Cubicle With Sails: Charlestown-Scituate

Linda was in a hurry to get started. Bob needed to put a full day of work in.
Around 1400, Linda cast off the lines and my cubicle was underway. My newly setup iPhone hotspot worked perfectly at the dock this week and now while underway!

Passing the recently-purchased Graves Light. Note the construction workers' porta-potty.

Linda motored most of the way out of the harbor but raised the sails (all by herself) out around deer island (I think).  I was doing java.  I finally closed up the office around 17:30 (note to boss, I started at 0630 today)

Enjoying an after-work beer. Note the product placement. Peroni: you know how to reach me

We're heading to Scituate for the weekend where we plan to meet up with friends on Saturday. We had a nice steady 15kt wind but it was on our nose hence all the tacking on our track below. Finally we motored the last couple miles because we wanted to make sure we could get a mooring.

We enjoyed Salmon and squash (from Whole Foods so not really a cost savings over going out for dinner) onboard. Later on we were treated to a surprise fireworks show from the carnival going on in town.

Scituate Morning 

After a nice calm night in Scituate Harbor, we woke up just in time to see the fog come in:

 

 

Sailing with Friends
Good friends Greg and Lee Ann came up from the South Coast to see Argon and go for a spin. Wind was light but Greg still got us going 6kts while at the helm.

 

Photos from Android

Working on a starboard tack	New owners fixing up the place
	Surprise fireworks show in Scituate

Chasing Arthur

What do you do after a hurricane passes? Go out in a sailboat of course.

My son Jon and his girlfriend Lyndsey visited us for the Fourth of July weekend (my birthday), and actually agreed to do an overnight sail with us.  This is a big deal because:

• My son is not a big fan of sailing
• We've never had guests stay overnight with us onboard before.

It turned out to be a bigger deal because the trip up to Salem was pretty extreme sailing.  The forecasts underestimated the wind by... a lot.  We were seeing True winds peak out in the low 40s.  Even Argon was a bit over powered and we ended up with nothing but a reefed Jib and we were struggling a bit.

This was definitely not a sail for inexperienced sailors to be on, but Jon and Lyndsey were absolute troopers about it.

At one point, Linda lost control of a Jib sheet and we had a pretty violent thrashing of the jib happen as well as a very sore and swollen wrist for Linda.  Later on, we noticed that the lowest batten pocket for the jib had torn open and the batten was gone! I assume it happened during this fiasco.

At this point my son says "And you find this relaxing?"  Well, not really at the moment.

When we finally pulled into Salem harbor, the winds were still up in the 30s. We watched a power boat try 5 times to catch a mooring next to us (we nailed it first try).

Birthday present testing
Jon got me a hammock from REI which can be tied up between the forestay and the mast. It's awesomely comfortable. It is also popular.

 

 

Jenga on a Sailboat
Definitely adds an element of challenge.  We eventually switched to blackjack and Jon cleaned up the table (winning a huge pot of fender washers from the spares kit).

Jon and Lyndsey went ashore on the Launch to explore Salem. Later we all went in for dinner at Fins. Much yumminess was had.

Linda in Sick Bay with her sore wrist on ice

Not a great picture but you can see the torn batten pocket on the jib