Greetings from Beverly Mass. 9/15/07

New photos Bahamas Weeks 3 and 4 Fifth Week - Made it to ROQUE ISLAND 6th Week Penobscott Bay - Mount Desert Island Photos Bahamas Dec/Jan Bimini 10th and Final Week In Maine RegattaLittle Farmer's BahamasPhotos Photos Bahamas/ Surfer's Beach, Bahamas Photos Cave/Eleuthera  Photos Bahamas Greetings from Beverly Mass. 9/15/07 Through NYC - Thanks George Bush for the Experience Made it to Norfolk VA and Mile 1 of ICW First 200 miles of the ICW Happy Thanksgiving from St. Mary's Georgia Up De Pry Boards Mon Greetings from the Abacos Manjack Cay revisited  Home soon July 14, 2008 April/May 08 Photos

Made it to Mass-a-choo-choo

Well after a less than stellar beginning on Wed. 9/11 - we got hammered by 30 knot winds and driving sea resulting in us only making 12 miles to Great Diamond Island (free mooring though), we are now in Beverly Ma. at the Jubilee Yacht Club.  We arrived here yesterday from Isle of Shoals.  So, the order of the trip so far has been Wed. - Great Diamond Island, Thurs.- Isle of Shoals, and Fri. - Beverly Ma.

You might ask, why are we in Beverly Vs. just down the waterway to Salem which has such great places to visit?  The reason is that the boatyards in Salem charge $45/nite and this lovely yacht club charges $20.00/nite and Salem is just a mile walk to Salem.  The Yacht club has wonderful launch service and the people are extremely nice.  The sail into Salem Harbor was somewhat anti-climactic after the trip up the Annasquam River (that everyone but Capt Crusty wanted to do), which gave us our first experience with bridges and overpasses, and hailing bridge operators for help.  Everything went smoothly even with a 2 knot roiling current.

The day before we sailed from Great Diamond (near Portland) to Isle of Shoals.  It was a beautiful day and about 4 miles off of the Isles we saw the sea boiling off our bow.  We went to investigate and came upon a school of frenzy feeding TUNA.  We sailed around them for about 30 minutes with Capt Crusty frantically trying to find a lure and rig to try and catch on.  Unfortunately, the Tuna were HUGE (about 4-6 ft) and my puny rig (no steel leader) would have been ridiculous.  We finally, reluctantly headed back on course.  We arrived at Isle of Shoals about 3pm and took a free mooring from the Portsmouth Yacht Club (thank you) and explored the main Island which is a retreat resort.  We also got to meet another P365 cruising down to Annapolis.  We have now met 3 P365's cruising in the last few weeks.  I almost feel secure.  Isle of Shoals was lovely and a needed respit after a 8 hour day.  Now everyone except for Eli is taking turns (at least 30 min. shifts) at the helm each day. 

We left the Shoals at 7:30am and arrived in Beverly at about 2:30pm.  We actually sailed from Glouchester to Beverly without the engine on.  Normally we motor sail to make time but I was emotionally exhausted from the bridges and narrow channels of the Annasquam.   The weather called from a change in weather to rain till Sat. afternoon so we found the Jubilee Yacht Club in the Waterway Guide New England and LI sound.  This was an amazing find and we will be more aware of contacting Yacht Clubs for guest moorings in the future. 

All is well and our new Air Card allows us internet from the boat.  So we can maintain our updates and let you all know we are safe.

We plan to leave for the Cape Cod sound tomorrow and hope to be in the Long Island Sound by mid next week.

 

Update from Chris and crew It is good to be back on the boat , our cozy home. However, it was hard to leave friends and family behind. We are truly blessed with many wonderful people in our lives. One thing that was hard was not having the time to see or get in touch with everyone. We needed to head South before the weather got too cold. A special thank you to Jean and Claude Guilbault for watching the kids, also to Jean who elped Rachel make two sundresses. ( She would never learn that skill from me). Look for pictures of them in the future.Thank you also to Harry and  Mr.Chris who gave us a wonderful send off, books and advice, and especially Judy ( and you too John) for the wonderful raspberry tarts and terrific send off. You guys are the best. I am sure there is no other Marina as friendly as Paul's!!. Thanks to all the wonderful friends who adapted their busy schedules to see us when we were available. And, as always, to Mimi and Papa and John for all their help.We are also grateful to our new friends, Dick and Toni Merrick who also have a Pearson 365 and have made the trip to the Bahamas for all their help and advice and for taking time to go over charts with us. We are truly truly blessed.

Capt'n Crusty neglected to mention our Rosh Hashanah services on the water(9/13,) with us all blowing the boat horn (T'Keyah.....) I am sure the Coast Guard was wonderng what was up. We made sure to do it when we were miles out to sea so as not to cause concern. There was only one other boat in the vicinity. We also threw bread crumbs in the water as Taslich.(asking forgiveness) I am not sure if it was the bread crumbs or good Karma ( not to mix religions), but soon after a little yellow bird ( a warbler) landed on our boat and stayed for a little ride. He was so cute! Eli was thrilled. Jake named him Stevie. After that we saw the tuna ( mentioned above) It was a beautiful crystal clear day. It was so exciting to see the large fish jumping out of the water, 5 or 6 of them at least! What a memory!!/. And, not to correct the captain, but we moved on the boat ( in the rain) Sept 11 in the afternoon, after my CPR class, and actually left the morning of the 12th in the wind and waves, It was quite a ride!! I spent the 11th and then the 12th trying to put away everything I brought. Despite all my resolutions, I still brought too much stuff. I have found places for it all!! Rest assured , we have enough food and supplies if we are stranded for a year! Must run,all the best to everyone and we are truly grateful for all your support and friendship.