Waiting on the wind

"There is a tide..." and I seem to have missed it. Now I'm anchored in Dutch Harbor, waiting on another weather window.... and seeing NOTHING in the next week. Let's rewind a bit....

My engine has given me fits this summer, insisting on leaking fuel from the injection pump. I can attribute this to age and, even more, to my unschooled attempts to improve things. A video I watched in which a fellow tried to reseal his pump terminated with his wry observation "it seems to be leaking from, well, everywhere." He then sighed and said "well, I know better how to fix it and taking things apart the second time should be much faster." So, I was in the same boat: took it apart a couple times, and finally got the leaking down to something reasonable, thank goodness. The worst thing is that I need to drain the coolant and move the exhaust manifold and drop the starter in order to work on the pump. UGH!

I delayed heading south for several reasons, mostly storms and hope of getting to Maine or the wide beaches of Provincetown spit this summer, but time ran out. Finally we had a nice weather window: days of wind from the south that would take me to the NJ coast, then a sudden turn to blow from the west and shoot me down to Delaware Bay or even Chesapeake Bay, a nice chance to visit friends and fam in the DC region and paint the boat bottom, then down to FL before it gets too darned cold.

On Oct 4, departure day, the dockmaster in Onset encouraged me to clean the boat bottom and I decided he was right. Working hard in cold water, surrounded by bait fish, felt GREAT!... although a bit numbing and I had to get out and warm up for a couple hours in the 80deg weather. The second time I went in felt so good that I could not resist finishing up by climbing up the fairly high floating dock dock rather than the easy dinghy.... and I overstressed my leg in the effort. 

After one final walk with Monty, I departed at 1:30pm, when the current became favorable, and sailed/drifted out the Cape Cod Canal and across Buzzards Bay.

Over the next day, my hip-femur joint gradually stiffened up until I walked like a pirate with a peg leg and the wind, supposed to be on my beam, came from ahead such that I could not even clear Block Island. Then darkness fell and fog came in.... so I decided to detour into Narragansett Bay and drop anchor off of Jamestown, RI in a little harbor we've used before. Safe and stable at 9pm, Monty and I went below and fell asleep and slept until sunrise and a warm and delightful day...

That was three days ago. I wrote the previous paragraphs yesterday. My leg feels entirely better. After one more unseasonably warm September/October day things went gray; then cold, windy, and clear. Windy and big waves out in the ocean, yes, but maybe I should head out anyway once the worst has passed.... I'll look at the forecasts.... Hmmm.... possibly, I'll depart today: it looks like the weird and fluctuating winds might allow me to make my way south quite effectively.... Final decision after noon today...

It is nice being back on board, although sometimes stressful. I DO like being back in my home, taking Monty for walks, making some progress on improvements, chatting with nice folks ashore and meeting their dogs,

seeing sunrises

 and sunsets,

listening to the sounds of water lapping at my hull. I sure look forward to warm nights down south and hope I can get there in time to enjoy the Geminid meteor shower under warm, dark skies. And I'd love to learn how to catch shrimp the amateur way this year, without the huge environmental damage of trawlers or farms.