We left West Harbor with the outgoing tides. To navigate the rocky waters of the north eastern LI sound approaching the Atlantic we decided to motor out of the sound. Plus, there was little to no wind to start the day so we were somewhat limited on options :)
We noticed that VHF channel 16 in the Sound is much busier than any place we’ve been to date. Not only is USCG Sector LI Sound busy but so many folks hold conversations on this channel, which is prohibited – it is supposed to be used for hailing and emergency use only. When told to switch to another channel, it is ignored and the conversation continues. Also, I have never heard so much cursing and yelling at each other on channel 16. I just don’t get it... Sea Tow is equally as busy helping disabled, adrift vessels. Again, not sure what is up with LI waters that causes so many people to need USCG or Sea Tow assistance but I am glad we didn’t need either!
We motored for the first 4hrs due to lack of wind. J dropped a fishing line and we had one small striped bass hit. We got it all the way to the boat and then he threw himself off – grrr! The winds finally started to pick up a bit so we turned up into the wind and raised our mains’l with a single reef. Winds were forecasted to be 15-20 with gusts to 25 so we felt comfortable with a single reef. We also let out full canvas on our heads’l and was cruising along on a broad reach at just over 5kts. A little while later we got another hit on our line and this one was BIG! Things got a little crazy after that. The fish had taken out quite a bit of line and J was having to very slowly bring him in. Tango was still making over 5kts so we had to slow her down. After discussing a few different options we decided I’d try to heave to. For those that don’t know that that means essentially it is like parking your boat. You’ll come to a ‘near’ complete stop. We learned to do this in the BVI and was able to do it easily with our previous boat, Knotty. You backwind the heads’l, ease the main so the wind falls off and set the rudder hard to windward. Well, on a fin keel this works very well. On Tango, a full keel vessel, not so much. We’ve hove to a couple of times in Tango but it was under main alone – we had yet to do it with our heads’l out. So, I figured I’d give it a shot and see what happened. I set ASSWOP, centered the main so that I could jib and backwind the heads’l. I disengaged ASSWOP and made our turn. With the heads’l backwinded I couldn’t yet ease the main because J was on the starboard stern attempting to bring in the fish. Our boom is so long that easing the main could result in him being hit in the head. So I had to wait until he was able to finagle the rod through the bimini, over to the other side. Once he was on our port stern I was able to ease the main to allow some of the wind to fall off. Again, we had never hove to in this sail configuration so this was all experimental :) I eased the main and then attempted to get her bow 50-60 degrees off the wind. I was able to do so and while we were slowing (got down to 2.9kts) we weren’t “stopped”. Okay, not perfect execution but it worked to slow us down enough so that J could get the fish in without losing it. Heaving to in this sail configuration will definitely be practiced in the near future.
Back to this fish… J finally got the fish he’s been hoping for! It put up a hell of a fight but Jason – 1, Atlantic Striped Bass – 0. He measured in at approx. 30 inches and 10lbs. Plenty of fresh fish to last us a few meals! J brought it up to the stern, I took the rod while he took the gaff and hooked him through the gills. We got him into the boat and J attempted to kill him with the butt end of a winch handle. After 8 or so whacks and significant blood spatter in the well, he was still kicking. J then ran below to grab rum. He had read that pouring alcohol into the gills induces alcohol poisoning and will kill them. Well, no such luck either. We thought he was done but 10 minutes later he would still flap around. Certainly not an ideal way to put him out of his misery. It took too long and was too messy. We’ll need to figure out a better way. J proceeded to filet him in the well as I contended with 20kt winds and 3-4 ft seas. Fun! Not so much :)
This pretty much marked the end of our “easy” sailing as things from here started to pick up.
Winds became steady at 25kts, gusting to 30kts and the ocean swells
started to increase. We had a confused
sea, with swells going against an outgoing tide. It was an exhausting, white-knuckled, hair
raising few hours making those last miles into Cuttyhunk, MA. We had the pleasure of being “pooped on” by
breaking 10-12ft swells. This was like our honeymoon all over again, awwwww…
As we approached shore we had to contend with not only wind and sea conditions but buoys in the water marking what we can only assume were fishing lines. There was a working trawler that seemed to be laying line and I attempted three times to hail him on VHF but had negative contact. We didn’t know if we were going to be in his net as he circled, if in fact that was his intentions or if he was retrieving line or laying line. We were being tossed around 45 degrees due to the swells and when dealing with buoys, this is not fun.
We finally got close enough to shore where we were a tad bit more protected (though not much) and was able to furl our heads’l and then turn up, through buoys mind you, and drop the sail. Once secure we were able to come about and head for the harbor. There are two harbors in Cuttyhunk – one outside the break water and one inside. The harbor inside is made up of moorings and looked very full so we opted to anchor in the outside harbor. The breeze was still flowing through at 20+ kts but at least the swells had diminished. Even with a few boats in the harbor, anchoring was a bit of a challenge. Took us a little bit to find just the right spot, between two other boats before we could drop the hook and breathe a sigh of relief.
As we approached shore we had to contend with not only wind and sea conditions but buoys in the water marking what we can only assume were fishing lines. There was a working trawler that seemed to be laying line and I attempted three times to hail him on VHF but had negative contact. We didn’t know if we were going to be in his net as he circled, if in fact that was his intentions or if he was retrieving line or laying line. We were being tossed around 45 degrees due to the swells and when dealing with buoys, this is not fun.
We finally got close enough to shore where we were a tad bit more protected (though not much) and was able to furl our heads’l and then turn up, through buoys mind you, and drop the sail. Once secure we were able to come about and head for the harbor. There are two harbors in Cuttyhunk – one outside the break water and one inside. The harbor inside is made up of moorings and looked very full so we opted to anchor in the outside harbor. The breeze was still flowing through at 20+ kts but at least the swells had diminished. Even with a few boats in the harbor, anchoring was a bit of a challenge. Took us a little bit to find just the right spot, between two other boats before we could drop the hook and breathe a sigh of relief.
While the sail was a “spirited” one, it was also a good learning experience as we uncovered some things that need to be changed. First, our dinghy on deck needs to change. The heads’l (Genoa) sheets kept getting caught on the stern pontoons. This is both bad for the dink, as the lazy sheet flogs coming down the swell and unsafe, as it pulls the dink a bit off the deck. Not sure what we’re going to do because we don’t want to tow it either and our wind vane prohibits us from having dinghy davits (which I don’t think we’d do anyway, even if we didn’t have ASSWOP). Our current dink is too big to fit on our amidship cabin top and we currently have our generators stowed there in an ISOPOD…. So, we’ll have to figure that out. It may mean getting rid of our inflatable and getting a hard dink.
We also had issues with our Genoa sheets getting caught on our flag halyard cleats. This was easily fixed today – J just loosened them and shifted them a bit more inboard. Our last big issue was our Genoa sheets getting mis-wrapped in the self-tailing winches. When the line is wet it, if you don’t use your other hand to guide the tail, it will wrap on itself causing a hell of a mess which is very difficult to release under pressure. In conditions like we had yesterday you don’t have a second hand to be using. We’ll take a closer look but this may be fixed by adjusting the trailers on the winch itself.
We’ll stay here for an extra day to recover as both of us are extremely sore and let some of the heavy winds (today is 20+ again) pass through. We wanted to deploy the dinghy today (which we verified survived the beating yesterday) and head to land but with the heavy and gusty winds we’ve decided that isn’t such a good idea.
Update: We enjoyed some gunwale delivery (read: home delivery equivalent for cruisers) raw oysters courtesy of Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms floating raw bar. Super tasty oysters - we just couldn't say no ;)
Tomorrow we plan to head to Onset, MA – a short 23NM jaunt across Buzzard Bay. It will be nice to have a short day with better conditions!
Here’s an excerpt from our Logbook:
Departure: 0715
Estimated Arrival: 1800
Actual Arrival: 1800
Distance: 60NM
Barometer: 1028 and rising
Wave Height: 1-3’, rising to 6-8 with a half dozen or so that reached 10-12
Wind: West winds 10-15 increasing, WSW 15-20 gusting 25kts, steady 25kts gusting to 30kts
NOTES:
Exciting sail! High winds and large swells against opposing tide coming into Cuttyhunk. Tight anchorage even with only 3 boats.
1030 – Winds consistent at 12-14kts. Raised sails (single reefed mains’l, full Genoa) and secured engine. Making ~ 5kts true on broad reach.
BOAT ISSUES DISCOVERED: Flag Halyard caught Genoa sheets; Dinghy pontoons (transom) caught Genoa sheets; Genoa sheets mis-wrapped when wet (sheets or trailers?)
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