Distance Travelled: Est. 64.2 nm | Destination: Falmouth Town Landing

This turned out to be the longest day to date aboard Dasein. We got up at about 0500 to find a heavy dampness in the air, but there seemed to be little or no fog. We decided to head out. As we listened to the forecast, it became clear that our best bet would be to fly all the way home, as rain and fog was predicted for Thursday and Friday.

Chug-a-Chug-a-Chug

Within a few minutes of getting up I had the motor started and was dropping the mooring. It was barely light, with the sun just slipping over the breakwater. We raised the main and motored out of the harbor. It looked like we were going to have favorable current for the beginning of our trip, and remarkably, it appeared that we had a fair, if light, wind as well—at least to start. We motor sailed out to Owls Head, making almost 6 knots with the extra push from the tide and light breeze.

We charged through Owls Head Bay amongst the lobster boats on their way our to haul traps, and started down Mussel Ridge Channel. Looking ahead we saw what appeared to be patchy fog. As we approached, we saw a dory materialize out of the fog and row on past us. I chuckled at the radar reflector on the old salt's boat. Once in the fog we found it to be quite thick, and the securité traffic on channel 16 confirmed it. As we continued on toward the south end of Mussel Ridge Channel we had determined to head in to Tenant's Harbor to wait out the fog. But then as we passed the gong marking the channel's southern entrance the fog scaled up and we could see all the way to Mosquito Island.

At this point Gavin was napping and Heather said she would helm for a bit, so I went below for a nap. When I finally awoke, we were only about a mile from Eastern Egg Rock! We passed the rock at 1033. At 1145 we passed Pemequid Point with a light southwest breeze filling in. We were making about 4.8 knots. We continued to chug along, passing the lighthouse on Fisherman Island near Boothbay, and then along the long slog to Cape Small, which we finally passed at 1530.

Once back in Casco Bay we were able to come off the wind enough to sail, and had a generally pleasant close reach from Cape Small all the way to Little Mark Island. By then it was getting on toward evening and the wind began to ease. As we entered Broad Sound we had our first truely foul current of the whole day, and we slowed dramatically. As we made our way in, we could see showers over Chebeague, but fortunately they passed us to the south.

Home at Last

From the time we entered Broad Sound we tried to figure out how we werre going to actually get home. Heather found out that her uncle, with whom she had left the car, had locked the keys in it. AAA wouldn't come open the car until Heather got there, and the other car didn't have a car seat in it. Grrr. We tried calling everyone else we could think of, but to no avail. We picked up the mooring at 1920 and Heather went ashore to deal with AAA while I stayed aboard with Gavin. I put him to bed and settled in with dinner and a book to wait for Heather to return. Eventually—sometime after 2100—she returned and we packed up and headed home.

Reflections

All in all, our first extended cruise with Gavin was a great success. Cruising with a baby is definitely a different experience, but we ended up doing things that we probably woulnd't have done otherwise, so in that sense our experience was enriched. Gavin adjusted quite well to the boat, sleeping well at night, and mostly behaving—though he did like to get off the boat for a while each day so that he didn't get too bored.

The experience was great for all involved. It wasn't as relaxing as our previous extended cruise was—it seemed that we were always going, or keeping Gavin out of things, or feeding him, or... But it was great family time! And as one local beer proclaims—Always an adventure!