Spun Yarns and Images about our sailing trips around New England aboard Fujin - our Pearson 34. The last of her kind (they literally broke the mold after she was built)
My son Jon is not a big fan of sailing. "It's stupid" pretty much sums up his opinion of sailing. To be fair, his introductions to sailing have not been great. On each attempt we've made, something's gone wrong.. We seemed to either have no wind or mechanical failures or crappy weather. These were the kind of trips that sailors say "oh well" about and look forward to the next trip but they don't exactly entice a newbie to sailing.
Yesterday was an exception to this. The wind was absolutely perfect for both getting there and the return trip and the weather was beautiful. I know now that when Jon complains about sailing in the future that at least he's seen it as good as it gets.
Provisions Linda talked him and his friends Doug and Frankie to join us for the afternoon on a trip to World's End near Hingham for swimming. They provisioned with hot dogs and doritos, flippers and snorkels. The agreement was made..
Are we there yet?
Despite doing between 6 and 7 kts, getting to World's End (only about 8 miles) was not fast enough. We tried to make him feel better by recalling our previous week's trip to Provincetown which took over 9 hours each way. "That's stupid". I tried anyway to get a few "happy charter customer" photos on the way out:
L-R Jon, Frankie Doug
Rail Meat
Sitting on the low side so they can dip their toes
We're there (finally)
Several days later, we traveled the 8 miles and arrived at World's End. First we tried to anchor but there are just too many mooring balls around there so we just grabbed one. It didn't take long before the big splashes started.
Jon takes the plunge
Harbormaster Visit
The ball we were on said "Rental" with a phone number. At one point the Hingham Harbormaster came over and asked if we called and reserved it. I was expecting to get thrown out but he said it was fine for me to tie up for a few hours. For overnight, they would have wanted a credit card number for sure.
Shore patrol
World's End island is part of the Harbor Island Parks system. I've not been ashore there yet but it sounds like there is great hiking and nature there. These guys donned flippers and set off on their raft (a walmart floatie) for shore.
Away Team
Good album cover
Mission accomplished
They didn't hike much (for one thing they neglected to remove their flippers), but they posed for some great shots
Card Sharks
We have a deck of cards in the nav table. Who knew they would ever be useful?
The trip home
We had a great southerly wind for heading home. We sailed from about as soon as we let go of the mooring ball. We ran the motor through the very narrow channel leading to World's End just so we could point a little higher.
As we were approaching Hull Gut between Peddocks Island and Hull, Linda noticed a big tanker coming in. We got way out of the channel and planned on just tacking around a bit to let him pass. A flashing blue light boat came over and strongly encouraged us to stay out of his way. We brought in the jib and fired up the motor for a few minutes so we could just stay put. I guess we could have heaved to but that might have just confused the tanker pilot.
Anyway, once that passed, we sailed all the way back to Charlestown into a beautiful sunset. The guys went up to sit on the bow during most of the trip.
July 4th was my 50th birthday. Let's get past that right now. If you forgot my present, there's still time! If you don't want to buy a gift, just click our ads a few thousand times and I'll buy something nice with the proceeds.
Anyway, July 4 is a big deal in Boston. The USS Constitution get's moved out of her slip for her annual spin around the harbor. No one pays much attention. I'm kidding of course. Actually every person within 100 miles of Boston becomes a historian and crams themselves on some boat to get out the harbor to follow "ol' Ironsides" around. The scene out there is... two words... they rhyme with "muster duck".
All we really wanted to do was get out of the harbor. But it was fun seeing it out there with all the fake cannon fire and Blue Angles flying overhead.
This shot captures the whole mess. The ships. The traffic. The fly-over
Spectacle Island for the Fireworks Show
Fujin tied up for the evening at Spectacle
We did the fireworks a few years ago from Spectacle and it was pretty cool. They let us hike up to the top of the hill and watch the show from there. You can not only see Boston but many of the other towns' shows.
This year, right on cue a nice Electrical storm gathered right as the shows were in full swing. Looking to the north, we could see some lightening bolts mixed in with some town's fireworks show. The lightening was cooler. I set the shutter at 1/50th and tried to capture a few of them. This one came out great.
Just as Boston's show got started, it started pouring rain on us so we just went back to the boat and kept try. We never made it to the top of the island. Oh well.
July 5: Provincetown (finally)
We never made it last year. And two weeks ago, we were thwarted again by engine trouble and uncooperative wind. This time for sure...
We departed Spectacle at around 6AM and immediately got on an awesome beam reach and a ebbing current. We knocked down the first few miles doing over 8kts at times. Unfortunately, as soon as we turned toward Minot Light around Hull, the wind got behind us and softened so we were struggling to do 3kts. This would not do. So we considered aborting Ptown again but decided ultimately to push on with the engine. We motored until we were within about 7 miles of Provincetown. Here we picked up a great breeze again and sailed around wood end into the harbor. On the way down, we listened in on VHF 78 which is the channel the whale
watch boats talk to each other on. Sounded like a lot of sighting
around but nothing for us.
Linda snoozing on the rail. I kept the boat flat and listened for a splash
Are we there yet? Almost
Flyer's (VHF11) had plenty of guest moorings available and instructed us to grab anything in the 500 row.
Wood End light
On our mooring in Provincetown Harbor
Full Moon = Low Low Tide
Provincetown harbor has a very gradual slope, so at low tide, it's not unusual to have your dinghy sitting in mud at the dinghy dock. This is why the spots out at the end of the dock fill up first. But with this full moon, there were extra low tides while we were there. When we went in for Breakfast, the water was so shallow we couldn't even row (much less motor) for about the last 100 feet.
Such a gentleman
From the dock at Flyer's
Not going anywhere for a few hours
Activity Time
When in P-town, you MUST rent a bike and ride the Province Lands Bike Trail. The trail is paved and in very good condition, but the best part is the scenery. You go right along the dunes and forests away from town up to Race Point beach. It is spectacularly beautiful.
We rented from a place called Arnold's Bikes right in the center. I don't know how it compares to the other places but the rates were very reasonable and the bikes were in fantastic condition.
Just leaving town at the jetty
Typical dune scenery out here
Posing at Race Point. Thanks for the shot friendly park ranger!
Lunch and sight-seeing
And there are lots of sights to see in P-town.
The vibrator museum at Toys of Eros
I'm Serious!
Cute
The main drag (no pun intended) before it gets crowded
Haircut and a Shave (minus the shave)
I need a haircut. I don't have much to work with but if there is any place in the world that can so something with this, it is here in Provincetown. We found a place that would take a walk in. A lovely woman did an expert job cutting my hair. I told her to rag on Linda for all my past haircuts (that I usually get at home for free). After we left the shop, Linda pointed out to me that my stylist was not necessarily (in fact certainly not) a woman. I like the cut even more now!
Water Sports
We did a bunch of swimming while we were there both off the boat and off Wood End. The water in the harbor was very warm. Since we actually have a working dinghy motor (at the moment), we decided to head over to the beach on wood end.
Awww cute couple. we did this same shot on the same beach two years ago
July 7: All good things
We wanted to head back to Boston early - like real early so we could arrive early afternoon. It's about 46 nautical miles. I set my alarm for 3:00 AM and just happened to wake up at 2:58AM. By 3:15 we were cast off the mooring in a very dark and very windy harbor. Once we turned around wood end. we put up the main and about 1/3 of the genoa. I took the first shift and Linda snoozed in the cockpit once we got going.
Whale!
We knew we were going near Stellwagen Bank which is where the whales are so we kept an eye open for them but I had no idea how close we were about to get. I was sailing along about 6.5 kts when I heard that sound of a Whale breaching... very close! I turned around and he was just splashing down next to the dinghy (at the end of our 50' painter line). I woke Linda up and we both grabbed cameras and starting scanning the horizon for his next surfacing. In a minute or so he came up right next to the cockpit. He was following us! Linda started up the video camera and waited for his next breach. Once again, right next to the cockpit and here is the video:
This was the last time we would see him.
Cruising along just nicely
Mr yellow Bibs July 2012
Shift change
Despite all the whale excitement, I was really getting sleepy. So Linda took over for a while. Coincidentally, the wind started to head us off and get lighter. I fell asleep in the cockpit but woke up to the sound of Linda starting the engine.
zzzzzzzz
What do you do after you sail for 9 hours?
Go Sailing again of course! One of the reasons to get back to Boston early was that our Friends (and soon to be newlyweds) Greg and Lee-Ann drove up from the south coast to do a quick sail around Boston Harbor and join us for dinner.
Greg on the starboard jib sheet. Linda at the helm. Bob on port sheet and camera duty
The obligatory happy passenger chartering shot
Maybe we should try to sell this to them when they walk down the gang plank
