East Coast of America Part 2
Thursday 13 July, Newport Rhode Island to Mattapoisett Harbour, Massachusetts, 41 miles, 6 hrs 40 minutes, 6.7 engine hrs, 6.12 knots average speed. Total Miles: 7327.9 We departed at 0700 hrs and soon hit thick fog. There was no wind so we were motoring and debating if safer to turn back. We were quite shocked at the speed some motorboats were travelling, 20 knots plus, without transmitting AIS so we couldn’t see them approaching on our screen, just hear them getting closer. They would pop up out of nowhere some narrowly missing us. The ferries and cargo ships travelled quickly but at least we could track them with AIS. The fog lifted a little to give us 3 miles visibility so we continued. On arrival at Mattapoisett, the anchorage shown on our chart and in the pilot book was now filled with mooring buoys. Although we could have picked one up we preferred to anchor to save $40 per night! We had to anchor at the back of the mooring buoy field a good mile or so from shore. The wind had picked up, it was now raining, thunder and lightening so we didn’t go ashore to explore. Friday 14 July, Mattapoisett, Buzzard’s Bay to Marion MA, 8 miles 1.5 hrs, 1.5 engine hrs, 5.33 knots ave. speed, Total Miles: 7335.9 We had to leave for Marion the following day as had booked into the boatyard there to have a rigging check as we were struggling to hoist the mainsail. We didn’t venture ashore prior to leaving as the weather was still grim. The boatyard was situated 2 miles upriver, up a very narrow channel with boats moored very closely on either side. The docking area was tight, but staff assisted by taking our lines. Tourterelle were also there having work done. They had been struck by lightening causing their instruments and navigation lights to fail. A rigger went up the mast by crane and discovered our track needed replacing. It was old, had UV damage and was suffering wear and tear. The bill for this assessment was $400! Labour is very expensive in the US. Ken ordered a new track to be delivered to the boatyard and we booked in for the following week to have it fitted.
Marion to Phinney’s Harbour, Monument Beach. 11 miles, 2.2 hrs, 2.2 engine hrs, 5 knots av speed. Total Miles: 7346.9 We arrived after Tourterelle and noticed they had anchored in a small pool at the head of Phinney’s Harbour, with just one other motorboat on a mooring buoy. We went close to them but decided there wasn’t room for us both so Ken reversed out slowly along practically the same track we’d gone in on. We came to a sudden holt that jolted the boat and made an awful noise. We’d clearly hit an uncharted rock. Ken went forwards and all seemed fine with the steering, rudder and propeller (although we would need to dive once in clear water). Ian and Ann saw the incident and said it looked like the keel had hit the rock, rather than the rudder or propeller, thankfully. Our long lead keel is encapsulated so no bolts to sheer off. Ian and Ann’s chart also showed clear depth with no rocks! We dropped the anchor in a large pool near to Monument Beach about half a mile from Tourterelle; no other boats were anchored.
Still in a state of shock we dinghied over to Tourterelle for a stiff drink! Whilst chatting with them a rather large, impressive rib came over to say hello! They were the owners of a massive, beautiful Spanish looking house that we could see on the water’s edge and were very excited to see a yacht anchored in the pool as normally yachts stay out where we were anchored. Ann invited Rob and Kitty aboard; it was great to chat to them about the area. We all immediately hit it off and they invited us for breakfast the next morning. Their house was amazing and had incredible views towards Cape Cod Canal. Every window had a sea view, a bit like Lady Rebel I guess!!
A neighbour of theirs, Tom Bruce, whose ancestors were Scottish came down to visit Rob and Kitty and it turns out Ann’s Grandmother was also a Bruce from the same area, so they were no doubt distant relatives! We went to look at Tom’s massive house that purposely hadn’t been modernised since the 1800’s. Even the fire extinguishers were original glass balls of liquid h20 and C02 in metal wall fixings. He had lots of interesting old maps and pictures.
Rob and Kitty then took us for a 50 mile tour of Cape Cod including a visit to Wood’s Hole and Falmouth. A lot of the towns share the same names as in the UK. We had a very late lunch at The Fisherman’s, at Sandwich Marina overlooking Cape Cod Canal. Best lobster I’ve ever eaten and so cheap compared to the UK!
Watching boats being swept by the fierce tides was interesting! We then did a supermarket shop making use of the car (luxury, as normally we have to walk with heavy shopping) and later they took us to The Chartroom, a very lively and well known bar/restaurant in a converted barge, for a traditional Mudslide – Vodka, Kalua, Baileys blended with ice and milk. The next day was glorious – bright blue sky, 80o F (we’d got used to reverting back to ‘old’ units having now been in the US for a while!). Rob and Kitty had invited us, Tourterelle and some other friends, Jon and Annette, fishing on their 36 foot Everglade motorboat. It had holders for approximately 20 rods plus 3 x 350hp outboards on the back!!
Another boat also joined us, Mark and Donna whom we’d met the night before. The two boats went through the Cape Code Canal (540 feet wide, 32 feet deep, the widest sea-level canal in the World. The tidal difference from Buzzards Bay end at 4 feet, to Cape Cod end at 9 feet creates currents of 3.5 knots going East on the flood and 6 knots going West on the ebb). We just made it into canal before they lowered the railway bridge. The speed limit is 10 knots although boats seem to travel faster, thus creating a heavy chop especially if against the tide. It wasn’t the most comfortable of rides.
On exiting the canal we came into Cape Cod Bay, flat as a pancake. 50 miles across, average speed of 35 knots (woo hoo) we arrived outside Province Town. We rafted up alongside Mark and Donna’s boat to fish and BBQ. I learned how to cast but didn’t catch anything. Nor did the others. The area was on a shelf; there were hundreds of motorboats bobbing around fishing. If a shoal of fish came in all the boats would race towards it desperate to catch. We swam, the sea temperature noticeably colder at 62oF, than we’d been used to! Ken had been driving the boat whilst we’d been fishing so I drove the boat around to Province Town Harbour.
Province Town is amazing with a ‘buzzing’ atmosphere. Gays and transvestites freely wander around in unusual outfits showing their affection and showgirls advertise their performances. We stopped for a cocktail before heading back. A memorable day and a couple more ticks in the boxes.
Our new friends Jon and Annette, in Phinney’s Harbour, Monument Beach, invited us to an amazing pool party and BBQ. Before arriving Rob took Ken digging for Quahogs (large clams) and Kitty took Ann and I to the beach outside their house to dig for soft shelled clams. We learned how to prepare and stuff these for barbequing. Stuffies, delicious! We also did bourbon tasting and some dancing at the local pub!
Rob took us to a welding man who made us some brackets for our new anchor roller and Walter, a friend of Rob’s had a look at our outboard motor that had an electrical fault. He kindly put the dinghy on his trailer and towed it back to his house where between the three of us we diagnosed the rev. counter was shorting and the dial had actually melted underneath. My input was to pinpoint where the burning smell was coming from - right up in the console. Originally we had suspected a faulty starter motor so this was a much better, cheaper outcome. Our next trip was from Monument Beach back to Marion to celebrate Anne’s Birthday and to have our new main sail track fitted. We anchored in the bay just outside the harbour, the anchorage all to ourselves and motored up to the restaurant for a wonderful meal, with Aura and Ocean Blue too. The following day we took Lady Rebel up to the boat yard for the track fitting. It was a bit of a faff taking the mainsail off, but all went swimmingly (which is unusual where boat jobs are concerned!). We also collected our new Rocna anchor and some more solar panels that Ken had had delivered to the boat yard.
In Marion we also utilised The Beverly Yacht Club; their wifi was the best we’d seen for a while, so we downloaded lots of TV programmes to watch on the IPad. That evening we picked up a mooring buoy (free, having had some work done at the yard) and the following morning we put the mainsail back on; luckily there was no wind and also did an engine oil change. We’d barely finished this when we got a call from the boat yard to ask if we’d vacated the mooring! We were actually contemplating staying another night as the weather was due to turn cold, wet and windy. The boat yard advised that the owner of the mooring buoy was returning. I was still on the radio to the boatyard when the owner started circling us! Our floor boards were still up, tools were everywhere and we’d done no stowage or preparation to move on. Talk about short notice. I wasn’t best pleased as was far from organised but we had no choice but to move. 27 July 2017 – Marion to Hadley Harbour, 12 miles, 2.75 hrs, 4.4 knots average speed, 3.2 engine hrs Total Miles since leaving Falmouth: 7385.9 We motored to Hadley Harbour due to the wind being on the nose. We anchored in the inner harbour. It was very well sheltered and beautiful, even in the drizzly weather!
There is not a great deal to see at Hadley’s Harbour and the weather was not conducive to swimming so the next morning we weighed anchor early and headed to Vineyard’s Haven on Martha’s Vineyard Island. This was to turn out to be a bad day! The trip through Wood’s Hole was tricky due to lots of buoyage marking various channels and a fast running tide.
It was a beautiful hot sunny day and we timed our arrival just prior to the bridge opening into the lagoon. We wanted to go into the lagoon for more shelter, as some bad weather was forecast. There were three other boats circling and we were listening out on VHF channel 16, as instructed on the bridge sign. We waited for the other three boats to go through and followed in turn, close behind. Just as we were lined up to go through the narrow entrance, the bridge operator hailed us to stop and go onto channel 69, which we did. He then asked if we were going through the bridge. It couldn’t have been more obvious that we were, he was clearly watching us and nothing was coming the other way! Because Ken had taken off the revs in order for us to stop, as instructed – for what turned out to be for no reason whatsoever, the tide caught us and was taking us closer to the side of the bridge. Just at this point the bridge operator shouted ‘power, power’. Assuming the guy knew what he was talking about Ken increased the revs but it was too late, we slammed into the side of the bridge. There was an awful crunching noise and clearly damage had been done which we would inspect once anchored. We were concerned we might have cracked the hull and be taking on water. The bridge operator was clearly a ‘jobs worth’, wanted to let us know he was in control of the bridge. In hindsight we should have contacted the bridge prior to entering however this was not in any of our pilot books that we’d read previously. There was no communication on channel 16 and even the harbour master, when he came to inspect the damage at our request, said it was protocol, not ‘the law’ to contact the bridge! We were devastated but reminded ourselves that no-one was hurt or had lost a limb. Thank goodness I wasn’t holding a fender to try and protect the boat; it could have taken my arm off.
We completed an incident form with photographs and a statement and notified the environmental police. The bridge operator also submitted a statement. We were going to have to claim on insurance, preferably theirs as the first quote we received to mend the damage was just short of $10,000 and we were adamant it was his fault. There was absolutely no need or reason for him to tell us to stop and if we hadn’t we would have gone straight through without incident. That evening to take our minds off the situation we invited Bill and Jade (White Ibis) and Simon and Kim (Aura) over for dinner, having first gone ashore to provision.
Bill and Jade White Ibis Kim and Simon – Aura The next couple of days were wet and windy so we stayed on board catching up with boat maintenance, chasing the authorities, writing the blog and playing Mexican Trains with Aura and White Ibis. |
