Sue and I sailed from Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket today. We topped off with fuel and water at Vineyard Haven (quite reasonable fuel prices at Tisbury Wharf) and headed out east in zero wind conditions. That was not to last long. By the time we made the turn around East Chop, a SW breeze began to come up. We motor sailed for another hour as we had to charge batteries anyways. Once the batteries were at 80% we secured the engine and sailed at 5kts STW in 10-12kts of wind on the beam. Good news was the 2kt current carrying us due east towards our destination for SOG of 7kts. It was a fantastic sail. Sky was blue without even a puffy cumulus the entire day. Temp 75deg.
We watched a “parade” of classic boats heading back towards the mainland from Nantucket including several older America’s Cup racers, classic schooners and many others. Upon arrival, we learned this weekend was the “Classic Boat Race Challenge Weekend in Nantucket. There are still many beautiful classic boats here visiting in addition to the great ones that live here (not to mention all the sailing megayachts).
With the wind and tide in our favor, our trip over took 4 hours, covering about 22nm. The wind slowly increased along the way over and was about 15kts as we made the turn to the SE heading towards the harbor entrance. Seas were only 1-2ft the whole way. When we made the turn, the apparent wind came up to 17-19kts so we put 1 reef in the main and plunged ahead at 10deg heel and 6.5kts. It was fortunate we arrived in the early afternoon, about 1400, as the wind continued to build. Its been 20-25kts all afternoon. Great for our wind generator, we’ve been banking amps while charging the computer and phones. Too choppy for a dry dinghy ride to shore, so we are napping and emailing this afternoon. Will head ashore tomorrow am when, hopefully, the wind lets up some. We plan to sightsee a bit here, then head for Nova Scotia sometime later in the week. Weather looks good for several days.
