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Practically Sails Itself

~ Kirsten & Mike's Adventures on Gaia

Practically Sails Itself

Monthly Archives: September 2015

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Old Saybrook, where the fish are extra jumpy

28 Monday Sep 2015

We were going to spend a few more days reveling in Block Island but there was a weeks worth of rain in the weeks forecast and with the only good wind to bring us into the Long Island Sound being on a Monday… we left early.

DSC_0250 En route we were pleasantly surprised to make friends with the local navy submarine (of Groton possibly?).DSC_0270

 

 

 

 

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And we timed the current perfectly for Race Point and got a 3 knot turbocharge! We flew into Old Saybrook and settled into a free mooring field and very well protected from the prevailing Northerly winds.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

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The anchorage  was a shallow protected marshland and during low tide all you could hear was the jumping of fish flopping out of the water. It sounded like rain from below. There goes the peace and silence.

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And then there were these jerks! Amazing hunters but loved to try and perch themselves ontop of your newly installed windex. …you guessed it… one of these guys broke our windex.

 

Posted by Kirsten McLinn | Filed under Eastcoast Southbound

≈ 2 Comments

The Lunar event of the century!

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by Kirsten McLinn in Eastcoast Southbound

≈ 1 Comment

Or something  to that effect…. and we only managed to snap these shots with our new hotshot camera. It was a super blood moon lunar eclipse and they only happen 5 times a century.

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West of our anchorageDSC_0224   DSC_0229DSC_0233  DSC_0235

Me sitting outside with my blanket & hot cocoa Listening to Dark Side of the Moon.

Block Island Maze wins again

26 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by Kirsten McLinn in Eastcoast Southbound

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We sailed to Block Island from Newport. Not much to report aside from the usual unusual Mike & Kirsten-ism; my over-exaggeration of waves and Mikes sudden awareness that If Gaia is gaining on another vessel…. we can race them (and he goes from a wine and cheese cruising mentality of ‘we get there when we get there’ to barking commands ‘Trim the gennie! Edge up the traveler windward! We got em!’).

Our race to BI

DSC_0117There were 4 foot seas and rounding the Northern tip of Block Island was, as always, a welcoming view. There’s a shallow spit of land that curves out like an arm from the Block Island bluffs that are even more beautiful from the top. We anchored in the salt pond, which has a VERY narrow cut of water that funnels into the harbor.

DSC_0172It was my third time letting out the anchor, which can be, as I learned, a delicate process of lowering at the right moment and letting the boat rest to get your bearings. Mike tied different colored string on the anchor rode every 10 feet so you can see how much rode you have sitting out. This is a GREAT idea and I highly recommend it to anyone anchoring…. But do note that over time the first 80 feet becomes coated in mud and the old neon colors before are brown. So when Mike asked me how much rode we had out half way through… I dunnno…( I guess I need to practice counting or something).

 

 

Block Island Saturday/SundayDSC_0151

Julia and Amy ventured out to the great BI of RI! Our friends still remember us! And they brought beer!!! Saturday morning meeting Julia & Amy was the first time Mike & I came ashore. I had forgotten how timeless and close everything was for walking distance. A 15 minute walk and we met them from the ferry ride over. Our first order of business was to get some serious boat napping & relaxing in, afterall, they did take the first ferry in to BI. We then had ourselves a classic BI beachday. Frisbee, beer, meandering, beach. The day ended in a wet dinghy adventure to cocktails at the infamous ‘Oar’ and somehow… about 4 hours later… we emerged for another dingy adventure across the great pond.

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Sunday we made it our mission to find the maze. The maze is for lack of words, really neat.

DSC_0208It’s an intricately woven network of grassy paths that lead you to the BI bluffs, a few ponds, beaches, and always seems to end and begin in private property to some extent. P.S.I have never gone into the maze and not found myself lost at some point. The larger the group, the better the confusion. With a happy go lucky crew of Amy, Julia, Mike, and myself…. This was by far the closest we have ever come to not getting lost. We did, however, manage to miss their expected ferry back home… but nbd. We were all in BI.

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Again it was bittersweet to see more friends come and go.

 

 

 

 

 

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man with red hat parks boat on rocks

Newport

25 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by Mike McLinn in Eastcoast Southbound

≈ 1 Comment

Day 4!

DSC_0054Two days ago we pulled into Newport Harbor after a comfortable but a little slow 40nm day from Onset to Newport.   Our friend Justin got a good chunk of The Martian read on the bow
beneath the spinnaker as we glided at 4-5kts westward into Rhode Island and
past the enormous mansions.

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The wind for the passage was out of the north east but it was fairly light, peaking at around 14kts mid-morning but then diminishing to 8-12kts for most of the day before dying in the evening.  Since we were going west the wind was coming from behind us and was too light for our normal sails to fill properly and propel the boat.  These are spinnaker conditions!

Gaia has an old asymmetrical spinnaker from a prior owner – I have no idea of it’s history, but it’s at least 10 years old.  But it hasn’t been used much, and aside from some color bleeding & rust stains, it works pretty well.  It has a sock which is a big fabric tube that slides down over top of the sail when it’s not in use, this lets us easily hoist the sail to the top of the mast before it fills with air.  Once the sail is deployed, the sock gets bunched up at the top of the mast.  When we’re ready to collapse the sail, we can pull the sock down to collapse the sail and make it easy to recover.

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I love flying the spinnaker – it means it’s a peaceful calm day and spinnaker runs are some of the most enjoyable sailing in my opinion.  I haven’t used the spinnaker much on Gaia in all the years I’ve owned her, but now that we have a new feathering propeller, the boat is vastly more capable of making meaningful progress in light wind (more on this topic in a later post).

Yesterday we spent the day in Newport Harbor, then took a RIPTA (Rhode Island’s bus system) bus to Providence (for $2 each way!) to see a favorite band, Lord Huron.  It was an excellent show and we didn’t get back to the boat until around 2am.

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Lord Huron in Providence, RI

Today we’ve got an easy sail to Block Island, only about 25nm.

Departure!

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by Mike McLinn in Eastcoast Southbound

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Finally!  finally finally finally!  We’re off the dock, it’s been a long slog of boat project on top of project.  Kirsten & I quit our jobs right before our wedding in early July and for much of the time since then it sure hasn’t felt like we’ve been unemployed.  But all the hard work is finally behind us and we’ve shoved off the dock.

Our first goal is to make it to Newport, RI in three days to catch a bus to Providence, RI to see a favorite band perform – Lord Huron.

Leaving Boston this morning was bittersweet, but made easier by a wonderful send-off party a few days ago and a good friend Justin joining us for the first couple days.

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Our first day of weather and the immediate forecast is perfect, moderate north-easterlies & sunny warm skies.  Today we covered about 45nm, from Boston to the Cape Cod Canal, then through the canal to Onset.

 

 

Justin becoming a pro at our GPS

Justin becoming a pro at our GPS

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All went well on our first day, we got into Onset shortly before sunset as planned and were greeted by a beautiful and auspicious first sunset.

Good at traveling not Goodbyes.

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by Kirsten McLinn in Favorite Posts, Predeparture

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It’s 6 days before we leave Boston and Mike decides to replace the entire steering cables. I know it needs to get done… but to wait 6 days before we want to leave is where I begin to wear my defiant look of ‘Good grief Mike! You wait this long!’.

Edson is our manufacturer in this project and let me just take one second and extoll the greatness of Edson…. Not only is Edson Corp the original manufacturer from 1979 but they have been around making steering mechanisms since 1859! Put that in your pipe & smoke it GE Corp (GE is about 40 years behind the game of Edson)! Okay so they’re still around that’s great , we can get replacement parts and it’s distribution is in Mass…. Mike you’re luck is astounding.

I felt like we had to reflect on what we were doing and soak it all in…. but in all the last minute trips to Home Depot, “final” storage runs, and dozens of last minute fixes… it just felt like another 10 hour day of boatwork no big deal.

When people commented on how excited I must be for the journey, I did however, feel a pang of sadness or at least the stark perspective of my reality. It was not going to be happy-go-lucky all the time. It occurred to me, I’m going to be leaving all of THIS! I had already left a safe and happy job. I had no secure income and no idea of what future work was to come. I was about to leave the most amazing crew of lively climbers, hikers, sailors, bikers, artists, runners, kayakers, yogis, programmers, soccer players, musicians, and partiers. Okay, I’ve painted a fairly bleak picture… oops.  I was uneasy about having this sense of loss upon the brink of an amazing journey. I’ve never been one not to dive head first on a journey partly because I had never created a home, a community built on years and years of good friends, trips, and familiar bars where everyone seems to know your name (queu music, you know the tune). In all my preparation over the past years, I always dreamed of the places I’d see. It was only now, days prior to departure, when I was face to face with the people and places I’d leave did it hit me.

“I might travel far to seek what I need, but I always return home to realize where it really is.” – Unknown

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