"Aimless"

The Bristol 24 delivery

The day after our April LJSC meeting, I left for Rhode Island with pretty good directions and a good map.  It was a 25 hour trip and I arrived at the dock where Aimless was tied, by 9:15AM on Thursday the 20th of April.   By afternoon, I had taken a nap and was ready to start provisioning for the trip and to make any needed repairs.  Boston (George Sollows) had not sailed the boat yet so the extra time I had would come in handy to check out the sails, and the sailing gear aboard.   I was not sure if there was some kind of an omen but while cleaning the boat for the trip, I came across a homemade series drogue of sorts made of light line and plastic bags lying in the port quarter storage.  I laid it out on the dock next to a 15ft section of mine to get a good comparison.  I think we would have left a trail of plastic behind the boat if we had to use it. By Saturday afternoon the boat was cleaned up and organized.  We had raised the main and jibs to check them out, we had visited the grocery store more than once for any needed food and drink, and had visited West Marine and Lowes Home Improvement, a few times to get small parts to help us sail her.   This 1970 Bristol 24 is a full keel, heavy coastal cruiser and is a very good choice for the area Boston lives in.  Notice I said coastal cruiser, not racer cruiser.  More on that later.  

We cranked up the motor and departed the slip at Appongaug Marina in Greenwich Bay at 08:30.  Boston had borrowed an old Water Tender type dinghy for the trip and we had that tied behind on an old stiff painter.  We put up the main and a 100 % jib when we were clear of the channel into the marina.  The wind was light but we were sailing.   We turned South to go down wind and put up the cruising spinnaker but by 10:30 the wind had died.   Taking down the spinnaker, we put up the 100 jib again, cranked up the motor and started motoring.    I guess that was the signal because it was not 15 minutes later that the wind filled in and we were sailing again.   This time the wind was abeam and getting stronger.   As we neared the Jamestown Bridge,  we talked about reefing the main.   As we got closer to the bridge it became apparent that we needed to reef.   We tacked a couple of times after reefing and sailed under the bridge only to find that we were still over canvassed.   We quickly decided to put up his 70% jib and with that completed, we were again sailing at 4.5 to 5 Kts.   The wind was over 20 at this point as we passed by Beaverneck Point.   The temps at this time were about 45 to 50 degrees and now the seas had picked up since we were no longer in the shelter of the islands in Narragansett Bay.  We pinched into the wind as much as we could and because it was now already 14:30, decided sailing to  Block Island was not an option.   We did not want to try arriving there well after dark.   When we had sailed out a couple of miles, we tacked back toward New Bedford but could not make it past Beaverneck Pt. and had to tack a couple of times to clear the shallow waters near there.   We finally made it past Beaverneck Pt and was headed into Newport, when I noticed the dinghy was not attached to the line dragging behind us.   Looking back, I sighted it about 150 yards back. 

            Boston turned the boat around as I let out the sheets.   It did not take long to get back to the dinghy and I was able to hook it with the boat hook on the first try.  Unfortunately, we were still going too fast and I could not get a good hold on it before it pulled away.   It was time to take down the sails and crank up the motor.   We motored to the dinghy and both of us leaning over the rail while the boat is wallowing in the swells, we were able to get a good hold on it.  Boston said at one point, he felt his legs feel light and thought he was going to be pulled over the side as the boat dipped in a swell to put the rail near the water.   It took a couple of tries but I finally was able to get a line thru the towing hole in the hull and get it tied.  We tied a second line to the dinghy so it would not get away again, and throttled up to motor into Newport.   We found a very quiet cove on the chart that would be a good place to anchor, only to find the U.S. Coast Guard had beat us to it.   Well we would have to go all the way into the Newport harbor then.   As we motored around Ft. Adams, we found the harbor filled with moorings and not a boat moored.   It was 6:30PM when we picked one of the many moorings in some quiet water and got ready to make supper.   It was a quiet night except for the 2 times when the Pilot boat came by on the way out to guide a large ship in. 

            We tried to get an early start the next morning with a quick bagel breakfast and were slipping the mooring by 0800AM.  As we headed out of the mooring field, I started putting up the sails.   As I was out on the bow getting the jib hanked on, the Pilot boat came by again throwing up a large wave.  I had placed the winch handle on the cabin top to have it ready to use for the halyard winches.   After the wave bounced us, I turned around and saw the handle floating about 5 ft behind the boat.   I think on the 4th time, we got close enough to grab it.    They are hard to see in the water on a cloudy day.   With the sails up and sailing downwind out of Narragansett Bay, we saw our first sailboat on the water.   This was a large sailboat with 8 people on deck motoring by us, waving.    We slowly passed them as they spent some time getting the sails up.   Pinching into the wind again, we sailed out of Narragansett Bay with a reefed main and my short 110 jib hanked on.   The wind was up to about 15-18 and the seas running about 6ft again, but we were getting a pretty good speed.   This was the kind of weather this boat was designed to sail in.   By 13:00 we were about 10 miles off shore and the wind was starting to fade.  We tacked back toward Westport and by 14:30 we had to start the motor or stay out there all night.  By 16:30 we were searching for the channel marks leading into Westport, RI.  We had to be almost on top of them before we finally found them.   There was a large rock located right at the entrance to the channel and it provided some discussion as to which way we were supposed to go around it.  The channel in is well marked as it is kind of narrow with lots of shallow water all around.   Like Newport, we found only 3 other boats moored out, and was able to pick out a choice mooring with no trouble out of the many empty ones.  With supper finished we decided to watch a movie, but the choice of Captain Kid, turned out to be a bad choice and about 1/3rd of the way thru as we were both falling asleep with boredom, we turned it off and turned in for the night.

            The next morning we decided to wait a little so we would not be bucking the tide going out so we slept late and then had pancakes for breakfast.  It was almost 10:30 when we slipped away from the mooring and headed out.  The tide was almost in and the current little.   As we motored out the channel, a U.S. Coast Guard boat was lifting a red bouy and checking it for what ever they check it for.  We motored around the big boat, trying to stay out of the way but trying to not run aground in the process, since they were in the middle of the narrow channel.  Going out we once again avoided the large rock that seems to be placed in the middle of the channel.  We hoisted the sails, cut off the motor, and drifted for about a half mile before we decided to crank the motor and head directly to Cuttyhunk Is. 

Cuttyhunk is the Eastern most island in the Elizabeth Islands.  It is only about 5 sq miles and is a favorite destination for local coastal cruisers.   It did not take us long to get to Cuttyhunk and by 14:30 we had motored up the narrow channel and were tied to one of the docks.  As we came into the channel, Boston and I had a little tug of war with the tiller since each of was watching different sides of the channel, we each though we should steer the other way a little.  When he pushed the tiller my way, I though he was giving me the tiller and I would push it his way to turn the boat and then he would push it my way again to turn the boat the other way.   The channel was only about 40ft wide and the sand had drifted in some on each side.  After chatting with a fisherman & his wife on the dock we found out that the marina was not open and that we could stay there on the dock because there was no one there to complain about it, and besides the mooring balls were not even set out yet in the pond.  We walked up to the top of the hill to get a better view of the island and the islands around it, including Martha Vineyard which was only about 7 Miles to the Southeast of Cuttyhunk.   On the way back down hill we stopped to rest in front of the Market.   I got a picture of Boston in front of the Market and he took my picture  with the Post Office that was closed by 2Pm each day.  Shortly the owner of the Market came by to open up for us so we could come in.   It was cold soda time for Boston and an icecream bar for me.  She told us that we were the first sailboat to out to Cuttyhunk for 2008.  We chatted with her for a while learning that the winter inhabitants for the island numbered only 15 families.   The island has it's own water system using deep wells and it's own power generating plant.   Trash and pumpout facilities in the summer is a problem for the residents and requires a barge coming from New Bedford to provide those services once a week, although the pumpouts are only intermittent for the cruisers that come out to use the moorings.  On this night we decided to try watching another movie and selected Derailed with Jean-Claude Van Damme as the star. 

On Wednesday morning at 09:30, we reluctantly pushed away from the dock to motor out on the rising tide.  This was going to be the first day that we would not have to be heading into the wind to get to our next destination.   We sailed out with a reefed main again and the short 110 jib again.   As we passed Penikeese Island the wind picked up and so did the seas.    We had the wind over the port quarter and really started to slide thru the water nicely.   It was going to be a short trip to New Bedford.   I watched the GPS some and we were making 4.5 to 5.3 kts.  I even saw 5.6kts but I think that was just a quick slide down a wave.  Coming into New Bedford there were lots of buoys to help keep us informed as to our progress but there seemed to be a lighthouse mid channel that was not on my chart.   We were puzzled until we got there.   There really was a lighthouse that was on a rock on the west side of the channel that was marked on the chart as rocks.   We took down the sails before entering the hurricane gates that protect New Bedford.   By 13:00 we had made it to the mooring that would be the home for Aimless for the summer.   Now we just had to get ashore