June 9 | 8.8 Nautical Miles

After missing an absolutely beautiful Sunday for sailing, I was determined to get out for a shakedown sail on Tuesday, June 9. I awoke to a bright sunny day at home in Portland and was excited to get out on the boat. After dropping Gavin off at school, I headed down to PYC to find the anchorage completely socked in with fog. Ugh.

Washdown

Since the boat was a total disaster of mud and general grime from the winter ashore and the weather was not conducive to a sail, I headed out to the boat and brought her in to the dock. A light breeze was blowing out of the east, bring waves of fog onshore. But I spent about an hour and a half scrubbing the decks and generally cleaning up the boat, and by the time I was finished, the fog seemed to be breaking.

Encouraged by the seeming change in the weather, I quickly loaded on the v-berth cushions and pillows that I had in the car, then motored back out to the mooring. I quickly put the cushions away and prepared the boat for sailing. But while I was getting ready the fog started to roll back in.

I was anxious to sail, so I decided to drop the mooring, thinking that I would just sail around inside of Clapboard if the fog didn't lift. I dropped the mooring at 1117 and within moments I was ghosting off the mooring into the 6 or 7 knot easterly.

I headed toward the southern end of Clapboard Island, keeping an eye on the fog situation. Though it was fairly thick, it somehow seemed a bit tenuous. As I approached the south end of the anchorage, I could see a sail poking out of the fog over by Great Diamond Island and the silhouette of the Brothers in the distance. So I decided to head off towards Portland.

Nice Ride to Portland

The weather continued to slowly improve and I had a great beam-broad reach across the flats past Mackworth Island and up into Portland Harbor. The wind continued relatively light, and I saw speeds ranging from 2.5 to 5.3 knots. Once I was off of Portland Yacht Services, I hardened up and tacked and set a course back toward Falmouth. The skies were basically clear, and there was just a light haze remaining.

The wind, despite being forecast to shift to the south, continued to blow out of the east, and I was hard on the wind for my course back home. The sailing was wonderful however and I had a run at 4.5-5.6 knots on the return. Near The Brothers I took a single tack so that I would clear the end of the island, before continuing along back to Falmouth.

In the lee of Clapboard, I rolled the jib and headed toward the moored boats. It took me a couple of minutes to accurately identify my new mooring location. Once I picked the mooring out of the field, I turned down and ran downwind to the mooring. For my first pickup of the season I slightly misjudged my speed and barely made it back up to the mooring, but I was able to stretch out and grab the pennant with the boathook. Not pretty, but a successful pickup under sail. Back on the mooring at 1335 after a highly successful shakedown sail.