Nantucket

So things did not go quite as planned with the nav gear. 

On Tuesday the electronics guys came out to the boat while we were moored in Mattapoisett.  Good news was that the software for the computer was installed, bad news was that it appears that the autopilot may need some work done to it.  The autopilot motor was taken off and taken in to be bench tested.  It will be a few days until parts come in and we know the outcome of the tests so we decided to press on tomorrow.  At least now we have a functioning chart plotter and some really cool software.

Wednesday - Sailed out of Mattapoisett heading for Martha’s Vineyard.  Beautiful day and enroute we stopped at a lovely bay called Tarpaulin Cove for some lunch.  We rigged up a line from the masthead and the kids had a ball swinging off the boat into the water. Spent the night anchored in Vineyard Haven (one of three main towns on the island). 

Tarpaulin Cove

Entrance to Woods Hole

Heather and kids exploring

At anchor in Tarpaulin Cove

Thursday - Calley, Nic and Scott went ashore early in the morning to get some breakfast at the famous Black Dog bakery.  Also managed to get a delicious real coffee - unfortunately for Nic we have not yet got the coffee thing sorted out on the boat.  Currently we are using a plunger type arrangement but this will have to be changed - maybe after the autopilot is fixed.  Once we had breakfast we raised the anchor and took off again as the real objective was to get out to Nantucket and meet up with one of Heather’s friends on another boat.  The wind was approx 15kts to 20 kts gusting 25kts so it was a good sail and luckily we could reach all the way to Nantucket.  (Apologies for any sailor type terms used but some folks may recognise them and it helps to give the perception that we know what we are doing).

Reached Nantucket late Thursday - what a really cool island.  It was pretty busy, lots of boats, lots of people.  Nantucket is an old whaling town which when the whaling industry died, kind off went into hibernation and did not wake up again for close to 100 years and then it realised that its future lay in the preservation of its past.  As a result the main town of Nantucket is full of beautiful historic homes on gorgeous tree lined cobbled roads.  There are lots of quaint shops and small eating places.  Have included some photos to try and give you a feel of the place.

Dulcinea anchored in Nantucket (big white mast in centre)

Beautiful Nantucket

Sam in Nantucket Harbour

 Spent Friday exploring Nantucket.  We wandered around the streets looking at all the beautiful buildings, had some lunch at a little cafe on the street and then took the kids to the whaling museum which was fantastic.  Once back at the boat we had drinks and dinner with Heather and Skip.  Skip is another professional skipper and a friend of Heather’s.  He has been really great helping us with a number of issues on the boat over the last three weeks and also showed the kids how to fish.  Really great day.  Ideally we would have stayed a couple more days in Nantucket but what with the outstanding works and some prior appointments for Heather and Skip we had to leave on Saturday.  Hopefully we may be able to come back on the way to or from Maine.

Today (Saturday 28th) we motored all the way from Nantucket to Newport as the wind was non existent.  Was good to give the engine on the boat a long run and am happy to say all went well.

So the plan now is to finish off any outstanding works over the next week, have a bit more sailing practice and then take off for Maine in maybe a weeks time.  Big difference is that when we leave Newport this time we will be on our own.  Also this week we may take a look at the school work for the kids.

Thought we might make general comments on life onboard leaving out the trials and tribulations of the first couple of weeks. 

• Biggest issue at the moment is the lack of an espresso machine as mentioned earlier.  No immediate solution in sight but we have a couple of possible remedies - will keep you posted.

• Another irritation is the noise from the kids moving around the boat.  Noise carries and reverberates through the boat and as such you need to try and tread lightly but Calley especially moves around like a little elephant.

• The dodger - the dodger is the cover over the companionway which is the entrance to the main salon which is the ships living room.  It is canvas with a steel frame and everyone bumps their head on it as they go below - everyone taller than 5’3”, that is. There’s something to be said for being short!

• Injuries and mishaps have been in abundance. Scott has ripped his hand raw hanging on to a rope just a bit longer that he should have and cracked his head whilst trying to manoever his 6 foot frame under the floor boards to find a leak. Nicole fell down the two steps from the saloon to the foreward cabins (the floor just seemed to disappear!). Sam, who has taken to fishing, has been cut with fish scales and stuck with more than a few hooks, has kicked every toe he has on bits of hardware on the deck, and slammed his finger in the hatch.  Calley has taken a few spills navigating the boat inside and out, most recently taking a tumble down the companionway stairs. As they say, a lot of ways to get hurt on a boat. Thankfully nothing serious.

  

  Child labour - we need drinking water!

• Nicole is still trying to find an elegant way to get in and out of the dinghy.

Life onboard is exhausting.  We are busy all day and at night just collapse.  Must have something to do with the fresh air.  No doubt we will get used to it - otherwise may need a holiday to recover!

Nantucket

Sailing at last

We are anchored in a little harbour approximately 40NM east of Newport.  We arrived last night after a great sail from Jamestown.

The last week was really a bit of a roller coaster.  We managed to get all the work at the yard done by Friday evening and had our mooring booked in Jamestown for the next day.  We made final preparations on Saturday morning for cutting the ties to the dock, handed back the hire car and ran the last few errands to get in some supplies.  Then just before we left we test started the genset only to find a water leak from the exhaust hose in the engine room - what next!!!  Luckily it was a relatively minor fix which delayed us an hour and then we were motoring out of the NEB marina into the waters off Newport Island heading for Jamestown with Scott at the helm for the first time.

Finally at the helm

The wind was light and so we motored almost to the Newport bridge and then put up some sails and started sailing.  Onboard were the family and Heather and Robbo who were there to assist with the sailing as it was the maiden voyage.  It was a perfect day to be put on the water with 10 to 15 kts of breeze and given that it was a weekend it seemed like every man and his dog was out on the water.  There were sails everywhere, and not just small boats.  There are numerous yacht clubs having their regular races but then on top of that there are a fleet of 12m’s racing around, classic gaff riggers giving harbour tours, massive pleasure boats of the rich and famous just cruising around, ferries to and from the  islands, power boats of all sizes zipping around and commercial traffic which includes huge cargo vessels headed up the passage.  All in all it is not the place for the faint hearted and provided a fantastic refresher into the rules of the road.  

We sailed for a bit enjoying the spectacle and then picked up our Conanicut Marine mooring “G2” off Jamestown.  It was soooooo good to finally be out of the boatyard. Heather and Robbo left us to it so now we were also on our own for a day.

Owner takes a turn at the helm

Sunday -  Such a great day.  We decided to do nothing really today.  Got up early as we always seem to do now and hopped into our tender (Zodiac inflatable) and headed into Jamestown.  The tender is now essentially our car when we are in port.  Tied up at Conanicut Marine dock and walked into town for breakfast.  Jamestown is a really beautiful place, pretty small but really busy in summer and lined with weatherboard colonial houses.  It is full of holiday makers during the summer but after September pretty much shuts down.  Nic had found a wee place called “Slice of Heaven” and we sat outside to eat a delicious breakfast.  After a brief walk around (not brief enough for Calley) we headed back to Dulcinea and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun, watching the boats racing around us and carrying out some of the endless outstanding jobs.

Sam in his element

Later in the afternoon Sam and Calley tried their luck fishing using some squid bait we had picked up that morning.  Two small stingrays and two small stripey’s were the haul for the day but all were thrown back except for one stripey which had swallowed the hook which we then cooked up for Sam.  We finished the day off with a BBQ off the stern of the boat.  

It is amazing how things can change in such a short space of time - a week ago we were in the yard awaiting a haul out and today its like we are on holiday.

But as we mentioned before leaving this is no holiday.  We are really into phase 2 which is the familiarisation with the boat and sailing her.  The electronics associated with the navigation gear has yet to be properly commissioned and we have to make a time with the Furuno representative to get this done.  In order to facilitate this we decided to sail up the coast to Mattapoisett which was closer to Derek (our sparky) and the Furuno guys.  Heather joined the boat in the morning - she will be sailing with us for a while until we are comfortable with handling Dulcinea on our own.  Forecast looked ok and we headed off around 1400 to Mattapoisett.  Great sail - 15kts on the beam which gave us speeds up to 9.5 kts with the genoa and main out.  Towards the end the wind picked up and we had to gybe to line up for the harbour entrance.  First gybe and a painful reminder of how big and powerful this boat is.  The preventer got caught on the bimini and then released suddenly which made the boom slam over.  I had the main sheet in my hand and did not release quick enough and so got some nasty burns - Lesson #1: always let go of the rope.  Then coming into the harbour the wind had freshened and when we went to take down the main it got stuck.  After a bit of drama we managed to get it released and anchored in the mooring field around 19:30.

Dulcinea at Anchor off Jamestown

So here's hoping we can get the nav gear commissioned over the next day and get back to sailing.  Next big challenge looming over the horizon is the school for the kids - that may prove harder than commissioning the boat!!

Calley vs very large freighter

Newport Shoreline

Seamanship 101 with Robo

A bit of a catch up

Sunday

We had a day off from the boat and had a look around Rhode Island.  

Beautiful spot.....we started off driving the ten mile Ocean Drive coast road around the south coast of Rhode Island.  It is lined with magnificent mansions with sprawling lawns leading down to the ocean, manicured gardens and gravel driveways.  Many of the mansions are now not privately owned but some must still be.  All very Great Gatsby.

During the drive we stumbled upon the Newport Kite festival and true to all things American it was bigger and better.  Calley just had to join in of course ........

Newport Kite Festival

Calley Kite Flying 

Coastguard Station, Newport

After the drive we had a look around Newport.  Nic and I had visited here last year when we inspected Dulcinea prior to purchase but this was our first time to have a good look around.  Newport is a seaport with a great maritime culture.  Obviously it was the battle ground for the Americas Cup duel with the Aussies in the eighties.  Boats are everywhere especially in summer.  The town is full of quaint weatherboard houses and some famous landmarks from the American war of Independence.

Finally we managed to get to a beach but were horrified by the fact that you have to pay to park at the beach.  Who ever heard of such a thing....and not just a couple of bucks- it was $20.  Funny how different countries put up with things others wouldn’t.  Imagine charging for the beach parking in Australia.

Relaxing in Newport

Newport

Monday was back to the boat and the working grind.  We are being helped by three people.  Heather is our vessel manager and she looked after the vessel for us over winter.  She is very experienced and will be sailing with us to get us up to speed with handling the vessel.  Robbo is an Australian deckie and general hand who has been doing a whole lot of  maintenance work including servicing of all the deck equipment and teaching Sam and Calley.  He managed to get them both into the rig for the first time today.  Finally there is Derek who is the sparky and trying to get the electrical systems in order.

Calley at the masthead - 88.9ft up

Sam in the rig

Tuesday we took the boat out of the water and dropped the bow thruster for servicing.  It was not possible to get the refurbishment carried out the same day and so the boat had to stay on the hard for the night and we moved into a motel for the night.  Sometomes feels like we will never finish the maintenance works.

Dulcinea in the travel lift

Wednesday.  Thruster is in and Dulcinea is back in the water and moored to her dock.  Things are looking up.  We have decided to leave the yard for our mooring on Saturday.  That will give us to enough time to finish the outstanding works and to finish the purchasing of all outstanding gear.  After we got into the water a thunderstorm went through the area - 40knt winds, thunder and lightning.  We were watching it from the cockpit and a yacht close by got struck by lightning - very impressive.....sparks from the mast top and a puff of smoke from the cabin.  Just glad it was not Dulcinea.  Its one of our biggest fears.  So tonight we are still in the motel but will be back onboard the vessel tomorrow.  Will post again hopefully when we get on the mooring.

P.S.  Thanks for the comments to date.  Great to get the feedback.

P.P.S  Congratulations to Graham and Belinda.  Great news with little Florence Mae.  Three girls to take care of now Graham - you have your work cut out!

So turns out as per any mobilisation we have issues.  Had hoped to get away from the quayside and move to the mooring off Jamestown but there appear to be issues with our bow thruster so we will stay in the yard until the end of next week.  We will have to be lifted out of the water so the yard can access the bow.  Hopefully it can be repaired relatively quickly.

Apart from that we are in relatively good shape with most major systems working.  May need a new watermaker in a couple of months as the one we have is a bit tired.  Still some maintenance required on deck and the commissioning of the navigation system but should be on target to be out of here and sailing by the end of next week.

We are taking a day off to look around Newport, maybe visit a beach and generally get the kids off the boat for a while.  Will include some photos next posting. 

PS  Will try and make this appear less like a daily report and more like a blog as time goes on!!  Old habits die hard.

Mobilisation Commences......

Post from Scott: 

As this is the first post I had better lay out the overall plan.  
In summary we intend to sail from Newport, RI in the US back to Singapore going westbound over a period of 2 years, learning the ropes along the way and homeschooling Sam and Calley at the same time and hopefully having a adventure or two along the way.


Arrived onboard Dulcinea about a week ago having completed our travels from Singapore via Bali, Dubai, and Scotland.  The boat looks great.  Its lying in a working marina called New England Boatyard about 5 miles north of Newport which is the major holiday destination for Boston and New York in summer.  Really pretty place but have not yet had any time to look around.

Although the boat looked great it did not stay that way for long as there is still a lot of work to be done to get the boat ready.  We knew there was some work to be done but the extent is more than anticipated.  When the sewerage system went down almost as soon as we stepped onboard we knew we were in for a longer haul.  Great intro to the live aboard life for Nicole!

At the moment if feels like we are mobilising for an offshore campaign - to give you some idea the navigation equipment upgrade has turned into a major electrical refit, all the deck equipment is being stripped and maintained, the sewerage system has been fixed, the bow thruster remains to be fixed, the watermaker remains to be commissioned etc etc.  There is gear lying all over the boat and we are trying to tackle about six things at once.  Needless to say as with a mobilisation, cost control has gone out of the window.

Apart from that we are all living on the boat and the kids are adapting well to their spaces.  We have not had a chance to get out and about but will later this month.  The climate is fantastic - clear blue skies, hot days and cool nights.  Should be moving to mooring off a pretty town opposite Newport called Jamestown next week.

 Cockpit Chaos - NEB boatyard, RI

Dock Chaos - NEB boatyard, RI