[Bene505]

I have a good idea, IMHO.

1) Get used to your boat on smaller, more managable sails. And let your family build/rebuild their sea legs at the same time. Go places with a nice restaurant so you wife relearns to love sailing. Focus on the good time, not necessarily the distance.

2) Join 16 other boats (and us!) for Daniel Goldberg's BI to Nantucket rally on Sunday, July 12th. That's right Daniel's been holding out on you. He organizes a rally that we are really looking forward to joining this year. The trip is BI -- Cuttyhunk -- Edgartown (2 nights) -- Nantucket (2 nights). After that everyone is going on their own. We'll be looking for other boats to rally back to BI/Montauk with, maybe direct across the open ocean, if weather is favorable.

 

[Bene505]

Here's most of the email from Dan....


Block Island. There usually is plenty of room to anchor, though Saturday night is the most crowded time to be there. Also, the holding ground is not the greatest, so if weather rolls through you need to be pretty vigilant. Not just for your own boat, but you need to be mindful of other folks who likely will drag. It’s a common occurrence at Block. My personal preference at Block is to take one of the town moorings, but they’re first-come-first-serve.

Cuttyhunk. The anchorage in the inner harbor is small, so it’s all a question of how crowded it will be inside. The moorings in the inner harbor also are first-come-first-serve. The outer harbor is fine for anchoring, but only in very settled weather. If there is any kind of wind from anything other than the south or southwest, the anchorage is very rolly. All a question of your tolerance I guess.

Edgartown. You no longer can anchor in the inner harbor there, with one exception I’ll come to. The anchorage now is along the northern beach of Chappaquiddick (might be spelling that wrong). If the wind is out of the south, southwest, or west, it’s fine, but from other directions it really is not tenable. Supposedly, if the wind is out of the north, the Harbor Master will open sections of Katama Bay for anchoring. I’ve not experienced this myself, so no guaranty if that’s true. Also, keep in mind that since the breach in Katama Bay, the current even in the inner harbor is pretty fierce. It used to be that anchoring in Katama Bay was one of the highlights of Edgartown, but alas, no more.

Nantucket. There is a great anchorage behind what is called First Point. The holding is good, the water is not too deep, and it’s fairly protected from just about all directions. The only negative is that it’s a haul to get into town. If you have a dink that doesn’t plane, it will be a long and wet ride to shore. But, if you have a RIB with an outboard that will get you up, it’s fine.

So that’s my info on the anchorages. Just so you have it, in case it contains anything useful, I’m attaching a Power Point presentation I gave to our club about the cruise.

If you have any questions, please don’t be shy. Otherwise, I’m sure we’ll chat over Sailnet/Anything Sailing, and once we get closer to the date we’ll touch base to make sure we all hook up.

Again, so glad you’re coming along!

Best,

Dan

 

[Bene505]

I'm going to post the powerpoint presentation as a separate thread.

Regards

 

[Bene505]

I have a 45 pound CQR on one roller (125 feet of chain) and a 45 pound Bruce on another roller (20 feet of chain, hefty nylon rode).

I also have a 40 pound Danforth in the forepeak cabin. It's lashed in pretty tight. For this upcoming (coastal cruising) season I'm moving the Danforth to another location, maybe in the rear quadrant area. We can get at it if we really need it, and it won't be (literally) under foot.

I'm also looking to buy a spare nylon rode, maybe 300 feet that can also be used with a sea anchor (when I get one). I'm planning to upgrade the 45 pound CQR to a bigger Rocna, when funds allow. And finally, planning to convert the short-ish nylong rode that's on the end of the chain to a much longer nylon rode. The anchor locker has a lot of room in it.

Sepatately, I have 6 (yes six) 100 pound Danforth-looking anchors that I'm looking to get rid of. (They aren't on the boat.) Was going to create a multi-anchor mooring with them.