Arriving in Marblehead

The overnight sail was pretty sporty. When Patrick and I switched out around 11:30, winds were 15-18 knots, gusting into the 20s, so we put in a reef (reduced the surface area of the mainsail) to make the ride more comfortable. We discussed when it would be time to go to the second reef (reduce the sail even more)…but it wasn’t actually rigged and ready to go, so we would have to drop the mainsail to rig the reef line and then raise the main back up on that second reef. That would take both of us.

Patrick went down to get some sleep, but as soon as he did, the wind piped up even more, and we were getting steadily 18-20 knots with gusts into the mid-20s. (The highest gust I saw overnight was 29 – definitely glad we were in a downwind mode!) So he came back up and we began the process of putting the second reef in and getting things settled again. I think he went back downstairs around 1 am and I planned to stay on watch until 4:15. He woke up a little earlier than that, so we went ahead and swapped again, and then he was ready for me to come back up around 6ish.

I should say here that we’d prefer to be on 4 hour watches, so each of us can get a good chunk of sleep, but this time it wasn’t happening–we didn’t both take naps during the day, the wind was changing, etc. We really hadn’t worked out our rhythm for this passage, and needing to both be up for a while at midnight to mess with the reefing lines made it even more challenging to get the right windows of sleep going!

I did take some nice photos as the day was opening up when I came on watch.

Patrick relieved me one more time around 8:30, and by late morning, everyone was awake again and we were approaching our destination. First we passed Baker Island, which is the featured photo on this post. Then we dropped our sails and motored around into the Marblehead entrance.

Approaching the harbor was a little daunting–just look at all those boats! I believe I read there are 2400 moorings in Marblehead harbor. I believe it.

We radioed Eastern Yacht Club (thank you to Laura and her cousin Lauren for introducing us to the club!) and were escorted to a mooring tucked way back inside the harbor, which we were grateful for, because we all needed a nap and a good night’s sleep!