Provincetown-Onset Harbor

May 29-30 (Friday & Saturday)

     We left Gloucester early on Friday morning, heading straight across the bay to Provincetown.  It was a beautiful morning - light wind and almost no sea.  After an hour or so, Dan set up the autopilot and its zig-zagging across the compass heading earned it the nickname “Ziggy.”  Ziggy actually kept a pretty good course and it was darn nice to spend some time on the foredeck just watching out for the occasional buoys that Ziggy wouldn’t know to steer around.  Just after lunch we saw the local whale watch boats circling their wagons and we decided to head over to join them.  There must have been at least four pods of humpbacks frolicking about.  What a show!  We spent a good hour hovering around, watching them roll and dive before moving on to Provincetown.

     Provincetown provided a very entertaining walk as we strolled the main street in both directions, taking in the tourist shops and art galleries, and people-watching.  We had some local ice cream at Lewis Brothers’ right near the beach before returning to the boat for the night.  

     Saturday morning dawned with thick fog and howling winds and we almost decided to spend another day in P-Town, but around eight-thirty the sun came out and it seemed calm enough, so we set off for Sandwich and the Cape Cod canal.  We set Ziggy and brought seats out to the foredeck to keep a look out and enjoy the morning.

     About halfway across the bay the winds picked up and suddenly we were surrounded by white caps.  We were impressed that Ziggy could keep a steady course under increasing winds and seas, and let him handle it for a little while longer before Dan took the helm and piloted us the rest of the way to and through the canal.  The canal offered little respite; while the tide urged us along at eight knots, the wind was still pushing against us and the canal itself was choppy.  As soon as we were through, we made harbor in Onset Harbor, a snug little anchorage around the corner from Mass. Maritime Academy.  Here we’ll enjoy a big dinner of chicken on the grill, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. 

Thursday May 28

     Hello from Gloucester!  We arrived here about mid-day on Wednesday, after a very nice couple of days in Portsmouth, NH where we enjoyed a family cookout on Memorial Day with Martha Coombs and many of the Coombs clan, and had lunch with Dan’s Coast Guard Academy buddy Tom “Gigs” Giguere and wife Cheryl on Tuesday.  The Piscataqua River to Portsmouth is the dividing line between Maine and New Hampshire; we had fun watching the activities on both shores from our anchorage.

     We cruised to Gloucester through the Annisqaum/Blynman Canal, a very narrow and shallow waterway only a few yards from beaches and rocks. 

We had to have them open two bridges for us, one of them a railroad bridge.  Very picturesque. 

     Gloucester is truly a working harbor; businesses catering to the many fisherman, the Coast Guard, and a few shipyards are on the harbor instead of fancy condos and private homes.  We visited the Cape Ann Art/History/Culture Center on Pleasant Street for a little maritime history and to see one of the boats that famous resident Howard Blackburn took across the Atlantic.  If you’ve never heard of him, you should look him up - quite the character.  “Lone Voyager” by Joseph Garland tells all about him and his adventures and is a great read.

May 24th  Sunday

     I have to put the day of the week in there because we are already starting to forget!  Those of you following us on https://share.delorme.com/danandkathy may have noticed there have been some technical errors.  Most of it is operator error as Dan figures out exactly how it works (and how it doesn’t.)  We are trying to stay on top of it, so please bear with us.

     When we left Boothbay Harbor on Saturday we ran into 25 knots of wind.  I stood up on the cabin top with our anemometer and recorded a gust of over 35 knots and we made the decision to turn around and drop anchor.  Good news - we found out how well the anchor holds in that kind of wind. And had we gotten the anchor for free I would tell you what kind it is.  We spent Saturday organizing the boat and figuring out permanent places for much of the stuff still decorating the counters, table, bench, and soles.  The weather calmed down enough come evening so we decided to cross the Sheepscot River to Harmon Harbor where we spent a very snug night.

     Today we pushed on to Portland.  It was NOT a comfortable day - still a large swell running, still quite windy out there, and we were cold - but we decided to go for it anyway. We’re in South Portland for the night after enjoying a great moose-meat spaghetti dinner with son Bill.  

Departure

     We had a goal of being in Portland by boat, on Sunday May 17th to watch our younger son graduate, but that didn’t happen.  We did get to the graduation, though, and can brag about our son’s accomplishments - phi theta kappa, high honors, highest GPA (4.0!) in his program.  So, Sunday: Portland by car.

     Monday, May 18th: it was a beautiful day - we both hit the ground running. We planned to leave on Wednesday May 20th. We brought a lot of stuff down to the boat.  A LOT of stuff.   Why did I ever think the bags and crates of food sitting in the dining room would fit into the food lockers on the boat??  Dan suddenly realized his list of ‘last minute’ projects was a lot longer than he thought.  My own list of what to do suddenly seemed overwhelming.  We did get a lot done, but it didn’t seem like it.

     Tuesday May 19th: the forecast was for a rainy, raw day.  Dan turned to me first thing and said “I need another day.”  I did too.  So we agreed.  We would depart on Thursday.  He spent the entire day in his boat barn/wood shop.  I spent the day in the house, boxing up what still needed boxing, and cleaning as I moved from room to room.

     Wednesday May 20th: People keep letting us know they noticed our satellite tracking shows the boat is still in Camden.  Is there anything we need?  Anything they can do?  We need sanity.  Maybe another twelve hours in the day.  Around eight pm, we finally moved aboard the boat.  All we intended to do was get the bed ready, a gymnastics feat as anyone with a forepeak berth knows, but made more daunting by climbing over and weaving around the obstacle course of crates, bags and loose piles of stuff on every surface.  

     Thursday May 21st:  departure day.  Sort of.  8:00 am - we’re sitting in Boynton McKay downtown Camden enjoying a leisurely breakfast. Dan says “Hey!  We’re officially in retirement!”   9:00 am - we’re back at the house.  One last load of dishes, one last load of laundry.  I clean out the refrigerator, find more food than I thought there’d be in the freezer, and remember there’s a litter box to empty and wash.  Dan works on more last minute projects in the barn.  12:30 pm - I bring the ice cream and two spoons to the barn and we have lunch.  2:00 pm - Dan and I make a dump run.  He says he’s almost done in the barn.  We get ready to lug the last car load to the boat.   3:30 pm - we walk up to the Camden Deli to split a sandwich.  6:00 pm- Dan invites his parents down to the dock to take pictures of our departure.  We aren’t really departing, but he has this thing about beginning a voyage on a Friday (bad luck) and all he plans to do at first is a mini harbor cruise and return to one of the floats for the night.  Dan’s parents dutifully take pictures and we all wave as if we won’t see each other for a long time.  We decide not to return to a float in Camden harbor and proceed on to Rockport harbor to officially call it a departure.  At 7:45 we call Dan’s father to come get us and bring us back to our car in Camden.  8:00 pm - we are back at the house, bagging up our foam mattress and memory foam topper for storage.  The house echoes and is pretty damn clean, and minimally furnished, ready for Lindsay, our renter.  8:45 pm - we are back aboard the Willie Dawes.  Dan installs the cabin door - a novelty, we never had one before - and we entertain the cat who is now perking up in anticipation of boat life.  10:00 pm - we’re in bed.  We haven’t gone very far, but we are on our way!  

     

Friday May 22nd:  After a few early morning errands, we set off from Rockport harbor.  It was a chilly day, and the sea was full of swells, but we made it to Boothbay Harbor where we are spending the night at the town dock after enjoying a great dinner at McSeagull’s, courtesy of Dan’s parents Alan and Marnie who came down to deliver some mail.

     We have splashdown!  We launched the Willie Dawes and Sybil (tender to the Willie Dawes) first thing today, after several busy days of sanding, painting, cleaning, and more sanding and painting.  The bottom painting was finished by nine pm last night. At 0645 this morning Dan got a call from Journeys End asking if we were ready.  Yes was the answer, the response, we're on the way!

     The actual launching went very smoothly.  Leaving the dock adjacent to the travel lift?  Not so smooth.

     The engine started but didn’t want to stay running.  Fuel line problem... fairly easily solved and fixed, bled out.  Water cooling system had hoarse cough that spit sporadic drops of sea water out the stern.  This prompted a quick trip to Hamilton Marine Supply for a new impeller.  Now the engine worked and sea water gushed as it should, but there was a persistent alarm going off despite all the gauges giving normal readings.  No matter, we (meaning Dan, the ultimate troubleshooter) would figure it out once we moved to the borrowed slip, out of the way of the travel lift, which was in steady use this morning.

     That was when we realized the gears were reversed - forward was actually reverse and vice versa.  Dan had completely overhauled everything over the winter, taking everything apart, replacing and rebuilding in anticipation of our retirement cruise.  This surprise too was easily fixed, but it did make moving from the dock to the slip a bit more of an adventure.   Dan says he had a fifty fifty chance of getting it right the first time, oh well...

     Figuring out what was setting off the alarm led to the replacement of the leaking raw water strainer, (another trip to Hamilton Marine),  and filling the heat exchanger with antifreeze, which had been emptied during that winter overhaul.  The temperature sensor alarm and the temperature gauge alarm are two separate alarms!  Now we know.

     Everything back in sound working order, and seeing as we still had a couple of hours before supper, we decided to go ahead and bring the boat to Camden, as we have the use of a dock there while we spend our last few days ashore getting ready to move aboard.  Halfway out of Rockland harbor, Dan decided to take a peek at the new stuffing box.  The next thing I know, he has shut down the engine to give the box a tweak while I watch the outgoing ferry pass to starboard and keep an eye on the incoming ferry who seems headed right for us.  Fortunately Dan’s tweaking doesn’t take very long and soon we are on our way again.  

     Seeing as we’d been doing so well so far, Dan thought the easy passage to Camden was also a good time to test the new autopilot.  After watching the helm twist away first toward the shore and then toward open sea instead of placidly head us up the bay to Camden, Dan muttered “I guess I'm forced read the directions” and turned the autopilot off.  

     We arrived in Camden by six, in time for a quick supper at the Camden Deli, and now have a good start on our maintenance log!  All in all, not a bad shake down cruise. 

Check our day's trip at https://share.delorme.com/danandkathy 

Coming right down to it!

Dan says he has two bits of wisdom to pass along to others who plan to retire aboard a boat and cruise away: first, ALL the money you make in your last working year will go right straight into the boat; second, you really don’t have time to keep up a blog.

April was a bittersweet month.  We both became ill with what turned out to be a long slog through a nasty head cold that settled in our sinuses, ears, and chest, giving us a roller coaster ride as we struggled to work the remaining weeks of our jobs and prepare for our departure in May.  While Dan literally counted down, (for the last 18 months!)  the days to his retirement, my leaving my employment working for folksinger Gordon Bok was tearful.  I’ve worked for this wonderful man for eight years and enjoyed every minute of it.  I cried all the way home on my last day.

Dan’s been very busy installing all the equipment - the new radar, the new GPS plotter, the new autopilot, new fuel tanks, complete re-installation of the engine and drive shaft - as well as tweaking the boat in small ways to find new places to store things.  As any boat owner will tell you, new installations and tweaking of any kind don’t always go as planned; they usually involve multiple trips to the marine hardware store or some re-thinking of what seemed like a great idea at first.  I have gotten used to supper time discussions that start out “I changed my mind about where the [insert current project] will go...” 

I, (if you haven't figured it out yet, Kathy)  have been busy preparing our house to rent, making sure we have all our finances, documents, bills, etc up to date, online, and generally in order, scanned and copied as necessary.  We have lists and lists on what we’re bringing -  not just what we’d normally bring on a cruise, but what we’ll want to have with us because we’re not just cruising, we’re living aboard.  For instance, I’ll want all my knitting needles, not just a small bag with the current project.  The tricky part is knowing what we really will need and use, so we aren’t lugging things that just take up space.  A thirty foot boat only has so much room...