A sweet sendoff, and the first night of our passage to Maine
On Thursday the 29th we got together with our friends the Saffers, and they surprised us with a cake to say “bon voyage!” It was a sweet sendoff for our departure the next day. We topped it off with cocktails with some other AYC friends on the lawn before calling it a night.
On Friday morning we brought the boat to the dock for a good scrub down and a bunch of work scrubbing out, bleaching, and filling the water tanks. Hard work but for good reason – so our water doesn’t taste funky! Patrick headed back to the mooring while Cecelia and I made a run to the grocery store for provisions (thanks, Hil, for the use of your car!) and took showers on shore. We all reconvened on the boat, and our friend Matt arrived in the afternoon to join us for the journey to Maine.
At 3:35pm, we cast off the mooring lines, radioed in our farewell thanks to the AYC crew, and pointed the bow east. Maine bound!
It was a motorsail kind of day, and the haze from the wildfires in Quebec was everywhere, so there wasn’t much to see as we got underway. We did have a delicious butter chicken dinner to celebrate starting our journey, after which we caught some pictures of the red sun through the haze.
Shortly after that, I went down below to try to get some sleep, and Patrick and Matt took the first watch. I got up around 11 and came on watch at 11:30ish, when they both went to sleep. It was quiet and calm out. The moon was out in full, and through the haze and dark it made kind of a cool photo.
We motorsailed along and made it to the Race (a chokepoint with strong currents) at peak ebb around 1:15am. I saw 11.4 knots of speed on our instruments. It was definitely a ride! I kept busy during my watch looking out for traffic and listening to a podcast. At about 4:00am, as we were passing north of Block Island, I woke Patrick up to take over and I went down to get some sleep.
All in all, it was a pretty easy overnight; not much going on, and conditions were calm. Would it be that way the whole way to Maine?
Incredibly exciting & thank you for sharing your adventure!
What’s the gadget with the white wire next to the B&G display?
Hi Amanda! That’s a USB charging point – the wire is a charging cord connected to an iPad mounted just off screen.