A three day weekend in June

Despite busy times at work and other preoccupations, we finally took an actual day off from work to try to go somewhere interesting.

The Plan: Provincetown

We never made it to p-town last year so we decided to go for it.   The wind had other ideas.  We've had a very hot spell for the previous week and most days would offer very hot afternoons with no wind (except when the proverbial thunderstorm rolls by).

Despite the wind, we decided we would go to p-town anyway, dammit even if we had to motor the whole way.   It was about then that I discovered that we have a little engine problem.  The overflow tube on the radiator is spewing a lot of water.  I tasted it and it was a bit salty.  Not good.  Most likely our heat exchanger is allowing the raw water to enter into the fresh water cooling system.   I started googling this on Linda's iPad and found that it is not uncommon for this to happen to Volvos.   We decided we didn't want to beat on the engine for the next 10 hours and be 20 miles off shore.

Little Calf island

Passing Hypocrite Channel

Manchester instead

We turned north toward Manchester-by-the-sea, MA.  This place is special to us not only because it's so beautiful, but because it's where we did our very first ever overnight sail when we were members of Boston Sailing Center a few years ago. We sailed Blue-J a j/24 up there (and stayed in a B&B ).

A nice little spot overlooking Magnolia Harbor

Instead of going directly to Manchester, we went a little higher up the coast and anchored off of Magnolia Beach for lunch and the very first Swim of 2012. This is a great spot to anchor for lunch.  The bottom is mostly sandy but has some patches of grassy areas.  Last time we were there, the Fortress anchor wouldn't grab because we were over some grass.  The water was not so bad.

Finally around dinner time, we got to Manchester harbor and grabbed a guest mooring for the night.   We were tired and relaxed (and hungry)

Chillin' in Manchester

Boats, Trains, Feet
The weather turned sucky the next day in Manchester so we decided to hop the train and go up to Rockport, MA to be tourists.  We went up there.  Walked around, stuck our toes in the water, had coffee, went shoe shopping and took another train back.   By now the weather was looking nice and there was even some breeze.  The guy at the fuel dock in Manchester told us about the public moorings around Misery Island.   We needed to check this out.

Great and Little Misery Islands are part of a reservation.  You can dinghy or kayak (or swim) to shore and find some very nice trails with spectacular views of the ocean, the other islands and harbors.   Now that I'm back on land, I've learned that there was once a resort built here.  And there is a very visible ship-wreck between the islands.   Next time, we're snorkeling for sure.


View Larger Map

Looking at Great Misery Island from our Mooring between the two islands

We found a beautiful spot right between the two islands and did some swimming

A minor mishap
I guess it must be called Misery Island for a reason.   After swimming, I slipped and fell on the deck.  I landed pretty hard on my left hand and bent my wrist back farther than it likes to be.  I didn't think much of it at first.  In fact I played guitar for a while afterwards and didn't notice anything.  But later it started swelling up and aching so I iced it up a bit.

NOAA Radar alerts 
Shortly after the deck falling incident, NOAA started predicting some nasty storms moving our way.   We had plans to meet friends in Salem just across the bay but Linda wisely insisted that we don't try to beat this storm and instead tied up a second mooring line and hunkered down to wait it out.

Scary looking sky coming our way

trying to stay warm and dry while balancing an ice pack on my wrist

The temperature dropped, the wind picked up and the sky looked really scary.   We could hear the thunder getting closer and closer.



After about an hour and a half of this, we finally made a run for Salem.  It was still pretty nasty when we left but the clear skies were moving our way.   By the time we got to Salem, it was calm and beautiful out and we were welcomed with a rainbow!

Safely moored in Salem harbor after the storm

We went out for a fantastic dinner with our friends Phil And Yolande from Prairie Gold.  They came into Salem while the storm was building and waited there for us.   One of the boats near them had it's genoa come unfurled in the wind.

Prairie Gold sitting on her mooring near the day marker

The "race" home
Sunday morning Fujin and Prairie Gold headed back to Boston.  Of course if two boats are starting and ending at the same place, you've got a race on your hands.   We have a few pictures of Prairie Gold behind us (because we left first).  But for most of the way home, we could only see her back end.  I was watching her on radar for a while and guessing how fast she was accelerating away from us!.

PG going Wing-Wing out of Salem South channel

Flying the Jack

Closer

And there she is

And... there she goes

Pretty shot of Prairie Gold against the Boston skyline

(not really) Welcome home
As we started heading down the narrow fairway at Constitution Marina, I notice our slip was not entirely empty.  In fact there was a HUGE fishing boat in it.  So I backed out and Linda called on the VHF.   Oooops sorry, we thought you were coming back tomorrow.  So they gave us another slip assignment on the same row of docks.   On the next attempt, another power boat decided to disembark at the same time.   This time, I did a spin in the fairway and drove out to let him leave.  It's good to know we can spin around in there (never tried it before). On the third attempt, we made it in.