Monday, June 2, 2008

Offshore Southern New England (Monday, June 2, 2008). Offshore passage from New Jersey had Tony and Jeff splitting watches (9-12; 12-3; and 3-6). Fairly quiet. After a good day of sailing, mostly wing-on-wing with a following breeze and following seas, we decided to motor through the night in order to avoid sail changes and accommodate the expected wind shift from SW to NW and N. On the 9-12 Tony & Tess met up with a “tug and barge” which did not respond to hailing. Moments later the tug and barge added a green light to its stern thus appearing to move in opposite directions. On closer (and slower) inspection, it turned out to be two freighters passing each other. The green turned toward us and passed starboard to starboard. The red was our stand on vessel and we veered 90º and ran a good half mile astern of her. It was fairly pleasant in the cockpit – comfortable temperature with a light fleece blanket. Phosphorescence sparkled in the bow wake…a lovely time on the water.

Jeff and Noreen came up just as the rain started. We had been watching lightening over NYC. My first thought was of my good luck in sleeping through the rain. It was brief. Noreen got even by waking me within 30 minutes of my slumber to view a real tug and barge and discuss appropriate maneuvers. It is great when the crew actually wakes you per standing orders. I don’t know whether I was called again, but the next thing I remember was looking at a clock saying 3:00. I spoke with Noreen in the morning…yes, the thunderstorm came through on their watch, which meant the interface with the cold front. She sat above and shivered as if in the Arctic for her watch with Jeff. Cape is still on, but she’s rethinking which fun trips she wants to take with Jeff in the future!

Tess again joined me for most of this watch. At 4:00 I spent a lonely hour though hunting the hibernating flies that followed us from New Jersey. Thousands died. We walked on carcasses like butchers through a slaughter house. Okay, so I came up at 3:15, cat napped for about 45 minutes in the cockpit “helping Tony”, then went back to bed where I belonged. At 5:30 I put breakfast in the oven and we had hot food ready for 6:30 am celebration that the ordeal has ended.

Making Vineyard Sound was like being home already. We arrived at Vineyard Haven at Martha’s Vineyard at 3:30 in the afternoon. That makes (from 5:30 a.m. on Saturday) a good 34 hour passage. Other items we’ve neglected to mention: Don’t eat clams, ever again. Tony and CGA had clams with their meal in Cape May and after docking in AC both were attacked with food poisoning symptoms. Friday night was a rough one for both of them, and the lingering effects are still present at this writing (Wednesday, June 4). Although Tony is in much better shape than CGA, the distress creeps into his system once or twice daily and is pretty difficult to watch and even more difficult to imagine how he maintains a calm reserve and relative proficiency with this damn vessel. Docking in the Vineyard was the exact opposite of docking in Cape May. Although there was no music playing, there was a little ‘dazed and confused’ approach to the slip big enough for the Woods Hole ferry….but with cool-as-a-cuke and willing-to-do-absolutely-anything- that-needed-to-be-done Jeff and Noreen, and the nimble next crew on dockside, we parked this puppy, shook off the fly wings from our socks, and opened a few cans of beer and toasted the safe arrival and beautiful harbor of Vineyard Sound.