on the road again

finally... i could say that after almost a week and a half lost at sea, aimlessly drifting it and out of squall after squall, our journey has some direction again. the truth of it is our last week and a half has been spent trapped in the town of Gallilee, RI on point judith.

we came down from woods hole in buzzards bay on a wild north wind almost a week and a half ago now, and put into pt. judith around 11 p.m. tired, wet, and half frozen. we tied up at the first dock we saw and fell asleep. the next 8 days were all the same story, every day blowing a gale out of the west or southwest..directly where our bow was trying to point. finally on thanksgiving day we were able to motor our way of the harbour and the 15 miles west to fishers island when the wind finally gave us a gentle day. it was still from the west and on our nose but we made it none the less for wear.

i cant say our stay in gallilee was wasted time, as we met many a good friend and are thankful to all that live there and helped us out. russ, steve, pam, and cate especially, and all other friendly folks who gave us rides or just a friendly face. also my folks were good enough to be able to come down to help us celebrate my birthday and bring us a few parts and clothes we left at home and were wishing we had. never the less it does feel especially good to be into the long island sound now and have rhode island to our stern.

today we sailed from fishers island to the mainland and up the thames river into new london, ct. we will spend the night here and hopefully be able to move again tomorrow, farther down the sound on our way to new york. thanks for everyone who is thinking of us and writing to us we appreciate you all. we reflect in our time of waiting for winds and weather on how much we have to be thankful for this thanksgiving. we have our health, happiness, food, shelter and each other. also an adventure on our hands and lots of people who are supporting and thinking of us.

we are sort of low on pictures for this post but ill put up what we have.

also, for those who didnt know already, nissa left us in cape cod and caught a ride back to the farm with jen. it was decided by both of us that she would be happier and more free there to do as she pleases.






rainy days in massachussetts.

ware the ham are we??

wareham I? in wareham! so we are underway.. at this point 5 days into our voyage. its been a steady routine of moving so far. south south south. our departure day saw us off with a bunch of friends and family on the docks in great bay. we motored down the river and had a great sail down to newburyport, MA arriving just as it got dark. we were able to meet up with arthur and his wife who took us out to a great dinner..thanks guys! next morning we were able to have breakfast with annalisa's aunt and uncle virginia and bob before shoving off again for the annisquam river.
this was our best afternoon of sailing so far with the wind off our starboard quarter. it was a beautiful day and we were able to sail into the river and right to our mooring for the night. the next day brought us through the river and the blynmann canal to gloucester harbour. our sights then sighted for cape cod canal we had about 52 miles ahead of us across massachussetts bay. about 16 hours later we motored up the cape cod canal and tied up between two wooden pilings for the night and were able to pass through the canal the next morning without incident, besides passing a ridiculously big cargo ship mid canal and right under a bridge! wow. so we are now anchored for a few days just on the south side of the C.C canal riding out some rainy weather and waiting for the winds to shift back to the west. looks like they will be from the south and southeast for the next 2 days anyway which is right on our nose with our course set for cuttyhunk island and then on to block island.
sounds like justin and brenden are well underway and through a few of the locks up in ithica, on there way down to albany. we look forward to meeting up with them in new york harbor within the next week and a half or so. ill jump right to some pictures now..enjoy :) -joel



p.s to mathew...were still trying to wrap our heads around it but pretty darn exciting :)

boston from the east

tied up in the C.C canal

snug as a couplea bugs underway to cape cod

ye ha its cold!

headed for newburyport

entering newburyport at dusk

goodbye great bay and new hampshire!

thanks send off crew for making it down on a blustry sunday!

loomings

so we missed our first week of november departure date.. seems this should fall into fashion nicely with the rest of our trip as this was the only date we had set and we already missed it! so much for itineraries. HAH. who needs to live by a schedual anyway when your breaking away from a lifestyle of scheduals and deadlines. anyway.. we will be riding down the piscataqua river tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock with the outgoing tide to begin this saga of ours.

our marathon of last minute work seems to all be all but tied up. a few projects will continue as we are underway but the important things all seem to be working nicely. we finally made it out for a quick test sail tonight with clint, brian and jim for a nice quick cruise up the bay and back. that leaves us winterizing the well house tonight and packing the last pieces of the puzzle to be ready for tomorrow. thanks clint for the burritos. :)

our first intended stop is in newburyport, ma. a whole 22 miles from where we are tied up right now, but it is an important stop. this is the home town of arthur berube who will be seeing his old vessel floating for the first time in 3 years and with a lot of new work done to her. following this stop we plan to head down through the annisquam river in ipswich, ma to gloucester harbour, and from there down to cape cod. instead of going around the outside we are opting for the shortcut of the cape cod canal which will dump us in buzzards bay and heading for block island. i dont know when the next chance will be for me to put up a post but hopefully a few good pictures can come out of that stretch.

so thank you to everyone who has helped us make this vision become a reality, and helped us fit out with all the gear we needed to make this trip as safe as possible. we owe that safety to a lot of our friends and family who seem to want to see us safely home again after the voyage.

about to start cutting out a new mizzen mast on our new bandsaw coming strait from brattelboro, VT. Thanks Doug! the wood we are cutting from is a 30' long piece of douglas fir at 6"X8" we brought her down to 4"X4" and tapered to 3" at the top. Annalisa's father Chuck had this piece on the farm that he got from the power company when they were making some repairs to the power lines running through the property. this particular beam was one of the crossties you see at the top of the tall wooden poles.

annalisa says..time for a nap.

a blur of packing :)