Our Summer Cruise 2018

 

Sunday, July 29

Think the weather has finally improved with clear sunny skies this morning so we planned for a short run to Seal Bay on Vinalhaven Island. Prior to leaving we managed to get together with Tom and Gigi for a short while to see some of the things we had done and also squeezed a quick tour in by Warren and His wife, Judy, from "Celebrations", the 37' NT anchored near us.

Pulpit Harbor to Seal Bay - 13nm

We left on a rising tide and made the turn around the top of North Haven Island following Carrie Rose. As we passed Burnt Island, they made a turn to head south along the red line whereas our route was plotted to go via Point 1.

We followed and miscalculated where the submerged rock on the following enlarged chart was - BANG! Thump, Thump and we bounced over the edge of it.

We immediately stopped the boat to check for any damage - mechanically everything was good and there were no signs of any water coming anywhere below. Fortunately, we were only going at about 5.5 knots at the time. Note the name of the island just past the collision. Continuing on to Seal Bay, we checked everything on arrival and found no signs of any water in the bilge (or basement for landlubbers). We assumed we had definitely had at least several gouges in the keel which is very thick and robust on a Nordic Tug.

Seal Bay is one of the most scenic areas we anchored in last year and it was a good day to be here (in one piece). The Bay has a very picturesque shoreline that changes dramatically from low tide when sandbars and large and small islands can be seen to high tide when the only the remnants of the large islands are evident. We took advantage of the high tide to take Dean and Charlotte for a long dinghy ride to the end of the harbor and through a narrow channel into Winter Harbor to the north probably covering 3 or 4 miles much of it only navigable at high tide.

A Circular Tour of Penobscot Island

A few pics from our tour:

 

Osprey Hunting and Successful

Can You See the Animal?

Basking Seals

 

 

 

Schooner Passing Outside Seal Bay

 

Sun Dropping Down at Low Tide

A British-Registered Private Schooner Nestled In the Rocks

By evening, we could see a very minor seepage of water showing up in a forward compartment that appeared to be coming around some screws that hold a battery box down and a small amount of water coming into the grey water tank (built in to the keel) that collects the water from the shower). Looks like we will be heading to Atlantic Boat soon.

Monday, July 30

With the very slow leak still continuing, we made the decision to travel the short distance back to Atlantic Boat and get the boat pulled out of the water to see the extent of the damage and work on getting it fixed. Atlantic Boat builds a range of lobster and recreational boats and we were confident they could do a good repair in a timely manner.

Seal Bay to Atlantic Boat - 20nm

In a couple of hours we had arrived and anchored as all of the mooring balls were taken as boats arrived for the Eggemoggin Reach Race later in the week; the leak was no worse.

 

Salazar - A 35 Year-old Cold Molded Boat Built by Brion Rieff, a Local Boat Builder

Unfortunately, Wayne who handles the boat hauling was on vacation for the day so we arranged to have the boat pulled on Tuesday at around 1100 am (high tide). With not much else to do but wait, I went into Blue Hill to do some grocery shopping while Judy hung out at the boat.

Just about the time we arrived, we had a text from Carrie Rose to say that Charlotte's father had been taken to the Emergency Room in Chicago and they were on their way to Atlantic Boat for Charlotte to fly back to Chicago tomorrow!

"Saint Salazar" at Sunset in Herrick Bay

Tuesday, July 31

We were up early and onshore at low tide to get laundry done and await the haul out around noon. The shoreline was quite spectacular today to the southeast and the northwest.

 

 

The boat was hauled on time and taken to one of Atlantic Boat's project building where we could examine the damage. There were three area of keel damage, shown below, a small dent in the raw water strainer screen, a bent bar on the prop cage and the rudder was lifted by about an inch. It appeared we hit fairly straight on and then pivoted away from the rock to the right as the damage after the initial impact was more on the port side. Luckily, the prop cage prevented any mechanical damage to the prop.

 

 

 

 

 

The keel damage was not punctures but more of a crushing-type of damage. At this point, Wayne cut away some of damaged fiberglass to allow the hull to dry out before doing any work the next day.

We were fortunate that Atlantic Boat has a small apartment above the old winch house for the railway they used to haul boats out of the water years ago; and it was vacant so we had somewhere to stay. We spent the rest of the day ferrying clothes and food to the apartment and were soon settled in.

 

 

Wednesday, August 1

Wayne was working early to determine the extent of the damage by cutting around each of the damaged area with a hole saw until he found no evidence of any separation of the fiberglass layers. This defined where he had to cut back to and helped to come up with an repair estimate to send to the insurance company.

 

 

 

Thursday, August 2

Wayne was busy today moving boats but did get the boat protected by covering the entire boat with poly sheeting and building a tent to minimize dust while he was working. While Wayne was occupied on other things, I took a look at the rudder and, with some activation, it dropped back down into position so that was an easy fix.

Tonight we celebrated Dave and Cynthy's birthday with dinner at George and Cynthy's house where Cynthy had cooked a delicious minestrone dinner and we provided the birthday cake, a fresh Maine blueberry pie with candles. We also enjoyed a couple of bottles of prosecco and a lot of good conversation.

Friday, August 3

Surgery began today with Wayne taking a Sawzall (a big reciprocating saw) to each of the damaged areas to cut back to solid fiberglass. This would define the start of the repair. Fortunately, NT used a pour-in foam along the inside of the keel that would provide a backing when Wayne gets to lay up the fiberglass layers of the repair. Steve Stone of Off Center Harbor, an internet company in Brooklin that focuses on all types of videos associated with boating, stopped by as they have a video project beginning at Atlantic Boat. He was interested in documenting the repair and started filming this first step.

Quite a lengthy job today as Wayne was also busy with his other duties of launching and hauling boats. The boat now had the weekend to dry out. I don't have many photos of this part of the action as you will see in tomorrow's entry.

Saturday, August 4

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Another year has rolled around and I had a great birthday present lined up - crewing in a boat race.

Today was the third leg of a series of classic wooden sailboat races. The first runs from Castine in Penobscot Bay to Camden, the second from Camden to Brooklin, and the third, the Eggemoggin Reach Race runs out and back from Brooklin. Around 130 boats from the 1930s on were in the field. Brion Rieff who lived in our apartment and we got to know over the last couple of years is a local boat builder of some renown. I had asked him earlier in the week if he knew of anyone needing a crew and he came through with a spot on "Wizard", a boat he had totally rebuilt over the last few years for its owner. It is a Herreshoff Fisher island 31 originally built in 1930 with an overall length of 44'.

"Wizard" on a Calm Day

 

At 8:00am on a cloudy dull morning it was off to the races as we headed out of Herrick Bay round the corner to the start which was located near Wooden Boat. The rest of the crew joined the boat there and "Wizard" milled around with the rest of the fleet around in a relatively small area back of the start line as the earlier classes started. We had a good position for the start but were early crossing the line by about three seconds with nowhere to go to delay our start. We could have taken the penalty of time or come back to the right side of the line and re-crossed; time was the best option by far.

Start of the Race

Another Tight Start

The Big Boys Starting

Although we didn't have the best start, we were soon up to full speed around 8 knots upwind with the crew all on the rail with water half way up the lifeline stanchions; we were flying and wet! In fact, we were overpowered and had to put a reef in the mainsail (cut its area down) and we still maintained the same speed. We continued to hold our own as we entered some dense fog near Swan Island when we had to make a series of short tacks which went well.

As we reached the south end of the course, we were preparing to launch the spinnaker which was bagged up on the lifelines when the sheets caught in the water and dragged the whole 'chute out alongside the hull. Everyone was on the opposite rail and dived across to try and haul it back on board. in the process by six-moth old iPhone was dragged out of my pocket overboard!! Along with several days worth of photos (not backed up) leading up to the raceday. Arghhh! The spinnaker was retrieved just in time to round the rock at the south end of the course and hoist it. What a difference; the boat was now much flatter and our speed increased, hitting over 9.2 knots at times. I was main sheet trimmer on the leg and had a busy time continually adjust the main trim to try and keep it perfect.

We ended finishing the race in 13th place for elapsed time and 4th out of 14 in our class; a great birthday present even with the loss of the phone!