A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 9/13/20 – 9/20/20

Last week we sailed from Portland, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts with our friend E on board! Once we arrived we rafted up to our friend  Jamie’s boat.

We spent Sunday checking out Boston, and E gave me a haircut! E is a very accomplished hair stylist who is known for cutting hair in crazy destinations. Here is some of his work:

Pretty cool, right? 

He asked to cut my hair on the bow at anchor in the Boston Harbor and of course I said yes!

If you want to see all the cool stuff he’s done, you can check him out on Instagram @onecreativityanddesign 🙂 my hair is PERFECT he cut it to just past my shoulders (the shortest my hair has been since middle school) and it looks so effortless and healthy! 

On Monday the wind picked up quite a bit so we untied ourselves from Jamie’s boat and picked up a mooring ball in the harbor. We spent Monday and Tuesday wandering around Boston, shopping and eating. We felt very safe in Boston, every bar and restaurant seems to be doing contact tracing, stores enforce social distancing and limit occupancies, and people wear their masks here at all times (in parks, while walking on the streets, not just indoors). 

Ray decided that after dealing with the broken anemometer, shore power cord, and generator last week that he wanted a “fun project” this week. So, he installed colored LED lights in our salon! They can be a bunch of different colors and are dimmable, so they’ll be nice for night sails (dim blue and red light is best for maintaining your night vision), and they’re fun to have on when we’re hanging out in the evenings!

E flew home Tuesday night and we left Boston bright and early Wednesday morning and sailed alongside Jamie’s boat to Plymouth. The sail was ~sporty~, we were sailing on a reach with 20-25knts of wind and choppy seas the whole way! We sailed with 2 reefs in our main most of the way and were trimming our headsail nonstop, SOG was 6-9knts. At one point, we hit a lobster trap (couldn’t leave New England without hitting one, huh?) so I hung out on the sugar scoop watching the line while Ray tacked back and forth to try to lose it. Luckily we got rid of it and were able to continue on! 

Sailing into Plymouth was pretty interesting, there was a very narrow channel flanked by super shallow waters. Here you can see just how close our boat was to land (and just how focused Ray was on not hitting it):

The trip ended up taking us nearly 10hrs when we were anticipating only 6hrs, so we were completely exhausted upon arrival. We picked up a mooring ball, made mac and cheese, and watched The Sopranos until we passed out.

The next day we went to shore to check out the Mayflower (which we were stoked to find out actually still sails) and Plymouth Rock!

We also got a good look at Sabado from land, she doesn’t really fit in here… can you spot her?

Aside from that there wasn’t much else in town- some cute neighborhoods, a few restaurants and bars, and a botanical garden. 

Some bad weather blew through on Friday so Ray and I stayed home and got a few chores done, then went over to Jamie’s boat for dinner + drinks with him and Vivian!

We all left Plymouth Saturday morning and sailed through the Cape Cod Canal to Pocasset, Massachusetts. The trip took us about 8hrs total, and was pretty rough for me. During the sail to the canal entrance we were seeing 6ft waves and it started to get to me- I had to leave Ray to have all the fun at the helm by himself, while I laid down for a bit and munched on some rice cakes. This is the third time I’ve been seasick since moving onboard… luckily for me it happens very rarely and it’s nothing a quick nap and a snack can’t fix! Luckily once we entered the canal things calmed down and I was able to get moving again.

Jamie dropped his anchor and we rafted up to his boat for the night. We’re planning on leaving Pocasset today or tomorrow to sail to New Bedford and then on to Newport, and hopefully we’ll have calmer seas!

What did you do this week?