We made it back to our home port in Portsmouth, RI at about 3:30 am yesterday morning. The delivery from Provincetown, MA took about 16 hours. We would have set off earlier but our timing was dependent on a favorable current to help push us through the Cape Cod Canal. This turned in our favor at about 5pm, so we didn’t depart Provincetown until 11am.
Soon after departure, we connected via live video with our virtual shipmate Randy, who is taking One More Step towards living a fuller life by living a healthier lifestyle, to try to get to a point where he can begin driving and eventually sailing again. I enjoyed giving him a tour of the boat and hearing about his journey with epilepsy.
On a delivery we use the motor when we can’t sail but as soon as possible get the sails out. We pushed hard under the motor to give us some time prior to the canal to have fun with some sails and to practice drone use: we are newbies and though launch and flight are relatively feasible we have some trepidation about retrieving the drone on a moving boat. Our first attempt, which was last year, resulted in losing the drone. Fortunately, we had calm conditions and got some nice footage of our A0 sail (the red one) which is used to increase sail area in light winds with a true wind direction just behind the beam (the beam is considered to be 90° from the bow). And we did retrieve the drone! (see recap video below).
Before we left Provincetown, I checked the weather and there was a lot of conflict/disagreement between various models – the European model said winds from the southwest, the American GFS model said from the northeast. It turned out both were right and wrong. As we got to the canal the winds were from the NE in Mass Bay, but from the SW in Buzzards Bay. This meant a lot of motoring ahead of us. But once we got out of the chop in Buzzards Bay, at about 11pm, we could set the sails out and had the engine off all the way to Newport, RI.
It was a great trip, which included some planning and practice for winter and next summer. Since the plans are subject to change and refinement we will hold them close to our chest until they firm up, but we’re excited to say the least. We had a successful race and it was great to sail with the co-skipper Lauren, who now has an open invitation for that spot moving forward. But most importantly, we were able to focus our time on remembering our virtual shipmate Hayden. If you didn’t get time to see our video about Hayden, please take a look now.
Hayden passed away due to SUDEP. Too often people are not informed about this possibility. 1 in 1000 people with epilepsy will die from SUDEP. Hayden’s ashes are scattered at sea and every time I sail I will think about you Hayden, and the positive impact you had on this world during your life that was too short. For more information about SUDEP, please click here.