Portland. This meant I was on watch between 1700-2000 and 0100-0600, and Abby was on watch between 2000-0100 and 0600-1100. This allowed for Abby to take a nap before her first watch, and gave me the chance to get a few hours of rest before my overnight shift. While we thought this was a great schedule, it didn’t work out quite as we planned. Not 2 hours off the Provincetown fuel dock, in the middle of Abby’s prescribed nap time, I saw a huge whale less than 100 feet off the port beam and yelled in excitement. This, of course, woke Abby up and sent her topside to take a look. 20 minutes later another whale crossed about 200 feet behind us. These whales were probably 50 feet long and although we can’t be sure, we believe they were Right Whales based on their size and shape. Right Whales are the most endangered whales in the world, so we felt pretty lucky to be graced by their presence. With the joy of our whale sighting, Abby was too excited to go back to sleep. Since Abby was awake and topside, I had her take the helm for a few minutes while I used the head. As soon as I closed the door she started yelling excitedly - two different sharks popped up right behind the boat before quickly swimming away! By her estimation, the larger one was 6 feet long and the smaller one 3 feet long, so not quite Jaws-sized but still a raw wildlife experience. Stoked on the wildlife so far in the passage, we both sat on deck scanning the glassy seas for any other disturbances. By sundown, we were more than 25 miles off the nearest coast, and Abby and I (and Tots) shared the most beautiful sunset. It was finally time for me to go and get some rest, so Abby took over as person in charge and I went down for some sleep.

The sunset from our overnight passage to Portland, ME

While not unexpected, I was unfortunately unable to get a minute of sleep during Abby’s 5 hours of watch. It was going to be along night. I slowly got up and relieved Abby as person in charge so she could hopefully get some much-needed rest. It was 0100 and we were about 25 nautical miles northeast of Gloucester, Massachusetts and making good time. There was still no wind, and the water was glassy, so we were making way under motor at a touch under 6 knots. After my exhausting 5-hour watch, Abby was a welcome sight to see. We quickly debriefed about the previous night and then I was able to go down to try and get some much needed sleep. For whatever reason, I was still not able to sleep so around 0800 I came back up to cockpit to eat breakfast with Abby. There was finally some evidence of wind, so we unfurled the sails and shut off the motor. By 1000 we sailed into the mouth of the Portland Harbor and we were soon looking for a place to anchor for the next three nights. In our exhausted state, it took us three attempts to get anchored where we wanted to be, as the first two times we ended up with the anchor set too close to a previously anchored boat.

At long last we had made it to Maine, but it was time to take a nap! After a quick 2 hours of rest, Tots woke us up because it was time to take her to shore. We took a lap around East End Beach public park and then headed back to Salty Foxx to make dinner and get some more rest. The next morning, we woke up early and dinghied over to Mackworth Island State Park. Mackworth Island is known as a tranquil haven with rocky shorelines and a round-the-island trail. We spent the morning circumnavigating the island and walking along the beach looking for shells. I also took this opportunity to go on a quick run to try and keep my fitness up after a few long days on the boat (and some delicious P-town brewskis). After spending the morning on Mackworth Island, we headed back to the boat to make lunch and plan the rest of the day’s errands. After a quick ham and cheese sandwich, I headed to shore and walked to the nearby West Marine to pick up oil to do an oil change for our boat engine. As I walked up to the West Marine, I saw there was a Trader Joe’s across the parking lot and immediately called Abby and asked her to make a list (while also reminding her that I was walking and had to carry everything we purchased the 1.5 miles back to the dinghy dock). As I wandered around West Marine, I found they had an excellent clearance section and ended up with some bulk copper wire and plumbing pieces (of course this only added to the weight of what I hard to carry). I called Abby back, and she had done an excellent job whittling down her Tradre Joe’s list to the essentials. Unfortunately, I don’t have great self-control so in addition to Abby’s list, I picked up 2 four packs of beer and 2 cases of seltzer water. I now had probably 60 pounds of groceries, oil, wire, and plumbing parts. I also had dumbly decided it was a good idea to go on a run that morning, so I was already sore. A painful 45 minutes later, I had finally made it back to the public park where Abby was waiting. As I walked down to the dinghy dock, I saw a rack of rental bikes and cursed that I hadn’t seen them before I headed out on my errands. Oh well, you live and you learn. Exhausted, we settled in for a quiet night on the boat.

The next morning, Abby got up early to hit the grocery store for a full reprovisioning run (this time planning on using the rental bikes) and I was going to perform a routine engine service. After dropping Abby off at the dinghy dock, she quickly discovered all the rental bikes were broken and she ended up having to walk to the store anyway. While I was sad for her, this made me feel a little bit better about not seeing the bikes the day before.

On our summer cruise so far, we had put 90 hours on the engine, and I wanted to reduce the risk of having to deal with any engine issues while my parents were visiting. The engine service I was doing included changing the oil, checking the gear oil, draining the fuel water separator, and checking the alternator belt. Right after I finished draining the oil, Abby called me to say she had gotten a ride back from the grocery store with her old work friend, Stephanie, who was going to come out and see the boat. I was still covered in oil so I cleaned up the best I could and dinghied to shore to pick them up. While Abby gave Stephanie a tour of the top side of our boat, I quickly finished the oil change and put the engine compartment back together so Stephanie could see what the inside of our home looked like. After finishing up the grand tour, our friends Jamie and Tyler called us saying they were just pulling up to the dinghy dock! They invited us all out to lunch, and we were happy to join them on land for a bite to eat. This worked out great for me, as Tyler could give me a ride to dispose of my old oil, while Jaime, Stephanie, and Abby (and Tots) could go find a lunch spot and order appetizers. This also gave Tyler and I a chance to catch up as they were doing a similar summer cruise in their 56-foot sailboat that they had also just purchased the winter before. They had left two weeks before us and had made it slightly further north than Portland, but they had driven back to drop off Tyler’s mom at the airport. After disposing of the used oil at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts, we met up with the ladies for lunch. Over a few very yummy tacos, we discussed meeting up with Jamie and Tyler on Monhegan Island in three days’ time. After lunch, we all said our goodbyes, and Abby and I walked back to Salty Foxx. Once we got back, Abby set off to clean the interior and make the beds while I put on my wetsuit to clean the bottom. An exhausting 3 hours later, we were both done with our respective tasks and we sat down to check in on my parents’ flights. They were scheduled to land a little after 10pm so we decided to just meet them in the morning, and then we would all cast off together to explore Maine.

It was now the evening of August 5th, and the next morning we would truly start sailing the wild Maine coastline. We had made it in a sense - up until this point the only deadline we had to make was arriving in Portland before my parents and we had done that! Now it was time to relax and explore this cruising ground we had been dreaming of! We slept soundly that night, more excited than ever about what was to come.