Farewell

Today we bid farewell to Silence. She has taken us to Maine, Bermuda, and all around the Chesapeake, and she has been a great hostess to over 300 guests during the 24 years we've sailed her. Now we're starting a new chapter… stay tuned as a new adventure begins.

Home

We pulled into our slip in Annapolis around 3:00 this afternoon. It's great to be home!

Dawn

Dawn on the Bohemia. We got a good night's rest and we'll be making the run back to Annapolis today.

Delaware Bay at Dawn

This picture didn't make it through on my earlier post…

Delaware Bay

We dodged some big ships on the Delaware Bay today. We're now anchored in the Bohemia River for the night. We need the rest!

Delaware at Dawn

We rounded Cape May at 4:00 AM this morning and are making our way up the Delaware Bay.

Passing AC

NJ Coast

The winds only held up for about 3 hours, but we're grateful for every minute under sail. We now motor sailing with the mainsail up. Making 7 knots on a smooth sea with 3 foot swells.

On our Way

Goodnight New Jersey

Clearing

We had lots of rain overnight, but the skies are starting to clear. Henri has lingered here longer than his welcome. If the weather continues to improve, we'll depart NYC tomorrow morning.

Storm has Passed

The storm has passed us, and we spent the day without drama. We're thankful to get through this unscathed. Thanks everyone for keeping an eye on us!

Rain

So far we've had a lot of rain, and not much wind. The track of the storm has moved more to the east, so we are hopeful that things will be moderate here in NYC. The storm comes ashore this afternoon so we expect the winds to pick to about 20 knots with some higher gusts.

Safe! We hope!

We think we're in a good spot to ride out the storm. Fingers crossed!

Calm

This is the calm before the storm. We dropped anchor at 3:00 AM, and got some rest. We'll be departing shortly to transit NYC.

Heading into Night

We'll be driving the boat through the night to get as far west as possible. Not sure yet where we will stop, to be determined by Henri…

Running Hard

Red Sky

Today we leave Bristol to make a run to safety. We hope it will be safe at the far end of Long Island Sound. That's the best we can do, and going farther would put us back in harms way. We will be on the move through the night so we'll be tired tomorrow.

Herreshoff

We made it to the Herreshoff Museum, despite 2 to 3 foot seas in the anchorage. We're safely back aboard after an adventurous dinghy ride from shore!

Bristol

Sunset in Bristol, RI last night. Silence was built here, at a yard just outside of town.

Henri

Well, here's something to be concerned about: a hurricane heading our way. And today we are waiting out the remnants of TS Fred. Tomorrow we will move as far west as possible, into LI Sound.

Wednesday Night Racing

We're enjoying Wednesday Night Racing from our mooring tonight!

Parasailing!

We saw some parasailing happening near Newport as we passed by…

Leaving MV

Today we will make a run down the Sound and across, past Newport, and on to Bristol. Winds are forecast to be light, so we'll probably be motoring all day.

Lunch

We had lunch today across from the Edgartown Yacht Club. The camp kids were were excited when they came into the dock after a morning of sail training.

Vineyard Haven

We had a short distance to cover today to arrive in Vineyard Haven. There are many classic boats sailing through the harbor. And the weather is great, temperatures in the 70s and a crystal clear sky.

Hadley Harbor

Our anchorage in Hadley Harbor was peaceful overnight. Later this morning we will pass through Woods Hole and on to Martha's Vineyard.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MAHZTMgcttkjBydR6

Sailing

We had a great downwind sail from Provincetown to the Cape Cod Canal today. We had 15 knots of breeze from the northwest, which is perfect for us!

Goodnight Hadley Harbor

Night

There's someone playing jazz sax in the distance…

PTown

Goodnight Provincetown.

Sailing

Sometimes we actually get to sail! Today we sailed about 6 hours from Gloucester to Provincetown. 

Goodnight Gloucester!

No Wind

Motoring through "pudding" today with not a breath of wind. The temperature is climbing, both for the sea and the air as we push south. I'm not looking forward to the hot weather ashore.

Goodnight from Wood Island

Wood Island

We are anchored next to Wood Island, just south of Portland with our friends on "Calypso". 

Heading to Boothbay

This was the view as we left Pulpit Harbor this morning on our way to Boothbay. We had dense fog for about 4 hours of the trip. This is almost becoming routine!

Plotting our Return

We have turned our bow south, beginning the trek that will take us home. The first half of this journey has been instructive, inspiring, and renewing. The best parts have been about the friends we've spent time with and the many people we have met along the way. And, it's been great hearing from you who are following us here. We hope to see you soon!

Silence in Pulpit Harbor

Pulpit Harbor

On our way to Pulpit Harbor today. One of the challenges in Maine is dodging all of the lobster traps. If you run over one, it can wrap your prop and make for a bad day. We have managed to miss all of them so far!

Tides

It will take some time before I'm totally comfortable with the tides here. The range is about 10 feet, so what looks like good depth for anchoring at high tide might leave you grounded on low tide. In this case we anchored in about 25 feet of water and at low tide we had 12 feet. I was a little closer to shore than I meant to be at low tide this morning, but we'll just call this "precision anchoring"!

Sunset

Sunset over Pickering Island.

Today’s Anchorage

Anchored next to Pickering Island for lunch…

Eggemoggin

Today we went out to watch the Eggemoggin Reach Race. Beautiful wooden boats and a beautiful day.

MDI

Mount Desert Island.

Intentional Grounding

This fisherman has grounded his boat so that he can clean the bottom.

Stonington

We had a nice lunch in Stonington. And there were quite a few schooners sailing today!

Cleaning

Today we are aboard, doing some cleaning to get ready for our new crew to arrive.

Croquet Anyone?

We spent HH playing croquet with friends yesterday. The weather is so perfect here.

In the Harbor

Silence at her mooring.

Sedgwick

The view from Sedgwick: we have beautiful weather here! Silence is moored in the cove seen here in the distance.

Strainer

As you may recall, our engine raw water strainer broke back in Block Island. Today we installed a new one, so we won't be operating with the bypass that we used to keep going from Block Island. It always feels good to fix stuff!

Benjamin River

We have arrived at our friends place on the Benjamin River. This is the apex of our trip. In a week, we start the journey south.

Casting

I can never get too many of these.

Getting Around

This is how we get around. Today we took the dinghy ashore in Castine for a walk and some ice cream.