The trip to Cape Cod outside

We left Saturday, August 2 and cruised up to the North Street Landing in Portsmouth, VA at a free dock we discovered on the way up 11 years ago.  We just locked up, stepped off, and restaurants were right there.  Easy.   

 

We left at 10:30 pm, Everything is all lit up everywhere because it is a huge Navy yard. A Portsmouth pamphlet said it’s the deepest natural harbor in the world.   The Navy Yard is in Norfolk, but it’s called the Portsmouth Navy Yard.  Portsmouth is located across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk.  Like Maine and NH the shipyard is called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, but actually the boatyard is across the Piscataqua River in Kittery, Maine.

  There are tons of things to look at.  Fortunately no huge boats, like aircraft carriers were coming in or out of the channel for us to maneuver out of their way. 

All of Sunday, August 3 we motored inching up the coastline.  Drew never stops moving and feels great.

quick selfie

Monday, August 4

The Iridium phone didn’t work this sunny morning when I called the Master Gardeners Association meeting as we past Cape May in NJ.  Because of all of the metal around like the mast, the phone kept cutting out.  We are also moving, and it doesn’t like that either.  Don’t recommend one of these phones although it was very easy to use – turn on, wait for the Iridium registered text on the phone and dial.  So much for that – I missed my meeting and Drew is not going to use it for his since we’ll be on land by Wednesday morning. (stopping at Parker’s Boat Yard).  The instructions for the Iridium say to use only outside, not near any buildings or high structures, and stay in one spot.  Drew and I were thinking, how does anyone use this thing reliably?  I guess it’s for the army in a field, not woods.  There are many articles on this device, but I wonder where they use it. Drew called the office today but got cut off because we rocked and rolled with the low waves.

The night and day were incredible. Sunny, warm, light winds with very glassy seas and low wave action all day long.  It almost felt like we weren’t moving.  We finally were honored with viewing a group of dolphins that glided next to the boat. One came right over to the side of the boat where I was standing and did a beautiful arched jump.  She/he almost winked at me. Another small, young one played around and swam under the boat. So cute.

The nightly entertainment, the sunset, was glorious.  We never tire of watching the red ball descend into the horizon with  different colors every night – still have never seen the green flash that some say is real just as the sun disappears at the horizon.

  After “cooking” the Stouffers dinners in the microwave oven, before we sat down to eat, we danced to the Ipod, “The Way You Look Tonight.”  The ¼ moon cast a long, silver rippled line to the boat like a pathway to the horizon. 

  Gentle seas are the way to go.  We have hardly sailed once since we left because the winds are not from the SW to help us go. The winds are from ENE hitting us on the nose.  And several times there just wasn’t any wind.  We left early to beat Tropical Storm Bertha. We are about 50 miles off shore. 

 

 Flat ocean picture

 Me in my spot.

 If you want to feel time stand still get on a boat at night with clouds covering the moon and stars.  There’s no sky or land, just floating on black.  No schedule, no phone, no Internet out this far.  It’s quite magical.  I am on watch as I write this- the boat is on auto-pilot following a track Drew put in.  I glance up periodically to look around and check the radar that tells if there are any boats headed our way.  We also use the paper charts and the Ipad app, Navionics.  These are the three ways to watch where we’re going safely.

 Dolphins during the day.  Tried to upload video.

Tuesday Aug.5

Continued the trip.  In the middle of the night there was a large group of bold dolphins swimming with us for about a half an hour: jumping out of the water, under and all around the boat.  I was on watch and enjoyed their show.  What made it especially spectacular was the phosphorescence in the water.  These are tiny creatures that light up in the water, like fireflies in the water, especially where the water is stirred up or in the wake of the dolphins.  They’d make the "pshh" sound as they breathed before diving under.  I then looked up to the star studded sky and figured we must be in the Pleiades because there were shooting stars about one every 5 minutes short ones, long ones, fat and thin lines across the black night. 

During the day a moth flew in and landed on the ceiling of the bimini.  It skirted away into the ropes and stayed there until we arrived at Parkers Boat Yard in Pocasset, and I undid the ropes to let the dinghy down.  It flew away to the nearby land.  Nice trip for the little thing. 

  There was pea soup fog that greeted us at Block Island. For most of the day we navigated by auto-pilot, Maxsea's course and radar to avoid other boats.  The fog horns blared every note especially through the shipping channels with the big barges and tankers. 

 Fog with low visibility

All these days out our Iphones say “No Service” even with a couple of bars as we approached land passing Long Island, Block Island, and the Elizabeth Islands.

  After the fog lifted in the afternoon as Drew napped in the salon I cut the engine and sailed for a while on light 5 to 9 k winds.  He woke up and said, “Hey, wait. You’re having way too much fun up there.”  I played with the wind for a while but soon returned to motoring because we wanted to get to the mooring before 5. 

  We met my roommate from college, Jean and her husband Steve for dinner in North Falmouth just as we had done in October on our way down.  The first thing Jean said to Drew was, “You lost weight.”  He always does on the boat.

  Funny to walk on land with the feeling of motion gone after our constant balancing on the voyage.  We returned from dinner about 10, dinghied back to Shawnee, and crashed into bed.

Wednesday, August 6

Got up late in time for Drew’s conference call with work scheduled for 10 to 3 pm on his cell phone. 

  Gorgeous light wind day. 

Our view from the mooring - someone else's boat.

 I called for the launch to bring me in.  I am  sitting here in a comfortable Adirondack chair writing the blog and emailing overlooking the harbor bordered by two blue hydrangea bushes.  The plan for Thursday, August 7 is to go 30 miles (5 hours) to Provincetown for the night and then head west 48 miles (9 hours) to Marblehead on Friday.  My kind sister, Chris, is going to meet us and drive us back home Saturday morning.