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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
The trip from Onset to New Bedford, Massachusetts was straightforward, using the motor all the way. The winds were too light and on the nose.
New Bedford has a delightful historical town center. The Whaling Museum, right smack dab in the middle if it, was our primary reason for visiting. We found it fascinating and well worth the side trip to get there. They have a model of a whaling ship that's about a century old. It was built in ½ scale, making it the largest ship model in the world. The docent who latched on to us was a retired history professor. He really enhanced our experience of the museum.
On Tuesday we headed out to Block Island, just off the eastern end of Long Island, New York. Again we had light winds and, for a time, wind on the nose. For a part of the trip the winds picked up to give us a welcome respite from the noise of the iron stays'l.
We never went ashore on Block Island. We were headed to Mystic, Connecticut, and couldn't make it all in one day. So Block Island was merely a resting spot for the night.
Once we left New Bedford we were quite busy with navigating and watch keeping duties. We were also out of cell phone range for most of the time. Occasionally the signal would be strong enough that we could use it, but when we tried the signal would fade out again before the connection could be made. Thus, we were unaware of the tragic events unfolding in New York City and Washington, DC, and blithely made our crossing.
Just before arriving at Block Island we noticed that our cell phone was indicating that we had a voicemail message. When the signal was strong enough that we could pick up the message. That's when we first heard that something was happening. A friend called to let us know what was happening and, if we had reached New York City, to make sure we were okay.
That evening we tuned to the local radio station and were given only a hint as to what had happened, but as the station had no news feed we had no way of knowing the magnitude of the tragedy. Perhaps it's an advantage being out of communication, as we never saw the explosions and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on the television.
We arrived in Mystic, Connecticut, on Wednesday afternoon after an easy half-day of motoring. Friends whom we had planned to visit were out of town, but had arranged to let us use their mooring. And they arranged for one of their friends to take us to the grocery store so that we could stock up. We launched Rampant our dinghy and headed ashore.
We were met by Karl, who gave us a ride to the supermarket several miles away. During the ride over he told us his impression of the events and we were really shocked. As it turned out, he was even understating the reality of it all. He had given us only a glimpse of the true horror of the terrorist attack.
Rampant was really loaded to the gills with at least a month's worth of food and staples. It was tricky getting back to Volant in the harbor chop without getting wet or loosing anything overboard. Fortunately our coxswain is skillful, so we managed.
Our absent hosts had also arranged for a neighbor couple, sailors, to be substitute hosts for us. The substitutes, Marshall and Diane of Champagne, invited us to raft up to their boat. So on Thursday morning we headed up the Mystic River to their dock a mere block down river from the downtown area.
And lovely hosts they were. We spent a delightful evening swapping lies and sharing information about various harbors and sailing destinations. They also gave us two days of newspapers so we could catch up on what the rest of the world already knew.
Friday was drizzly and gray... a perfect day for museum exploring. And Mystic has an outstanding specimen. The Mystic Seaport Museum is home to hundreds of refurbished boats and a recreation of the port of Mystic in the late 1800s. We enjoyed walking the decks of several of the old ships. One was the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship. Another was the Joseph Conrad, originally a Danish sail training ship that was taken over for a period of time by Allan Villiers, a shipmaster and author that I've enjoyed reading. The shops were also fun and instructive. We learned much about how food and goods were carried from a docent in the old square-riggers in the village's cooper's shop, about how ropes were made in the old ropewalk, and how much of the ship's fittings were made from a docent in the shipsmith's shop.
The museum also has a church exhibit, a Seventh-Day Baptist building. The museum's director chose that site for a memorial service to honor those who died in Tuesday's attack. We got there just before noon and took up our seats. Within minutes the place was filled to overflowing. It was a simple, yet moving non-denominational service.
That evening our erstwhile captain and the ship's navigator got together for a planning session. We've heard that New York Harbor is closed to recreational traffic, with a rumor suggesting that it'll be closed for several weeks. Listening to the VHF radio, we're made aware of a several boats that are affected by the closure. This is the time of year when a large number of boats are heading south for the winter. Most prefer to stay in the protection of Long Island, which requires transiting New York Harbor. With the harbor closed, they either have to wait until it reopens or take an exposed route. After exploring our options, the crew elected to skip New York City and head to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The route to Philadelphia would take us back to Block Island for a good night of rest. On Sunday morning we'd leave for a nearly two-day passage to Cape May at the southern end of New Jersey, then turn north and run up the Delaware to Philadelphia.
So this morning we bade a sad farewell to our new friends in Mystic, motorsailed to Block Island and took up their private mooring in that harbor.
This evening we did some detailed passage planning. We determined our waypoints along the route, checked distances and estimated our speed over the ground. By checking the tide and current charts for this area and the Delaware Bay, we determined that the best departure time would be around mid morning tomorrow. That would give us an arrival at Cape May around 0500 on Tuesday morning, shortly after the start of the flood tide. With luck we should be able to ride that tide all the way to the Delaware entrance to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, about 55 nautical miles up. We could continue all the way to Philadelphia. But since it's another 35 nautical miles we wouldn't arrive until well after dark. Prudence dictates that we find a spot to anchor near the C&D Canal entrance and proceed to Philadelphia on Wednesday.
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