Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Woody's Passage Ends Successfully in Newport

I am in Newport, RI, and this is where the sailing portion of Woody's Passage ends.

It has been over a month since turning loose the dock lines in Beaufort, SC. A blockage in the fuel line on the third day heading to Bermuda caused a diversion to Southport, at Cape Fear, NC. This delay caused a change of plans to by-pass Bermuda and sail straigh to Nova Scotia. On advice of my weather router, Jennifer Clark, on the third day out of Southport we dodged a storm by diverting into Cape May, NJ. From Cape May we dodged another storm by ducking into Montauk. Then, for the fun of it we stopped for 2 nights in Nantucket on the way to Lunenburg,Nova Scotia.

JD Shiver sailed with me all the way from Beaufort to Nova Scotia and we got along wonderfully passing the hours discussing philosophy, history, and interpretations of current events. JD did most of the foredeck work, never complaining about being woken up for a sail change or other tsks. He fixed gourmet freeze-dried meals. He stayed in Nova Scotia, planning to spend a month or more exploring the Canagian Maritime Provinces.

My hosts in Nova Scotia, Bill abd Kerstin Gilkerson, were most generous with their hospitality as I waited for a weather window to contine the Passage back to the USA. My biggest frustration was that I left my wallet at the marina in Nantucket and my cell phone (an 9Phone) died from salt water infection. What are the two things you need most when travelling? Money and a means of communication. My wife, Alice, fortunately flew up and was there to help with creative work-arounds. The weather window arrived the same day as my wallet (by FedEx) and I departed from Lunenburg solo for the voyage across the Gulf of Maine.

The Gulf of Maine can be benigb or it can be a mean body of water. For my passage it was both. The prevailing wind is from the southwest, exactly where I was headed. The distance to Provincetown is about 350 nm from Lunenburg, and the trip can be made in a Flicka in 4 days. The first hundred miles is just to get clear of Nova Scotia. The currents were generally adverse in the returning direction. It is important to get out at least 30 miles in order to not get sucked into the massive tides on the north side in the Bay of Fundy (65 feet vertical). The first two days of sailing were benign with winds from the southeast. I made 185 miles. Then I had a day of heavy wind pretty much on the nose, with large waves, but still made another 90 miles.

On the night of the third day a weather front came though bringing with it thunder storms. I took 3 cells of the storms, the first hitting with my sails up and slamming Jubilee nearly flat. I got the jib down and then the second cell hit before I could get down the mainsail. I clocked the wind in this one at about 35 kts. I fortunately got the main down before the third cell arrived. I rode out this cell, with lightening flashing all around and winds well in excess of 40 kts on bare poles, slumped down seated on the cockpit floor. Junilee took this all in stride. The final cell lasted only 20 minutes. It was 9 PM. I was tired and drifted off to sleep in the cockpit.

When I woke at 11 PM the night was crystal clear and a 10 kt breeze was filling in from the northwest. The moon was full and the scene was indescribably beautifyl, I raised the sails and got comfortable swated (or slumped) in the "barco lounger" on the leeward side, on a starboard tack close hauled, the full moon 45 degrees off my port bow. This became the most magical moment of my passage, and I must tell you about it.

I am sailing along on the leeward side, heeled comfortably, drifting into a transcendental state. I am fully in the moment, yet in another world. I am aware of the water and the wind and the motion of the boat over the confused sea. I am more than aware. I am fully, completely, a part of it, inseparable, and in tune. I may have slept some...I don't know...my consciousness wandered, drifting lazily along... This lasted a couple of hours. I will never forget it. Then, around 1 AM, I became aware that Jubilee was heeling much more. The winf had strengthened to 15 to 20 kts. I snapped out of my meditation and put one reef, and then a second, in the mainsail, and went back to sleep.

As the sun rose around 4:30 the wind died. I tried cranking the engine but it would not catch and sustain itself. I figured maybe I had run out of fuel, but my calculations told me this was unlikely. So I figured maybe there was some residual trash in the fuel or maybe I had taken water into the fuel air vent at the bow. I waited and then tried again and again. No engine. I was just 15 miles off from the buoy where I would turn at the northern tip of Cape Cod toward Provincetown, and probably just 30 miloes from Provincetown. I waited until 10:30 before calling for a tow. I was drifting toward some reefs.

The BoatUS tow service from Provincetown arrived at 1:30 PM. Meanwhile I had called by satellite phone into the U.S. Customs office to announce my impending arrival. The gal on the phone wanted to call me back but could not on the sat phone. An hour into the tow, at about 7 kts, I again called Customs and was informed that I could not get clearance in Provincetown, that I would have to go to Plymouth, on the west side of Cape Cod to clear. "But my brother-in-law, Bill Tumlin, is in Provincetown waiting to sail with me to Newport", I protested. "He can't get on your boat in Provincetown" she said. So, I called Bill and asked him to meet me in Plymouth and then told the tow boat to tow mme to Plymouth.

After 5 1/2 hours in tow, Jubilee and I arrived in Plymouth at 7 PM where I attached to the customs mooring to await boarding by the customs officials who arrived in short order. Clearance took only a few minutes. Meanwhile I had figured out the problem with my engine. After the third cell hit I had cut the engine but in my fatigue I had failed to properly return the engine-stopping handle to its correct, re-stert, position. Not wanting to admit this embarrassing error, I accepted the customs offer for an escort to the Brewers Marina.

I slep that night on the boat at brewers gas dock, and Bill remained at Provincetown for the night. The next day Bill took a bus to Plymouth and we got a room at the Governor Bradford Inn and walked about the town, seeing what by lore is supposed to be the original Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims landed December 20, 1620.

We departed Plymouth with the ebbing tide the following morning at 7 o'clock. The wind was clam so we motored down to the Cape Cod Canal, arriving there just before high tide at 11:30. The timing was perfect. The canal ebbing tide runs east to west, our direction. At times we exceeded 7 kts with the help of the tidal current, quickly transiting the 7 nm of canal length. The light breeze was, of course, on the nose from the southwest so we continued using the motor toward Newport in Buzzard's Bay.

Around 4 PM the fog closed in around us. We vhad the radar going but neither of us knew how to read it. We put up the radar reflector in the rigging and got out the ship's bell. Happily the AIS (Automatic Identification System) was working and it identified all commercial traffic for us and identified us to all commercial traffic. The AIS was a great investment, much better than radar as it flashes warnings on the GPS, identifies the other vessels by name, shows their location on the GPS screen and shows their direction and speed. Wonderfully comforting in pea soup fog.

We came into Newport Harbor at 2 AM, pitch black conditions in a fully enveloping miasma of dense fog. We managed to work or way slowly through the field of multi-million dollar yachts until we found a vacant mooring to which we tied up. We went to sleep, Bill on the sole of the cabin and me in the cockpit in my bivy sack. At 8 o'clock we motored over to Bannisters Wharf and tied up and rented a room.

This would e the end of Woody's Passage.

A month of sailing mostly at sea has been enough for me to realize my dream of making a long passage in a small boat. Crossing the Gulf of Maine solo was enough to scratch the itch for a solo passage. I am tired. It now is time for me to conclude this chapter in my life. I am more a racing sailor than a cruiser. I have now seen enough of bad weather at sea to know that I do not want to be caught out there in a 20-foot sailboat, even in a Flicka, in an extended or really serious storm. I get frustrated with a full day or more of calm wind, especially when this condition is accompanied with a sloppy state of sea. I get frustrated with multiple days of adverse wind direction in the face of short-period wave conditions. I had a schedule to meet, with various friends and relatives meeting me at different places to sail a leg for a few days, and this compelled me to press forward to stay on schedule or revise the plan at inconvenience to those expecting to sauil with me. Cruising should be done without a schedule.

I am safe and happily satisfied with my journey and with Jubilee. I coupld not have done this without the support of my family and many friends. To all who have helped to make my dream happen successfully, I am eternally grateful.

I am leaving Jubilee at a mooring near Newport today. She is for sale, and I will deliver her with her trailer to any location on the East U.S. or Canadian coast. Anyone interested in buying her shoould contact me at snorwood3@me.com .

I will return to Atlanta tomorrow and return with Jubilee's trailer in mid-July ready to deliver her to her next lucky owner. She is priced to sell quickly.

Woody
Newport
June 29, 2010