Saturday, June 9 – Sunday, June 12, 2018 Yarmouth, ME to Plymouth, MA
After early morning final provisioning, we cast off the lines from the pony dock just after 11:00 and began our passage. Along the way, we adjusted the stuffing box as the temp ranged from 142, to 188, back down to 139, then 123, and 117, with 1 drip/second. Our first stop, 52 nm and 7 1/2 hours later, was York Harbor. There’s a really strong current that rips through there, and a tricky dogleg into the mooring field. We were unable to raise the harbormaster on Ch 68, but the cell phone worked. $30/night for mooring #1. In order to go ashore, we were able to tie up to the town dock to walk Annie that evening, as well as the next morning before we headed towards Marblehead, MA. Along the way we spied a pod of at least 20-30 frolicking dolphins!
Our friends, Tad and Liz, had arranged a mooring and launch service for us at Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with them on their patio overlooking the Atlantic, and took advantage of their offer to do some laundry! Annie enjoyed playing with their 4 y. o. Gordon setter, Willie.
The next morning, after a delightful breakfast with Tad at the Driftwood, we intended to get under way, but a systems check detected oil leaking into the bilge from the oil filter. Calls to Dion’s Yacht Yard in Salem for advice, and a trip to the local marine store for parts (Permatex Aviation Form-a-Gasket paste to help seal the oil filter gasket, really?), helped Hugh to fix the problem. While Hugh worked on the boat, I walked up to the local market for some extra provisions. The next morning, we got a 6:30 start, and as we rounded Marblehead Neck, heard a loud “Boom!” What a wonderful signal cannon send-off from Tad and Liz, though I’m sure their neighbors thought otherwise.
When we change course at each waypoint, I put the heading into this wooden “routing box”, so we can remember the correct heading. (photo) It was salvaged off of a ship at a boat-wrecking yard in India, and Hugh found it on eBay. Have you seen the videos where they run these huge vessels up on the hard? Google it!
The “lumpy” seas across Boston Harbor did a good job of shaking up the crud that had settled in the bottom of the fuel tank. We ducked into Cohasset Cove for a quick change of both fuel filters. The steward at the yacht club where we tied up, and Laurie, the Harbormaster, were all welcoming, and we were soon on our way to Plymouth Harbor, with winds blowing 15-20 kts. Our Plymouth Yacht Club mooring ($65) was near Plymouth Rock — such a disappointment, that rock– and we were next to a replica of the shallop used by the Pilgrims to come ashore from the MAYFLOWER. A full-scale reconstruction of the original, MAYFLOWER II, is usually berthed here — I remember touring it with our son’s 6th grade class — but it was undergoing a major restoration at Mystic Seaport, where we were headed. Both the shallop and the MAYFLOWER II were built in the UK in 1957 and given to the US as thanks for our military assistance during WWII.
Hugh was finally able to finish the installation of a windshield wiper to make it easier to see when the spray hits. The wind eventually died down from 30 kts to 5-10, so we enjoyed another comfortable bug-free night’s sleep in this historic harbor.