Riding the Back of Low Pressure System to make moves South (Calico Skies Sailing, Ep 81)

Sometimes this lifestyle isn’t all sunsets and cocktails….in this episode we continue our mad dash south to escape a rapidly descending winter in New England. We get underway in the evening departing from Cuttyhunk Massachusetts bound for Cape May, New Jersey. We are leaving on the back of passing hurricane way out in the Atlantic giving us favorable winds to sail south.

The seas are pretty churned up from the passing storm. The wind continues to fill in from behind as we progress on the passage. We are happy to try out our new heavy air, downwind configuration. We set up a poled out reefed genoa and our staysail sheeted in tight on the opposite side. This configuration is very balanced as the wind continues to build into the 30’s.

We flash back to the fall of 2019 to show how we installed the chainplate and d rings that support the load of the inner forestay that the staysail flies on.

The wind begins to die on the last morning of our passage as we near Cape May. We go to start the diesel motor but unfortunately it makes a bad grinding sound upon starting. We shut it down and try to complete the last several miles, first under spinnaker, and then as the wind completely dies under hip tow from our tender. Towing isn’t easy in the residual swell from the 30 knots of wind. Luckily for us our friends on S/V Avalon are close by, is there another tow in our future?!

0:00 Intro
1:22 Recap
1:41 Nighttime departure from Cuttyhunk
2:12 Lumpy Seas!
4:07 Twin headsail setup
4:28 Flashback to adding inner forestay
8:49 Night Two; Dodging Fishing Boats
12:36 Wind building into the 30’s
13:06 And just like that the wind is gone…and so is our engine
16:58 Trying to sail to safety, raise the spinnaker
18:31 Not enough breeze to sail, lets try towing by dinghy
21:39 Another tow?!

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Thanks to our Patrons!

Enjoying our channel? Consider joining the Calico Skies Patreon family for as little as $2 a month to get lots of extra goodies 🙂

https://www.patreon.com/CalicoSkiesSailing

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Patreon too much of a commitment? show support and buy us a beer or some diesel 🙂

https://paypal.me/calicoskiessailing

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Check out our store and shop our merch at https://sailing-calico-skies.myshopify.com/