This might be a good time to point out a couple of things. One, there is a difference between day sailing for fun and doing a boat delivery. When you go out for a lovely pleasure sail, you check the winds and plan your course based on which way the winds will blow you comfortably. Joe and I were not pleasure sailing! We were on a boat delivery. (Like the couple in the movie Adrift. Not really a parallel I wanted to draw to our trip!) We had a specific timeline and destination and we did not have the luxury of planning our itinerary based on the wind and the tides. That’s why our trip was a little more challenging than a maiden voyage ought to be!
The other thing I’d like to point out, is that I am not a particularly adventurous person. Prior to this trip I had done two really adventurous things in my life. One was to convince my parents to go on a night snorkel in the Virgin Islands when I was 11 years old. It was cold and uncomfortable, but one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had and I will never ever forget it. The second “adventurous” thing I did was give birth at home to my 10 pound baby boy. I didn’t really think of this as “adventurous” but many other people do. It’s been three decades since the night snorkel and one decade since the home birth, so clearly it was time to get my adventure on. And boy, did we.
We woke up with the sun at Black Dog Wharf after a pretty solid night’s sleep. I poked my head out through the hatch in time to see the rising sun over the bow of our new friend’s boat, Tandemeer. I walked over to Black Dog Cafe to get some tea and coffee (and, of course, some Black Dog T-shirts). We checked the drip pan again—it was clean. We stowed everything and pulled away from the wharf at 8:50am.
We motored out of Vineyard Haven and into Vineyard Sound. Joe raised the mizzen and we motor sailed down Vineyard Sound past the Elizabeth Islands toward Cuttyhunk. The sky was grey when we first set out, but we could see beautiful blue peeking out in the distance.
We passed Cuttyhunk a little after 1pm. The skies were blue and we were motor sailing quite comfortably toward Block Island. Joe went down below and made us some almond butter and jelly sandwiches while I kept our course at the helm. I was having a blast. I kept thinking, I LOVE this sailing thing!
The only thing stopping me from really relaxing into it was the fact that the steering suddenly seemed extremely stiff. On Sunday, when we left Chatham, even with the wind in our faces, I was turning the wheel with two fingers. Now, I needed to really muscle it around. I kept asking Joe, “are you sure you’re not concerned about this steering thing?” He was not concerned. He also wasn’t at the helm! So I wasn’t sure, if he knew just how stiff it was!
After our lovely sun drenched lunch in the cockpit, Joe wanted to shut the engine down and check the oil pan just to be sure. He hoisted the headsail and disappeared below, while I kept our course.
After 15 minutes or so, he reappeared and calmly stated “we have to get to Block Island using only the sails. We lost 4 quarts of oil since we left Vineyard Haven.”
Okay, then. Stiff steering and still leaking oil. What next?! At least the weather was great, and we knew we had enough extra oil on board to keep the engine happy when we needed it to cruise into port.
Based on the wind conditions we had to tack South for a bit. Joe put the Main sail up and I had to yank the wheel around to change our point of sail. It was SO stiff at this point that I was having trouble getting the boat to respond. Once the sails were up, I told Joe he needed to take the wheel so he could feel what I was feeling. Which he did. It took a lot of muscle to get the rudder where it needed to be, but luckily, once she was set, she just sailed. You really didn’t need to do much and Joe was able to walk away from the wheel altogether at times.
The next challenge for me was getting used to moving around the boat while it was at an angle. We were sailing so close to the wind that I felt like I could just slide off the side of the boat at any moment. I had to learn how to brace myself against the boat, and hang onto things, to get around. Going up and down the stairs into or out of the cabin below was particularly challenging. As was using the head! I had never used a toilet that was on an angle before, and it was certainly comical.
We sailed South for a bit, and then tacked back Northwest. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I knew we only had about 2 hours of day light left. It was time to make some navigational decisions.
“I think we should ditch into Newport,” I told Joe. “We are perfectly on course to just get right in there, just as the sun is going down.”
He agreed. At first. But he was afraid that if we went into Newport, we would not be able to get to Mystic the next day (because we would be at a very bad position for the winds), and we would end up having to leave the boat in Newport and return home.
“We’re sailing beautifully now,” he said. “We should just sail all night and we’ll get into Mystic as the sun is coming up and it will be beautiful.”
What?! Sail all night? Did this man forget that this was literally my SECOND day of sailing?! Plus, it was only 4:00 in the afternoon. Did we really have the energy to sail for another 12-14 hours? I desperately started looking for good options in Newport. I know there are many, but it was a little overwhelming in the cockpit with the charts at this disorienting angle. I just couldn’t quite figure out where we should go. Plus, it’s a little dicey getting in there which meant that we would need to run the engine longer than what we thought was ideal, based on the oil situation. Sigh.
I agreed to skip Newport. But I was definitely not on board with the whole sail all night thing.
We were still debating our destination as the sun was setting. Soon it would be dark. We had no destination in mind, all I knew was we were definitely NOT going to be home the next afternoon to pick the kids up from school. Luckily, I had cell service and texted back home in reassuring snippets that everything was great, but we were going to be doing some night sailing, and oh, can you stay with the kids one more day?
I watched the sunset and took some pictures before going down below to suit up in my fowlies (aka Foul Weather Gear, aka FWG). At this point the iPad that I had been using for navigation was running low on battery. I plugged it in to the control panel, but it wouldn’t register the charge. Great. Leaking oil. Stiff steering. Dead iPad. And now we’re night sailing. What had I gotten myself into?!
