June 21 | 9.5 Nautical Miles

It's hard to believe that June is almost over already! I didn't have much work to do this, so I decided to head out for an early sail on the fine first day of summer.

Morning Breeze

I arrived at the boat at 0900 to find a steady 10 knot breeze blowing. The direction was westerly and the water was pretty flat since there was no fetch. Just a few deceptively small ripples. As I approached the boat I spent a few moments snapping some pictures from various angles to help me determine exactly where the new waterline will go when I paint her in the fall of 2004. Click here for another view.

I spent a few moments getting things ready at the mooring then went ahead and raised the main, using my standard procedure. This day, however, something strange happened. As I got the main fully up, a relatively strong gust of wind came up at about 20 degrees off the steady wind direction. The boat surged forward on the mooring. When it reached the end of the pendants, she started to swing around—and kept swinging around. Somehow we ended up facing stern to the wind, straining forward on the mooring. I couldn't get her back around with the main up—even with the motor, and with the boat straining at the mooring I couldn't cast of the pendants. Eventually I dropped the main and just motored out rather than fighting with it. Very strange.

Nice Reach to Portland

Once outside of the moorings I headed up into the wind and raised the main without incident. The wind seemed a bit stronger out here and I toyed with the idea of putting in a reef, but decided to show full sail. I unfurled the jib and was off. Since the wind was currently westerly I decided to head up to Portland on a nice reach with the wind about 20 degrees ahead of the beam. Wind was fresh and we surged along at about 6.2 knots for a while. As I apprached the Brothers, the wind lightened up substantially. I thought this must be in advance of the forecast wind shift to the southwest, though I normally would expect the wind to just clock around for such a small overall change in direction.

No matter. I drifted along at a pleasant 2.5 knots for a while, and presently the wind strengthened again. The wind did seem to be coming around to the southwest, but the wind continued to be flukey, blowing at maybe 8 knots or so steady from the southwest, but gusting strongly to probably 20 knots or so. With each gust the wind would clock back to the west, then die back to the southwest. As I approached Portland I decided to swing around Fort Gorges, with the intention of perhaps sailing along Diamond Island Pass between Peaks Island and the Diamonds. Looking ahead I could see a sizable freighter anchored in the Special Anchorage A area. It seemed awfully close to the fort, but I figured it was an optical illusion. I set a course to pass between the ship and the fort.

A Tight Squeeze

As I got close to the ledge and daymark off Fort Gorges, I could see that the ship was indeed quite close to the fort. There was clearly room to go by, but it was pretty narrow—maybe 100 yards. Fortunately it stays deep right up to the very edge of the ledge so there was plenty of water. I favored the ledge side! These ships sure are big, and certainly make one feel mighty small. Pretty impressive stern. I don't think my masthead was even at the level of the deck.

Once past the freighter I eased off and gybed, heading up toward Diamond Island Pass. Looking ahead however, I could see that there was little or no wind in the pass, as the still-more-west-than-southwest breeze was effectively blocked by the islands. I decided instead to slip out the so-called "escape channel"—a narrow passage between the end of Little Diamond Island and Fort Gorges. Typically, as I hardened up to come through the channel, the wind seemed to come around to the west until I was hard on the wind. At first I didn't think I'd make it through without a beat, but I did squeak through on one tack and eventually the wind eased back to the southwest allowing me a nice reach toward Falmouth.

As usual, there were few boats out on this fine day. I had passed a large gaff-rigger earlier in the sail, and had seen 2 or 3 boats up near Portland. Otherwise there were only work boats out—freighters, ferries, and lobsterboats.

As I continued on toward Falmouth, the wind seemed to be building, and the gusts were getting quite strong—and still coming from the west. I spent quite a bit of time carrying 6.8 knots steady on the reach back. Near the anchorage I sailed past a fleet of 420s from the yacht club youth sailing program. They were screaming along in the fresh breeze.

Nearing the far end of the anchorage I dropped the main as it was blowing quite strongly and was still very flukey in direction. Plus, I must admit I was a little spooked by the strangeness of what had happened on the mooring when I left. Better to get back on that horse on a bit more sedate sailing day! I was back on the mooring at about 1245—a very enjoyable 3 hours!