June 16 | 17.5 Nautical Miles

I had spent Friday night on board in the anchorage in Falmouth, so I spent the morning taking care of a few minor projects on the boat while waiting for Heather and Gavin to arrive, including tuning the rig and reorganizing the cockpit lockers and lazarette.

Some Sailing, Some Motoring

Heather arrived at about 1145 with several totes of gear and food. While she stowed all the gear, Gavin and I got the boat ready to go. We let New Directions know we were ready, and dropped the mooring at about 1200. We powered out into about 5 knots right on the nose and leaving the starting line of the Pilot Race to starboard.

With New Directions powering behind us, we headed toward Chandlers Cove, following our usual route eastward. As we came into Chandlers I killed the engine, thinking I would be able to sail through and then be off the wind for the rest of the trip, but I had to fire the engine back up to help sneak me past the edge of Chebeague Island. I followed my usual route across Broad Sound toward Little Mark Island, while New Directions headed straight outside past Cliff Island hoping to get a favorable course wth better wind on the outside.

We had a nice sail across the soundat 4-ish knots. Once past Little Mark, the wind seemed a bit stronger and we were making about 5 knots toward Jaquish Island. Once we rounded Jaquish and started heading downwind, our boatspeed fell off to about 2.2-2.5 knots, but we had quite a lead on New Directions, and were enjoying the day so we decided to just ride it out.

Gavin spent much of the trip below "taking a nap" while Heather studied for the bar before coming up on deck to scan the horizon for New Directions. Eventually, as we entered Quahog Bay and approached Pole Island our boat speed fell below 2 knots and I gave up. We motored the last couple of miles and set our anchor just outside the moorings, near Little Snow Island at 1600.

New Directions Brings Steaks

New Directions arrived about 45 minutes later and once their anchor was set, Bear and Jerry came alongside in the dinghy to pick up Gavin and head ashore to walk their Portuguese Water Dog, Azore. After the kids were walked, everyone retired to New Directions for cocktails. Gavin spent the cocktail hour swinging from the bimini frame while Azore snored away the time.

We enjoyed a nice dinner of strip steaks grilled to perfection with salad and roasted potatoes, and eventually decided we needed to return to Dasein to start getting Gavin ready for bed. Since he didn't actually sleep during naptime, we were sure he needed to get to bed relatively early.

Once Gavin was in bed, Heather spent some more time studying, while I relaxed with a book. The evening was beautiful, with just enough of a slight breeze to keep things from getting too stuffy. The skies were mostly clear, and at dusk we enjoyed a lovely crescent moon. Around 1030 we turned in. It was nicely cool over night, which made for excellent sleeping.

Continue with the cruise. -->