Well, yesterday was another beautiful day for sailing on Buzzards Bay. I started the day off by picking up my friend’s 14-year-old son again. We then stopped to pick up Nan, a friend of mine I met through the Boston Sailing Center. Next was the all important stop at the supermarket for lunch supplies, and then on to the marina.
When we got to the marina, we set about getting the Pretty Gee ready to leave. I wanted to get to the swing bridge for the next opening, and there wasn’t much time to waste. The general routine for going out on Buzzards Bay is something like this:
Top off the gas tanks, drop the motor and start it, disconnect the shore power line, cast off and start down the Acushnet river. Once on the river, I usually have the crew steer while I deploy the amas—the outriggers which give a trimaran its stability. The Pretty Gee is 18’ wide when the outriggers are deployed—and deploying them is pretty simple—consisting of opening two line clutches and then pushing the ama forward and out, and then closing the two line clutches and tightening up on the lines for each side. Takes less than five minutes.
Getting to the swing bridge takes about 15 minutes or so, and then you have to wait for the next opening. The bridge is usually on a schedule, and missing the opening means a wait of over an hour generally—so it is pretty important to time your approach properly.
Yesterday, our approach was almost perfect—the bridge was in the process of opening as we reached it. I always thank the bridge crew whenever I pass through the swing bridge. Manning the swing bridge must be fairly boring, and there’s no reason not to be polite to the staff of it. One thing I’ve been told about the bridge is that they will not allow sailboats with their sails up to pass. This is probably because the sails and boom can be a hazard if the wind shifts.
The next step is to pass the massive New Bedford Hurricane Barrier. This is another place where sailing isn’t necessarily the greatest idea—so I usually motor through the barrier opening onto Buzzards Bay. The hurricane barrier is very impressive. I believe it is one of the largest barriers of its kind on the East Coast.
Once out on Buzzards Bay, I get out of the main shipping channel and take off the sail cover. I raise the main and unfurl the genoa usually just past Butler Flats, where the navigable area gets a bit wider and you’ve gotten past the rocky areas on the east side of the channel. Having a couple of taller and enthusiastic crew helps with this whole process a lot. Johnnie is over six-feet tall and Nan is five-foot-eight or so.
The winds were about a fluky five knots. But the Pretty Gee gets moving under light winds fairly well, and we were soon doing four-to-five knots, averaging about 4.3 over all. We started out heading to the southwest, towards the last of the Elizabeth Islands—Cuttyhunk.
As I’ve mentioned before, one thing I love about sailing on Buzzards Bay is how constant the wind is, when it is there. You can set your course, adjust the sails, and sail with only minor adjustments to the main and jib for hours at a time. Yesterday was no exception.
We got as far as the north side of Pekinese Island and then turned to the Northeast. We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, but were just out to enjoy a day on the bay. Heading northeast, we found ourselves in the company of a few interesting sailboats, including a Nonsuch—this appeared to be a Nonsuch 30. The distinctive cat-rig and wishbone boom on the Nonsuch make it readily identifiable, as you can see in the photo on the left. I don’t believe there is another boat that is rigged that way. Another boat we saw was a fairly large catamaran. Unfortunately, the captain and crew of the 45’ catamaran decided they were on a powerboat, and did not have the sails up.
We also saw a smaller sailboat flying a beautiful red spinnaker. Even though they had a chute up, we easily left them behind us. I do not have a spinnaker on my boat—as they’re just a bit too difficult to handle short-handed. By this point, we were south of Nye Ledge and decided to head west to Smith Neck. There are usually a fair number of sailboats off of Smith Neck, as Clarks Cove to the north is home to quite a few.
As we headed west, we saw quite a few more sailboats. Sadly, some of these were under power and appeared to be in a hurry to get someplace. Even worse, we did manage to pass a few of the ones under power. Oh well, some people are just too rushed to enjoy the day the way I think it was meant to be enjoyed. We also decided to have lunch. Ham and swiss on bulkie rolls, along with cold Snapple iced tea.
Smith Neck is easily identified as there is a very distinctive radome on the southeastern point of Smith Neck. The southeastern point of Smith Neck is one to not approach too closely. There are a series of rocks along water that extend out about a mile. This includes Dumpling Rocks, which are the northwest boundary for the main shipping channel that heads northeast towards New Bedford Hurricane Barrier approach.
Just east of the Ragged Rocks, we turned back to the northeast, to make our way back to the marina. As we approached Butler Flats, we radioed the swing bridge to find the time of the next opening. They had an opening at 1615. Since it was already quarter of four, I decided that we should probably drop the main, rather than sailing through the hurricane barrier and dropping it once inside the harbor. The winds on the approach to the Hurricane Barrier are a bit less reliable than out on the Bay proper—and our speed was down to a little over a knot and a half.
Powering up the outboard on the Pretty Gee has a few steps to it. The first step is to lower the outboard bucket. This is a fiberglass pod attached to the port side of the main hull that the outboard motor is mounted to. Then you tilt the outboard into the water and charge the fuel line by using a squeeze bulb. Turn the ignition key and voila—you’re under power. The pod or bucket is very nice, as it has a block and tackle that allows you to raise it clear of the water, which is very useful on the light wind days like yesterday. This cuts the drag from the outboard to nothing.
We cruised in through the hurricane barrier, and had two fishing boats for company on our way to the swing bridge. These were smaller charter boats, and not the massive fishing trawlers. Black Sheep was one of the two, and a boat I have seen around the harbor before.
Pretty Gee arrived at the swing bridge with about ten minutes to spare. The wind decided to pick up and was blowing about ten knots, straight towards the swing bridge. All three boats were jockeying to hold position as the wind was trying to blow us upstream.
We passed through the swing bridge and headed up the Acushnet River to the marina. This is the section where I generally will fold the amas. The water here is generally pretty calm and folding the amas is extremely simple if I have a crew member along. Retracting the amas single-handed is a bit challenging.
Docking is the last part of getting back to the marina. The slip I have can be a bit challenging, depending on the wind direction. Docking is also one of the parts of handling the Pretty Gee, where I need a lot more practice. She doesn’t handle quite the same as the smaller boats I’ve generally sailed on. Yesterday, Pretty Gee was a sweetheart and backed right into her slip the first try.
We rinsed the Pretty Gee down, put up the mainsail cover, covered the winches and tiller, and then plugged her back into shore power. Now it was dinner time. We headed over to Margaret’s, which is a cozy little restaurant in Fairhaven, not too far from the waterfront. The food there is excellent, and the staff is friendly. Johnnie and I choose the Baked Scallops, which were served on an actual scallop shell. Nan had the Tuna Steak.
After dinner, we went next store to get ice cream. The ice cream shop is a little hole-in-the-wall type place but has excellent ice cream. We managed to thoroughly confuse the two girls working the counter…and we weren’t even trying. What a great way to spend the day—good friends, good food, good sailing.
Here’s a photo of a deck eye view of the sails up on Pretty Gee. The more observant of you may notice that I have a reef in the genoa. The reason I have a reef in the genoa wasn’t because of the wind strength, but because 1) I can’t see past the genoa when it is fully unfurled, and 2) I haven’t installed the shroud rollers and the genny sheets tend to get caught in the shroud turnbuckles if it is fully unfurled.
Sounds like a fun day. No drama just good sailing. We also had a friend named Nan on our Sat. sail.
Yes, just a really nice day out on the boat… what more can you ask for from life.