Day 17: part 2

We were not bored at all stuck on our mooring ball in Cohasset Cove, MA. In fact, we were super busy calling around to all the marinas between there and Newport, RI to see who could take us, assuming the seas were favorable enough for us to travel. The predicament was that some marinas said they had space, but only if we would commit and pay for the slip. Slips range from around $250 to $400 a night for a boat like ours, and we did not know where we would be able to get to, so we did not want to shell out the money, and thus, we could not guarantee anything.

We were able to find a slip in Sandwich, MA, right at the entrance to the Cape Cod canal, but when we called back a couple of hours later, they said that someone snagged the slip from under us, since we did not pay. Given our lack of water and Ann's general feeling that she wanted to get off the boat, we decided to at least make a run for Scituate around 3pm. If the seas were really scary, we would just turn around and anchor again in Cohasset. If it was uncomfortable but not scary, we would make it to Scituate where we had a slip on hold. That would be an unpleasant hour to go 6 miles, but worth it to be on a dock with water and security. And, if the waves were not too bad, we would go as far as we could.

The problem was that by 2:30, I was not able to find a single place past the Canal that had any availability for tonight. I must have made a dozen calls to all the different marinas. Then it occurred to me to try the Kingsman Yacht club in Falmouth where we stayed on our way up. They remembered us, and they told me it is against their policy, but they could hold a slip for us, and if we could make it there, it was ours, and if not, we would not have to pay.

As we left Cohasset Cove behind us, Ann commented that she wanted to forget that place as quickly as possible. Pulling off the mooring ball and raising our anchor, I had to agree.

The view from our ill-fated mooring ball at Cohasset Cove

I decided to drive from the flybridge despite the cold air. It was 59 degrees and very windy when we pulled out. Initially, the waves seemed pretty manageable, but then we hit some big ones. Benny came up and told me we needed to go to Scituate because he did not want to travel in these waves. I had a sinking feeling that we were not going to get far today. I implored with him to see how he felt when we turned South, because the waves were coming from the East, and I thought that taking the waves on sideways would be less dramatic than head on. In fact, that was correct, and pretty soon we were surfing on top of the waves going in the same direction, and that is actually fun and not at all scary.  Benny agreed. We clocked in at 26 knots for a while with engine load at 85%. That is extremely good for this boast! I spoke with Ann, who was down below, over the radio on channel 73 (Lady Ann, Lady Ann, this is Sababa, over - yes, that's really how we communicate - using the marine radio and a portable that I keep inside), and we agreed to push on to Falmouth.

Pretty soon, the waves dropped to 2-3 feet, and when we reached the canal about 75 minutes later, the water was still and calm, and we were so happy.

The cape cod canal was our first calm waters in 2 days

Although it was still chilly out, we felt like the nightmare was over, and excited to tie up in Falmouth soon. We arrived just in time for a beautiful sunset, and I felt nostalgia for Elana, who was so into the sunsets on the trip with us. Lucky Elana managed to miss all of our adventures with the storm.

A peaceful evening at last

After arriving in Falmouth, we could not fill our water tanks fast enough. Ann was already in the shower as the water was coming in. I washed down the boat while Benny excitedly hooked up his video games. Without the generator, we did not have enough power for him to play video games on the mooring ball, as I did not feel that was a good use of our inverter and house batteries in a crisis situation. Call me old fashioned.

Tied up in Falmouth. The pleasure of a full service marina with floating docks

Tomorrow morning, we have an appointment with a mechanic at 7a.m. to look at the generator. If he is able to fix that, we will be at full strength with empty head tanks, full water tanks, food, drinking water and power. No stopping us now.

Hopefully, we will be able to get to Millford, CT tomorrow. I'm trying to get a slip at the original marina we were booked at, and if I am successful, then we will be exactly one day behind our planned schedule. Unfortunately there were two bits of collateral damage because of our storm delay. The Geva boys can no longer come with us to Maryland and instead will be taking a bus, and sadly, I will have to miss Peter Lugars with my cousin Kenny that was planned for tomorrow night. My vegan family even agreed to come with me if we could find something for them to eat because they knew how much it meant to me, but the restaurant is sold out. In fact, Kenny tried to convince them to let us have a table, but was unsuccessful. This is definitely one part of the trip I will have to make up some other time.

So, hopefully we'll have good weather the rest of the way. The next 2 days look good, and that should get us to Brooklyn, and if all goes well, we will get home on Saturday instead of Friday. But, of course, this is a boat trip, so anything can (and usually does) happen.