Conclusion

8/29/07 – Chris loaned me her van for the day so I went over to the boat yard early in the morning. I got all of my belongings off and began cleaning and winterizing the boat. I went back to the Humming Rock to drop off some of my things. I called the US Airways because I could not find my flight information that I had aboard the boat and they told me that I was now on a flight departing Thursday rather than on Saturday, which I had been planning on. This meant that I had less than 24 hours to wrap up all I had to do with my boat. I rushed back to the marina and quickly cleaned everything, removed the engine and brought it over to the workshop to have them winterize and store it, and put non-toxic antifreeze in the water tank. I was planning on going on the boat of one of Mike’s friends for the Wednesday night races but I had to cancel in order to get everything done. I met Peter Galvin, the broker who is going to try to sell the boat and we discussed the best way to go about that. I went over to Chris and Mike’s house for a good dinner that her mother had made. Chris’ friend, Ady, came over after she was done babysitting at 10:00pm and the three of us took out three kayaks and paddled around the marshes in the area under the nearly-full moon. I went back to the Humming Rock when we got back and went to bed.

8/30/07 - Chris and Mike drove me to the airport and I flew back to Minneapolis.

Final Sail

8/28/07 – Little Bird was over in Scituate Harbor so Chris and Mike decided to sail her back to Humarock and I decided to take Erica J out on a final sail. We both motored out of the harbor and put up all of our sails. We were completely becalmed so we just sat there in the water for a little while. I decided to go for a swim so I jumped in without even taking the sails down. I swam all around the boat and Chris kept telling me about the gigantic sharks that lived around there. I got back aboard and took down the sails and flaked them. I turned on the motor and began to go back in the harbor just as a little breeze came up. Little Bird slowly sailed back to Humarock while I motored through the Scituate mooring fields to Foster’s Rigging and Yacht Services boat yard. I tied up to the bulkhead and met one of the workers there. He told me that I could keep my mast up but that I needed to do a bit to prepare for the crane picking up the boat. I attached the main halyard to the main sheet and tightened it with a block and tackle as much as I could. I then took the backstay off and lashed it to the mast. This made more room for the lifting apparatus on the crane to sit over the boat. After their lunch break, a group of guys came over and put some slings under the hull and lifted her out. They pressure washed the hull and I scrubbed the topsides with a nifty chemical that the owner of the boat yard gave me. They then lifted the boat onto a trailer and towed her over to a corner of the yard. I began to take my things off and packed them into Chris’ van. I had promised to make a dinner for Mike, Mi Sun, Chris, and Mike so I left and went to the grocery store to buy supplies. I then went back to the Humming Rock to start mixing up the pasta sauce. They all came over and we had a good dinner and talked until late.

Dismasted!

8/27/07 – Chris and Mike came up with the idea of taking both my boat and her boat, Little Bird, out on the ocean and taking pictures of both of them. It was a beautiful morning because the sun was out and there was a nice breeze, a perfect morning for a sail. We each got on our respective boats and motored down the South River and began riding the swift outgoing tide towards the North River inlet into the ocean. There was an east wind so it was blowing against the tide in the narrow inlet, conditions that all mariners know can create treacherous tall, square waves. Erica J was in the lead and I was able to slowly plod through them without much fear since I knew that the boat had endured much worse over this trip and that it would be far gentler as soon as we were out of the inlet. I turned my head fairly often to see how Little Bird was doing. I looked back after a particularly large wave and could not believe my eyes, Little Bird had been dismasted. I screamed an expletive and cranked my tiller over to turn around. The mast was laying over the cockpit so I was horrified that the heavy metal pole had hit Chris or Mike on its way down. As we got closer, I was relieved to see both of them looking just fine but with baffled expressions on their faces. Apparently the mast had come down right between their heads. I turned around again so I was following them and I called Chris on the phone since shouting was ineffective. We came up with several ideas but eventually decided to have both of us go to Scituate Harbor to avoid the treacherous inlet again. I followed them there and we found slips at the Scituate Marina. I helped them restep the mast with the toolkit in my boat. Mike had to walk to the local marine store to get a new pin but we were very surprised that the fix was so easy. She left her boat there and I went to a mooring in the harbor. I met Chris and her mother for a late dinner at a local restaurant called the Bridgwaye.

Radio Interview

Here is an audio clip from the show "Nautical Talk Radio" with Captain Lou. His web site can be found at www.nauticaltalk.com

audio clip

Cruising in Seraffyn

8/26/07 – Chris and Mike picked me up early this morning in their van. We picked up Michael Donahue and began the drive up to Salem, MA. There is a classic wooden boat show up there and Mike has a friend named George who owns Seraffyn, a wooden boat with an amazing history. She was built by a couple named Lynn and Larry Pardee and they sailed her around the world and wrote several books about their voyages. George wanted to bring his boat back to Scituate Harbor so Mike and I were going to sail down there with him. We got to the marina in Salem and looked ate some of the old wooden boats for a little while and then got on Seraffyn and cast off. As we were cruising out of the harbor, Mike called in to a radio program called Captain Lou’s Nautical Talk. He handed me the phone and I was interviewed live on the air about my sailing trip. We continued to sail through a relatively light breeze and finally had to turn on the engine about half way to Scituate because of a lack of wind. We got back to Scituate Harbor in the late afternoon and George dropped Mike and I off at the apartment where we met Chris, the other Mike, and Mi Sun. We all ate pizza and talked for quite a while and they asked me to show them some pictures of my sailing trip. We were all sitting on the couch looking through some photos when Chris shouted, “Go back! We [her father and her] built that boat!” I went back to a photo that my dad took in Connecticut of a neat looking tug boat and sure enough, it was one of four in the world that they had built. They eventually all left and I went to bed.

Sailing With New Friends

8/25/07 – I woke up this morning and walked across the street to a little café that Chris recommended to me. I had pancakes, bacon, and eggs and then went back to the apartment. I did some laundry and went into the gift shop that Chris owns and she gave me a Humarock t-shirt. I walked across the South River to a little grocery store where I bought some lunch and went back to sit on the porch. In the afternoon, I went out sailing with Mike, Chris, and Chris’ husband, Mike. We came in as the sun was setting and Chris and I went to dinner at a local restaurant called the Mad Fish that had a porch overlooking the river.

Hospitality in Humarock

8/24/07 – I woke up this morning and ate a breakfast of oatmeal. I had to wait a few hours to depart because I wanted to make it to the entrance of the Cape Cod Canal at slack tide, the time when the tidal current stands still. I went back to Parker’s marina and used the bathroom and then departed northward. Buzzards Bay was much choppier than the previous day because I had a good tailwind. I got to the Cape Cod Canal just as planned and the turning current carried me through in very good time. I had a great wind when I came out the other side of the canal and alternated between a beam reach and a broad reach for the rest of the afternoon. I was a little nervous because for the first time for the entire trip I didn’t have charts that gave me information about the waters that I was traveling on. I stayed a good distance offshore and paid close attention to all the information available to me and it worked out just fine. I came into the North River inlet at around 6:30 and met Mike Donahue on a pier in Humarock. He got aboard and we motored over to his friend’s floating dock in the South River. She was on the dock waiting for us and introduced herself as Chris. I gathered my things and got a ride to shore from a passing motor boat and we all went up to Chris’ house. She has an amazing view overlooking the river and the ocean. We then drove over to Mike’s house and his wife, Mi Sun, had made a delicious Chicken Parmesan dinner for us. We stayed there for quite a while and then Chris and her husband drove me to the shop that they operate in Humarock called Humming Rock Gifts and showed me to the upstairs apartment that they had offered me for a few days.