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Sailing South with Mika the wonder dog
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On Friday October 17 with all of the Sarah Maria supposedly buckled down and ship shape I decided to leave Noank Ship Yard. My gut feeling was to stay but I was getting to comphortable there, and the longer you stay the harder to leave.
I asked around for a destination that would be fairly short, and Hamburger Bay on the Coneticut River sounded doable even with a strong head wind. So just around noon I think (you guys following the SPOT know better than I) we left Noank for Hamburger Bay. Just out side New London the engine started giving me trouble again so I sailed up the Thames River and found an empty mooring for the night. With the wind coming straight up the river there was a two foot sea all night long, so I didn't get much sleep. I was also to tired and frustrated when I got to New London that I did not even look at the fuel situation. Boat does sail good though I was able to sail up to and grab a mooring, I won't say how many tries.
I made a few calls and have now determined that the fuel is clean, but each time the engine kicks out I have to bleed air out of the system.
Not just a few recommended me checking all of my fuel fittings, so this morning in leu of breakfast,( to rocky to even think of making coffee ) I bled the system one more time and headed out of New London for Point Judith, and possibly Narraganset Bay.
My thought at this point is that I have had enough find a place to haul the boat for the winter come home look for a job.
With a double reef in the main sail, staysail and Yankee up I sailed back towards Point Judith.
I could have kept moving to the Coneticut River I suppose but the wind was on the nose as was the current, plus I at this point a am done.
The race of Long Island Sound gave me a nice push up the coast sailing at just about 6.5 knots.
Tempted to turn back into Noank I kept going so I could get as close to home as possible for Sunday.
As I left the protection of Fishers Island I was hit on the beam by five foot seas, and now I am thinking if I sail in this for the amount of time to get home I could just keep persevering south into warmer weather.
So here is where I stand I am in Noank waiting out this bout of bad weather for the next couple of days. I think that I can at least use the bottom fuel tank and the top will be a spare when I am in smoother weather. I am going to wait for a window to get across Long Island sound over to Port Jefferson. Port Jefferson is just about 60miles away so I should be able to do it in 10 hours taking advantage of the tides in the sound. That will give me some more opportunity to check out the top fuel tank, and get me another day closer to the east river.
On the other hand there is a train station just up the road a piece.
Thanks to all of you guys following me on Facebook and SPOT thanks for the encouragement as well.
Captain Ed
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