Sailing Adventure

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Hi Friends!

Well well.... I find myself typing this blog entry from a very slow connection on the island of Vinalhaven in Maine. It's beautiful here.

Benji and I got to Rhode Island on the 2nd of August, and left on the 3rd for our sailing adventure. What a trip.

We got to the boat on what may, quite possibly be the hottest day ever... The air was thick with moisture and hot~
After spending the morning preparing the boat, filling up the fridge (that's right, Jonah built a fridge on the boast...amazing) and gathering any last minute supplies, we set sail early afternoon from East Greenwhich RI to Newport. We sailed up upwind, downwind, and swam in the water for a bit. The night in Newport was sweet, first night on the boat. Since there were five of us, Benji and myself, Jonah, and his two friend Bart and Dan, it was a little crammed, but ...cozy.

The next day we cruzed to the Island of Cuttyhunk. A small and sweet island with very few residents, and killer sunsets. While the destination was great, getting there was a bit of another story. The sky opened up and it rained HARD... but what doesn't kill you definately makes you stronger, and that's all I have to say about that.

After a beautiful sail from Cuttyhunk Island, we found ourselves in Martha’s Vineyard. Jonah’s dad Martin met us at the boat and we were immediately whisked away to a party that his friends were throwing in a huge house on the island. While we missed the daytime festivities of jet skiing and parasailing, we were just in time for a huge lobsta feast. It was great. There was a band and many crazy dancing fools (including Martin…hee hee)

We spent two nights in the harbor before setting sail once again for Cape Cod. The sail began amazingly sweet until we reached the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal. Due to the crazy currents caused by the canal, we found ourselves face to face with huge standing waves. The spinnaker got all caught up, so Benji and Jonah had to deal with that while us, less experienced sailors, watched from the cock pit. After almost loosing Benji overboard, the sail was unbound and tied down, so we headed into the complete calmness of the canal. Since the coast guard only allows you two hours to get through the canal (to prevent too much traffic) we motored through, but put up the sails at the other end for our journey to the cape.

That night we anchored in Provincetown, and enjoyed a night on the town with European travelers and good ol’ American drag queens. It was great. We stayed another night in Provincetown, and prepared for our long Journey ahead to Maine.

While there are several ways to get to Maine, we chose the most direct route which involved a 24 hour sail in the open ocean. It was amazing. The sail began with a few visits from local pods of whales, and we watched the sunset, full moon rise, and sunrise all in one sail. Since we dropped Jonah’s friend Dan off in Massachusetts, we were down to just the four of us, so we took alternating four hour shifts throughout the night to man the boat. Being on the water, with no land in sight at 2 am with a full moon shining bright overhead was a gorgeous sight to see.

Quite exhausted, we found ourselves in Booth Bay Harbor the next day. Benji’s fellow alpha delt alumni, Christy Van Aiken, has a family home there, and we arrived one day early to party at “Maine Fest 2006”, her yearly annual gathering.

Booth Bay Harbor is a crazy town. We ate at the local pub for dinner that night and enjoyed what may be the most fantastical display of karaoke that I’ve ever experienced. Bearded and mulleted men getting up at the mike to sing “Pretty Woman” in the most tone def way possible was quite a sight to see.

The next day we gather ourselves and got ready to find Christy’s house…. Well, we were told she lived in Booth Bay, and here we were, but we couldn’t seem to locate the house, or the hotel next to it where we were going to be mooring for the next three days. We asked around, and it turned out that we needed go to the Booth Bay harbor, and we were currently at the Booth Bay Harbor harbor. What?? So we talked to the Booth Bay Harbor harbor harbormaster and when we told him where we needed to be he replied, “well, you can’t get there from here..” but luckily we had a boat, so the journey was no problem.

After going to two different spots along the coast, we found the house and found Christy. We were just in time for Maine Fest and it was great. Our friend Hannah came up for the event, and it was great to spend time with good friends. Maine fest lasted three days, and then we were off once again. Ahh, the life of a sailor.

So on Saturday we left Booth Bay for our day long trip up to Vinalhaven Island where our friend Ben Bentre has a family cabin. We sailed in, moored right in front of the house, collected some fresh mussels, and went ashore for some good times.

It’s absolutely beautiful here in Vinalhaven. I spent the majority of my day swinging in a hammock in the woods a drawing with charcoal from last nights bon fire. The weather’s a bit chilly, and while I wish I had another sweatshirt, I can’t possibly complain after the scorching heat from the day we started on this journey.

We’re having a great time, and will be here in Vinalhaven until the end of the week

Hope you’re all enjoying the summertime.

With Love,
Abby (and Benji too!)

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