First Cruise

With my middle son Ian as crew, the original plan was to leave Friday, sail to Third Beach in Middletown, RI where my dad has a mooring, then leave in the morning for Cuttyhunk. The weather had other plans. There was virtually no wind Friday, and Saturday's forecast was for gusty conditions from the east, the direction we needed to go. In a typical southwesterly, Cuttyhunk is an easy ride, but I didn't want a long beat for a shakedown cruise, so we changed plans.

I saw the Herreshoff Classic Yacht Regatta was taking place near Bristol around noon, so I figured we could head up the bay and maybe see some of the classic yachts, including the legendary S&S-designed Dorade (for whom the cowl vent boxes are named). After, I figured we could possibly grab our friends' mooring in Potter Cove on Prudence Island, or sail down the west side of Jamestown and anchor in Dutch Harbor.

As it turned out, we were much too late leaving to catch any of the action. We were so late we opted to simply head around the north end of Jamestown and head for Dutch Harbor. We did see NY 30 #9 Amorita coming back down the bay, presumably from watching the other classics since it appears they were not racing. Some searching after we returned yielded that this boat actually sunk in a prior race in 2007, but was rescued and restored.

We sailed down the east side of Dutch Island and I told Ian how I remembered exploring it as a kid, but there is now a hefty fine for going ashore due to numerous hazards from the old military hospital and other structures deteriorating on the island. After, we headed into the anchorage area at the north end of the harbor, by the mouth of Great Creek. We sailed closer to shore than all the other boats, under main alone, until the keel bumped (with the lock bolt out). Then we spun around, sailed back out a boat-length or two, turned head to wind, and dropped the little Danforth that came with the boat. It grabbed immediately, I let out plenty of rode, then went to drop the main. The top slug jammed a bit in the track and the sail filled a bit as I struggled to get it down. Thankfully, the anchor dug in hard and yanked us back head to wind as the boat pulled. The mud of Dutch Harbor is well-known for good holding.

With the boat secure, we got out the inflatable tandem kayak to pump it up for the first time. The included manual pump worked quite well and it didn't take long. We then decided to have dinner. I dug out my little Trangia alcohol backpacking stove and set it up in the cockpit, only to discover I forgot a lighter! Thankfully, Ian didn't seem as disappointed as I was. We ate our soup cold. At least it was a warm day and we had plenty of proper cold food like deli turkey, beef jerky, canned fruit and trail mix. We both agreed it was getting dark and we were tired so we would wait to try the kayak and possibly go snorkeling in the morning.

Rain was in the forecast overnight so we closed the pop-top (which we had raised after anchoring) and kept the hatch board ready. When the rain began, I closed up the boat and turned on my little Garmin eTrex 10 handheld GPS, then set a waypoint to keep track of our location without getting out of bed.

I woke up several times and checked the GPS to confirm we hadn't moved far from the initial waypoint. About 2am, I jumped up in a panic, awakening Ian after seeing 1.75 miles distance to waypoint! Poking my head out revealed we hadn't moved at all. Confused, I scrutinized the GPS further and realized it had a cursor, controlled by the little pointer stick, that could be moved around the map to display distance from the location to the cursor. I had fallen asleep with the pointer stick accidentally pressed! 😄

After falling back asleep, I awoke around dawn, grabbed my camera and took a few pics. It was quite cool (low 60s F). After quick discussion with Ian, we decided to skip kayaking and snorkeling and just head back. Taking our time to pack up, eat a quick (cold) breakfast of trailmix and popcorn, we pulled up the anchor around 8ish. It was very light wind and would take a while, since our outboard is small. We motored south to Beavertail, the south end of Jamestown, where finally the wind filled enough to sail, still from the east so we were pretty close-hauled on starboard tack most of the time. We arrived back in Newport a little after noon and unloaded our gear at the 30-minute dock at Newport Yacht Club before I returned the boat to the mooring. Then Ian and I headed to IHOP for brunch as I promised him.

All things considered, I had a great time, and I don't think Ian was too bored. I tried to teach him a little about sailing and he was receptive. I was hugely relieved the boat sails as well as it does, though I have plenty more improvements to do. I didn't rig the vang or a cunningham at all this time. The boat had nice feedback from just a bit of weather helm when close-hauled, although this quickly turned to lee helm once cracked off a little. The lee helm was probably because we were using the main from my parents' Tanzer 22. It is in much better shape than the (probably original) main that came with the Windrose, but is a little short on the hoist and more than a foot short on the foot, so it almost certainly moves the center of effort forward.

My biggest concern at the moment is the swing keel pivot bolt leaking, despite my replacing the bolt and both gaskets, plus coating it in Life Seal. I was frustrated until I remembered "Stay Afloat" putty, which we used once to temporarily seal the prop shaft tube while we changed out the stuffing box on the Frers in the water. Stay Afloat was reportedly inspired by the toilet wax rings that had been successfully used for emergency seals in the past, but optimized for this purpose. Before we left on Saturday, I bought a tub and packed some around both sides of the pivot bolt. It slowed the leak but didn't completely stop it, so I added more until I could no longer see any drips. It stays soft so is generally pretty easy to remove later to do a proper repair in the off-season.