Sunday, August 31, 2008

Boston to New York City - Day 1

Farewell to Boston


[Kyle] Maryanne and I both really loved Boston. It's such a wonderful, vibrant, historic city with a certain charm that makes us feel glad to have had the chance to live within it. The day before we left was just perfect. Summertime had finally arrived, albeit a tad late, and the weather was gorgeous and clear. I felt a real twinge of sadness as my ferry pulled away from the waterfront and began weaving its way amongst the boats and islands of the harbor towards where Footprint was tugging at her mooring, ready to go. Almost everywhere that Maryanne and I have been, we could have happily spent longer but eventually the urge to go becomes stronger than the urge to stay and we find ourselves standing on tippy toes trying to see what's over the horizon.

We got the sails up right after sunrise and made a short tack through Hull Gut to get out of Hingham harbor (right when a ferry showed up. Why does that happen?). Then we turned downwind and just flew down the coast having achieved the rare combination of perfect wind speed and direction, fastest point of sail and a following current on a beautiful, clear summer morning. Looking forward at the sea and the sky, I was convinced I saw a blue shift, but then how would I know?

Crazy waters of Cape Cod Canal


We made such good progress down the coast during the day that we arrived at the Cape Cod Canal several hours earlier than we had originally anticipated. Instead of arriving with a favorable current through, we ended up bucking the maximum head current. The tidal range on the Cape Cod side is around 9 feet, while on the Buzzards Bay side, it is only 3 feet or so. This makes the current through the canal fierce. At normal cruising RPM and with the mainsail up in a tailwind, no less, we still had people on the path along the canal pass us and then recede into little dots while strolling.

Sunset in Onsett Bay - great end to a long day


Eventually, we made it to tho other side and found a picturesque anchorage right off the canal on Onsett Bay, MA, right next to a little wooded island (that's for sale, by the way.).

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