29th May - 3rd July 2013 - Deltaville, back down to Norfolk and great sail to Boston!
Nimue
Wed 3 Jul 2013 01:11
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One of the reasons we headed back up to Deltaville was to have
a full engine check. Unfortunately, Zimmermans had not got us booked in
for any work to be undertaken, as they thought we were returning to the
UK? Anyway, we managed to get Nimue hauled for a minor fibreglass repair
and Michael managed to change the relatively new propeller seal back to the
original stuffing box.
All fixed, we sailed back down to Norfolk,
but unfortunately had forgotten, we had slightly left the forward hatch ajar and
of course, we hit a rogue wave and salt water entered..........when will we
learn?
Having spent two days with Gary & Greta, we
slipped from their dock around mid-day for a 3 day trip to Boston.
With a chance of thunderstorms always looming around this time of year, we left
with a pretty decent forecast of around S-SW 15 kn. Unfortunately, within a few
minutes of leaving, we heard a clunking noise and despite checking all the
obvious places, the noise didn’t appear to want to go away. After
putting Nimue in reverse and forward and turning in circles, the noise
slowly disappeared and we decided to keep going. We both believe something
had got caught around the propeller, which the rope cutter eventually cut
off!
So our first big offshore trip for a while, which would take
us past New York, outside of Long Island through the Cape Cod Canal and up to
Boston. As we headed out of the Chesapeake we sailed for the gap between
the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel-bridge (once the longest bridge-tunnel-bridge
in the world). Once through we went past Cape Charles light on the
southern end of the Eastern Shore. Sailing well in 18 knots of S-SW and settling
into ocean cruising again, we ate locally made crab cakes and rice for
supper. Not long after sunset, the seas became quite lumpy and our first
night at sea was not the most comfortable! The ‘false dawn’ appeared
around 0430, which is always a pleasure to see and Nimue was now in the
‘groove’, so we had a lovely sail for most of the day. As evening
came, the winds built up and we were getting a constant 23 knots of wind, so we
put in the first reef into the main, which was good timing, as we were then hit
by several minor squalls! Then came the rain, which in turn reduced the
wind speed. So after nearly 48 hours of sailing, we turned on the
engine and motor sailed past Block Island and into Buzzards Bay. It
was a particularly dark night as we made for the Cape Cod canal, which
everyone advised is okay for transiting at night (agree – but not on the first
occasion). We were both tired and we knew as we approached and transited
the canal, we had to concentrate on the buoyage and the current. We
entered the Canal at 0130 and completed the 14 mile transit in just under 2
hours. Not the most pleasant experience, as we had never travelled the
Canal in daylight, making our bearings and surroundings unfamiliar and more
difficult to judge distances . Anyway, once we were safely through, we had
another lovely sail up to Boston Harbour. Kenny, had managed to
secure a mooring for us at his Yacht Club (South Shore Yacht Club) and after a
further 2 hours of negotiating the harbour we arrived, with Kenny at
the ready to hand us the mooring line!
Apart from the Cape Cod canal, we thoroughly enjoyed the sail
up to Boston and covered 464 nm ‘door to door’ in just under 72
hours.
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