Departing
Stonington on the 28th, the forecast was for light wind with patchy
fog, 1-3 mile visibility, seas less than 1’.
At 8:30 the sky was clear with temperature around 72 and no wind. A perfect day for the 47NM cruise to Cutty
hunk Island in Cape Cod. At 10AM the
first fog appeared with vis deteriorating to ¼ mile. Fortunately, boat traffic was light. Only about 5 targets appeared on the radar
within 3 miles. However, it is very
disconcerting when you see a radar target (a yellow blob on the screen)
approaching your position head-on rapidly.
It turned out to be a small center console doing about 20 knots. With ¼ mile vis we easily avoided each
other. I shudder to think if it had been
a massive car ferry in lower visibility.
The fog lifted after about 20 minutes and again it was bright and sunny.
About
11AM as we were passing the entrance to Narraganset Bay, from out of nowhere we
were once again surrounded by fog with ¼ mile vis. It wasn’t as though you could see it
coming-it just appeared all around. The
truly fascinating part was looking up was clear blue sky. This time the radar looked like someone had splashed
yellow paint on it. There were boats and
navigational markers everywhere. Sailors
and fisherman from Newport were out in force.
Luckily sailors move slowly and most of the fisherman were drifting, so
no close calls. With my AIS receiver I
could keep track of the larger boats and ferries in the area and stay out of
their way. Again, this lasted about
20-30 minutes then cleared up for a smooth calm run to Cuttyhunk.
Cuttyhunk
is a very small island at the end of a chain of islands that separate Buzzards
Bay from Vineyard Sound in Cape Cod. It
was clearly visible from 7 miles out.
With the Luck of the Irish fog descended as we got within 1 mile of the
approach. This time the vis was barely
300’! It is a tight approach into the
well protected harbor with strong tidal current. A large mooring field filled with boats
outside the harbor provides even more interesting challenges. This time with the close proximity to the
land and the multitude of moored boats the radar was useless and we had to rely
on vision (such as it was) and position on the chartplotter. Luckily, as we entered the harbor the vis
improved and we were able to find an empty mooring. Thus ended our baptism with New England fog.
As we were only staying one night we did not
take the trouble to put the dinghy down to explore the place. In retrospect this was a mistake as this is
an interesting out post.
The
trip to Onset, MA the next day was pleasant and uneventful with the exception
of a low voltage alarm on the port engine.
Onset is a convenient stop prior to passing through the Cape Cod
Canal. The town itself is not much, but
it does have extensive beaches and seems to be a popular beach resort. Our marina is also a service yard and the
technician confirmed the alternator on the port engine is shot. We plan to stay in Boston for a week
beginning Sunday so we will fix that problem there. Today we move on to Plymouth to see the Rock
and the Mayflower.
