Whales and more whales - Gloucester, Massachusetts

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 14 Sep 2013 23:57

42:35.5N 70:39.8W

 

Saturday 14th September

 

Up at 0530 hours and thankfully, no rain, no fog and a very little wind – so a go, go, go situation.

 

Both Balvenie and we were under way by 0600 hours (cleanest anchor chain for months which was a bonus) and once we were out past the surf crashing still on the rocks very close to us, we both set our sails and courses for Gloucester, Massachusetts.

 

We immediately hoisted Flossie our big lightweight foresail and in to time at all were purring along at 6 to 7 knots. Mark & Amanda do not have such a sail and are nursing their very tired old genoa as far as Newport, RI where they have a new sail being made for them. Consequently they opted for a more upwind course to hopefully take advantage of what Mark understood from his forecasts would be a wind shift later in the day. We opted for route one and pinned our ears back and set a course following the shortest possible route.

 

Serafina made really good time and speed and by the middle of the day we were ahead of our schedule and sadly could no longer even see Balvenie, who’s more westerly course had taken them way over to the coastline and left them with a good deal further to sail at what was almost certainly a slower speed.  We were treated to a number of visits by whales, mostly Fin whales which seem to abound here, but also some Pilot whales as well. Nothing spectacular to photograph but we knew we were in the right area later on when we were passed by no less than 6 whale watching boats, packed with cold but eager customers.

 

The sun made fleeting appearances during the day but it remained pretty cold and dry throughout. Sadly though with 14 miles still to run, the wind backed to the south and was bang on the nose and we were reduced to rolling Flossie away and motor-sailing along the direct route still. Of course there were the lobster pot buoys to avoid still, but as we entered the waters of Massachusetts, these definitely thinned out to become pretty sparse further offshore. However, they still required careful vigilance as there was also the very real ignominy of catching a pot round the prop having avoided this fate for most of the time we were in Maine!

 

As we approached Gloucester at 1630 hours, we got a call from Balvenie to say that they had made very slow progress and were now going to stop  and spend the night in the Isle of Shoals. They later texted to say that conditions there were dreadful, but there were few alternatives at that stage.  We made our way into the big entrance to Gloucester and Sarah selected a spot out of the way, in reputedly good holding, but another lee shore for what it is worth. The swell here is not too bad and acceptable as again we are planning on another early start to take advantage of a forecast favourable west wind in the morning.

 

Mind you around 1930 hours we had a big disco boat drive round us with booming music ………. And we had just been congratulating ourselves because tomorrow is a Sunday and so no lobster boats making the 0500 hours dash out to sea.