Sailing VATA: New England

Maine was a huge State, and it ended up taking longer than intended to get across it. Our last stop would be in Kittery, where we lucked out and found an excellent deli on Route 1, a mere ½ hour walk from our dinghy where we found delicious meats, and a next-door grocer with abundant and affordable produce.

We left Kittery, Maine, with a mission to get to Long Island, New York, so, we picked up the pace, with favourable winds.

Most of you guys have no idea what that means… but it’s hard to sail against the wind. That’s why the traditional sailing routes went from Europe to off-shore Africa, to the Caribbean, northerly along the east coast of North America then back across the Atlantic to Europe. A great big circle!

To make a long story short, we were going against the prevailing southwesterly summer winds, so when the winds were in our favour, we went! Fortunately, as the leaves start to turn colour the winds start to swing a bit more westerly to north-westerly, which makes for a great sail down the east coast.

So we left Kittery, Maine, and sailed past the entire shoreline of New Hampshire, before setting the hook in Wood Island Harbor, Massachusetts. The next day, we stayed because the forcasted weather wasn’t good, an instead we took care of several chores.

When the forcast improved, we sailed to Gloucester, Massachusetts, an old harbour, but made famous in the movie “The Perfect Storm” starring George Clooney. It was a very busy harbour due to the number of fishing boats there, and they like to leave throughout the night instead of sleeping like sailors like to do.

The next day we had fantastic winds again and sailed to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the very tip of Cape Cod. If you have never been there, it is worth a trip to P’Town as the locals call it. A very colourful town bustling with people, and stores and restaurants for everyone.

Provincetown, MA at sunset, with the tall Pilgrim Monument marking their first landfall in the new world.

In P’Town we consulted the tide tables for the next leg, Cape Cod Bay and the Cape Cod Canal. It is important to enter the canal when tides are slack or running in the direction you are going. Interesting to note, that on Cape Cod Bay the tidal range is 10 feet, whereas on Buzzards Bay, the tidal range is 4 feet. So halfway to high tide the water in the canal starts to flow toward Buzzards Bay, and the current increases every hour, to 4 knots. The next day we sailed to the canal and caught it 1 hour before high tide. Nearing the canal, we were making 6 knots motoring, and 50 minutes later we shot into Buzzards Bay doing 10.1 knots! We anchored in quiet Mattapoisett Bay an hour later.

Flying through the Cape Cod Canal!

Winds still favourable, we left Mattapoisett Harbor early, and sailed past Newport Rhode Island, all the way to Judith Point. At one point, I heard a huge swish sound behind Vata, and I turned around to see a humpback whale surface! At Judith Point, they built a large breakwater enclosing an outer harbour here many years ago, and called it a “Harbor of Refuge”. Well it was very lumpy in there overnight, and I don’t think the breakwater would do much to keep a hurricane’s storm surge out.

In any case, we are starting to recognize the names of boats we see, and often can’t remember where we saw them before, because we didn’t keep track. But, it seems that we are all geese starting to flock together on the migration south!

On September 11, 2017, the winds were once again in our favour, and we sailed from Point Judith nearly all the way to Orient Harbour, located on the very eastern tip of Long Island’s North Fork, motoring for the last bit of the day’s run. So close to New York City, we remembered the terrible events of 9-11, 16 years prior.

Tim at the helm

The next day, against an ebbing tide, we motored for 3 hours and anchored in Cutchogue Harbour, neatly tucked into a relatively small protected bay, where we would visit with my brother for a few days. The employees at New Suffolk Shipyard were accommodating and allowed us to leave our dinghy there fore our duration.

We had several days of seeing the area and completing some heavy provisioning. Then we took the “Orient - New London” ferry and went to the Newport Boat Show! The best part was the floating display of boats!! We even toured a huge sailboat for sale that had a hot tub and a crew of 4! People in Newport definitely have a passion for boats!

Newport Boat Show is an "on-the-water" show

One of the mega-sailboats we saw in Newport

We toured this $4 million yacht, complete with a hot tub!!

So Tim, we NEED a washer and drier on our boat too!

Afterwards, we found time to tour the summer cottages of old in Newport, owned by people like the Vanderbilts… well, they were grand! Much more cottage than we’re used to at home.

The Vanderbilt's summer "cottage"

Before leaving Long Island, we had to taste some of their famous wines.

wine tastings at Mattabella Vineyards! Thank you Christine and Mark for your great hospitality!

Most harbours are a wake-free zone, but some people don't comply...

Hurricane Jose was kicking up a fuss in the Atlantic Ocean well to the south of us, but threatening to move closer, so it is time to move on to a safer place. We sailed north to the Connecticut River one day, then east to New Haven, opting for a turn to the south and a safe harbour of Port Jefferson. And we spent a day tearing down the boat to prepare for Hurricane Jose.