We’ve officially started on our journey south. Here’s a recap of the first leg (Portland, ME -> Boston, MA)

10/21/17

We imagined ourselves grandly departing Portland, Maine, well before sunrise…but in true fashion, we ended up leaving around 11am — several hours later than planned  — both due to unfavorable tide timing and our scrambling to finish up some projects. With Brendan’s father Jerry aboard, we motor-sailed (wind wasn’t great) to the Isles of Shoals in cheerful spirits, and company of the finest kind (about 30 porpoises)…

…until we realized our dinghy (Haulin’ Oates) was on the cusp of sinking behind us!!

After some coaxing, Carrie got in the dinghy to bail it out while under way, yelping whenever jerked erratically through the waves, deeply regretting having watched Jaws only a week prior. (We also watched Jaws II but that was regrettable for other reasons.)

By the time we approached the New Hampshire seacoast, we had gone through this bailing exercise a few times. Finally we realized that the problem laid not in the length of line between the dinghy and the sailboat, but in the empty space between the centerboard pulley and the centerboard itself. Once safely anchored at the Isles of Shoals for the night, Carrie used biaxial tape to fiberglass a substantial part of the open slot of the centerboard. We did leave about an inch open so we could still pull the centerboard up and down when sailing Haulin’ Oates. Alas, we discovered the next day that this was not sufficient and our elegant solution involved wedging a sponge in the centerboard area.

On Sunday we found ourselves yet again motorsailing; however, we got to use a newly installed winch to put out the mainsail for the first time – which was a great improvement!

We approached Boston in the late afternoon, and after a bit of guesswork, located the mooring in East Boston (generously lent to us by our friend Phil) where we would spend the week.