Bristol RI to Portsmouth NH
June 16 - July 1
During this time we took weekend trips to Bristol RI to work on boat, relax, search for an inflatable dinghy and 9.8hp motor, hang out with Jay, Trish, Peggy and Herb, watch America’s cup trials, try to catch up with friends in Newport, take local trips with the Whaler, search our photo ops and get Bobs house ready to lease, and of course try to fit in work.
July 5, Thursday
Our trip to Bristol included two important stops, one to purchase a 2007 Tohatsu 9.8hp motor in Wakefield RI, and then to Barrington RI to pick up our recently purchased 2008 achilles rigid bottom inflatable. The man selling the motor was a real talker, x-marine, fisherman extroadinaire, maine guide for small fishing trips. Very organized garage, house, lawn, kids, and water dog. He had lots of injuries, surgeries, and was not moving around so well.
The folks we bought the dinghy from, Warren and Judy, showed us their new purchase, a nordic tug, offered us a glass of wine, and helped us put the motor on the dinghy. Bob decided not to wait for them to bring the dinghy to Bristol the next morning, but to take it himself by water, this is about a five mile trip, it was late in the day and his first time out with a used motor.
The motor was running rough, and he did not make it to Bristol until after dark. I brought the truck to Bristol and went shopping to save time. But when I returned the Jay's house was dark and our boat had no lights on, so I was not sure what was up. Jay got up and directed me to phone to call Bob to come pick me up with all the provisions and other "important" stuff. He was charging the batteries in the dark. He explained that the motor needs work, does not start well, and does not have much power. The consensus is it needs a tune up to determine if anything else is wrong...... Just got to love used motors.
July 6 Friday
After chatting with Trish, taking a shower at the house, and leaving truck keys with Jay, we were off at about 9am. The current was with us and we make the trip down the Sakonet river with ease. We contacted Anita and Todd, but they were already heading to Martha’s Vineyard so we will have to try hooking up later in the summer.
The winds were light so Bob decided to try the asymmetrical sail. It worked well, but does not like flying with the mainsail up. We were not making good time and had to motor sail to make to Marion at a reasonable time. The sail was up most of the way in 5 to 10 kt winds and was fun to have up. Big, pretty, but big blue splotches on it. I think it needs a cleaning. Bob thinks they never used it since the line looked like it have never been out of the wrappers.
At about a mile out of Marion Bob started bringing down the sail, this did not go as planned. The sail was stuck, or off the shive and would not budge. We had to leave it up. The tube covering did drop down over the sail but it will need attention before we sail again. We called the yacht club for directions to the mooring. Peg and Herb offered their mooring but the harbor master put us on another just behind the Taborboy. I was not the best at putting us on the mooring and had to make two attempts before we were safely secured. It’s a tight harbor.
The dinghy was working well enough to get us into the dock where Peggy was waiting for us. She drove us back to the house and we had cocktails, beef stroganoff, and dessert. Walking back to the BYC was a good choice and gave us some much needed exercise. And again, The dinghy behaved and brought us back to the boat.
Saturday July 7
Cindy called about 6:15 am having arrived in Marion earlier than expected. We headed into dock to pick her up and put her car at Peg and Herbs. Bob took a much needed shower while we took care of car parking. The dinghy was a bit temperamental but managed to get us back to boat. The first thrill of the day was Bob’s trip up the mast to drop the Asymmetrical sail. Cindy and I hoisted him up using winch handle. It was a good thing she was there to assist. Bob attached a second line to the head of the sail and tried to hang on as it dropped 10 ft before Cindy and I could bring it down. Bob found that it was not off the shive, and figures the halyard was jammed up because it was old and swollen. It doesn’t look like “master sail maker Jimmy” did anything he was supposed to. One more thing we will have to fix. It’s coming more apparent that we need lots of new running rigging. After all that we pulled away from the mooring at 8:05am and made it to the entrance of the cape cod canal as the tide was heading in. It was a quick trip through the canal with the incoming tide pushing us at up to about 11.2kts. WOW, made it to the west entrance at Cape Cod Bay in a hour. 
Set our heading to Provincetown and made our way with no wind and calm seas. It turned out to be a hazy, lazy, 4 hour trip. Cindy pointed showed us what a bad reaction she had to a bug bite and then proceeded to get bitten again. Ice and benedril were promptly administered. This seemed to calm down the swelling and we think she will survive.
We called ahead to reserve a mooring but were told we could only reserve for two nights and to call the launch service for first come first serve moorings. As we got closer to Ptown the traffic picked up as ferry’s and pleasure boats rounded the point.
The mooring field was tight and the launch directed us to a mooring that was fairly close to the boats next to us. We had cocktails and watched the boats swing around the moorings without crashing into anyone. The boat was safe so we headed into town for what we discovered was the beginning of Bear week. OMG what a site(s).
After some unsuccessful shopping, (Cindy did not buy those shoes) we headed to dinner on the waterfront. Cindy treated, thank you, that was very nice. On the way back to the boat Bob and I found the sunglass store and bought good sunglasses and got two free. By now the streets were very crowded and the bears were out in full force. We wasted no time heading back to the boat, and off to bed. Cindy and I checked out the ferry and bus schedule to get her home the next day. There was only one ferry, but several buses so she was all set. 
Sunday July 8
I was up for the sunrise photo and tried to keep quiet since the rest were still sleeping. After the sleepy heads got up Bob was ready to start north, and Cindy was going into marina where she could get a shower and breakfast. We had been traveling with no water in the tanks since we left Bristol. This was not really a good idea.
Bob checked fluids and was ready to go, but the engine was not, it would not start. The starter battery was dead, because, it had not been charging since Snead Island Boat works in Florida put the new batteries in. Our back up battery starter was also dead, so we headed into town to charge it. We tracked down Cindy and had a nice breakfast together and said goodbyes again.
An hour plus had gone by and we only had a 75% battery charge on the charger, but we thought that would work. It did not, so we headed back into marina and talked to the attendant who directed us to Boat US and we called. We were going to go to the marine store in town and pick up jumper cables but “Flyers “ said they would be right out and the insurance should cover it. So back to the boat and after waiting 45 minutes and we called again. Someone finally showed up a half hour later. He did jump the starter battery and the engine kicked on. At 11:30am we were on our way, a very late start. I took advantage of the late start by shooting lots of photos while rounding the point.
The estimated time of arrival in Portsmouth NH was initially 8 hours but after closer review it was just to cape ann. So Portsmouth was more around 12 hours putting us in at midnight if we stayed at 6kts. again, no wind, calm seas and make a wopping 3 kts, ETA now 5am. The wind picked up a bit and then dropped again so the revised ETA is still midnight. So the agenda for the day was set sails, take in sails, set sail, take in jib, leave up main, trim sails, to accommodate the shifting wind, when there was wind, and to account for the 5 to 0 kts of wind. this is different from what we experienced bringing the boat up from Florida.
After the sun set the winds picked to about 25kts, nothing about that in the weather forecast. with triple reefed sails we made good time for a bit. But it was not in the best direction. Sails came down and we were back on course.
Bob got a couple of hours sleep and I woke him just as we were coming into Portsmouth harbor. The lights were confusing, with what appeared to be very bright private dock lights along the shore line. The tide had just turned around to incoming and the winds dropped. The half moon was up and lighting the area, it was the best conditions one could wish for. We took a run through the mooring field, spotted our mooring and then came back around and hooked up with ease. The sailing gods were smiling on us. I had been anxious thinking about picking up the mooring in raging currents and opposing winds for several days. No worries.
To celebrate our successful arrival at 12:30am we drank a bottle of red, toasted our accomplishment and truly enjoyed the moment. We decided to sleep on board.
We called a taxi for a 6am pick up, that should give us about three hours sleep.
We are home!
Bringing the boat from Florida to NH was an amazing experience; an adventure of a lifetime.
I look forward to many more.
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