Guildive Cruises Blog

Sunday we took the boat to the Eastern Shore, sadly with much less wind then forecasted.  We did sail out the Severn River and set the spinnaker once we reached the Bay, however, it really did not last long as we had to make some miles to be in Oxford before dark.  Austin Kana and Amy Glibert joined us for the trip taking them away from city life in Washington DC for a few hours!  We didn’t waste much time once we hit the dock getting the sails off as soon as possible… they were dry finally…. and we had help – the Shattucks!!  

So we are here in Easton now catching up on life and trying to figure out the next step for what the winter holds.  

Amy driving... Austin lounging!

"I'm on a boat"

Life is good on Guildive

Zander and the Silver Babe!

We made it to Annapolis!  Typical Chesapeake weather not much wind to finish our trip – but we did get some sailing in for about an hour as we were entering into the Severn River.  We will be tied up here for a few days and heading to the eastern shore most likely Sunday.  All is good and everyone is smiling….

Here are some pictures from Castine taken by a good friend Jesse Henry…

waiting for the boat...

Chalkboard fun

Sailing out to the Penobscot Bay

Coming back to the dock

We have been busy busy busy sailing the boat the last few days with yesterday and today being the first two days the whole trip we have had to run the engine almost all day to make some miles!  But we made it to the Chesapeake Bay anchored tonight in the upper bay enjoying the evening with a beautiful sunset.  We left Mystic with some great wind to make it to NYC almost completely under sail!  We did make a pit-stop in Stamford CT to pick up a good friend of ours Frank and to take a rest for the night.  With a great Nor’easter blowing and us going west we set some sails and had great smiles on our face!  We made it into NYC Sunday midday and docked in Weehawken, New Jersey for the night enjoying a shower and a night in the city – even sleeping in the next morning.  Fueled up Monday, said goodbye to Goldie, and picked up another crew Jason – a good friend from Nova Scotia.  It was more like a ship jump for Jason as we did not want to pay for dockage anywhere in the city – “throw your bag and jump” – not even touching the dock, once on board we were bound for the Jersey coast!  At Sandy Hook we shut down for the night this time under full sail making average 6 knots – just loving Guildive and how she sails.  By 10 am the next morning we were by Atlantic City with clear skies and a beautiful wind – this time coming from where we needed to go – the southwest – BUMMER!  Engine on… making tracks for the Delaware Bay anchoring last night north of the anchorage for the big ships in water shallow enough they could not run us over.   We woke to an early morning with a good 30+ miles to get up to the C&D Canal by noon and not much breeze, really just setting the main and mizzen for looks until the canal.  We made it through the canal, watching one boat run out of gas and one go up on the rocks, and have anchored down just south of the Sassafras River for the night to enjoy our last night at sea for awhile, tomorrow we are bound for Annapolis.

Photo by Goldie

So Provincetown was seen from a distance but the wind was too nice to stop – so we just kept going.  We left Port Clyde around 10ish with a northwest wind picking up and blue skies starting to appear – and big smiles on our faces.  By 2ish we had shut down the engine and were riding under the stays’l only with seas coming over our quarter.  It was a beautiful sail through the night towards the Cape Ann area, breeze 15-25 knots seas 4-6 feet, averaging 6 knots with just the stays’l even breaking 8.8 knots riding down a wave.  Zander, David (our crew from Ellsworth), and myself had a blast – Goldie however gave himself the position of resident fish feeder – never taking the smile off of his face even with our 6 hour watches through the night.  By 6 am we were by Cape Ann with a beautiful breeze not wanting to stop so we kept going south towards the Cape Cod Canal.   Fortunate for us we made it to the canal with the correct tide shooting through in 45 minutes.  A great breeze was building from the north/ northeast so once we got out of Buzzards Bay we shut down and once again sailed through the night pushing the boat with a reefed mizzen, and headsails at 6.5 knots+.  With such great speed we found ourselves in Fishers Island Sound going by Mystic at 0830 thinking it sure would be nice to rest ourselves and the boat for a day as we were a day ahead of schedule.  So here we are in Mystic Seaport staying dry and warm with the rain and wind that is picking up from the north.  We are looking to push off the dock around early afternoon just to get down the river and start making tracks towards NYC!  

A photo for mom - this was a boat in Mystic Harbor

Sailing under the Stays'l and Genoa when the wind started to lighten up

Stellwagon Bank Sailing

Guildive ,with a crew of 4, left Castine Monday morning around 0930 bound for Monhegan Island.  We got off the dock waving good-bye to the Dennett’s Wharf Restaurant staff and set sail in the outer moorning field.  The wind was a beautiful 15 knots from the northwest allowing us to shut down the engine before we even left Castine Harbor.  For about 4 hours we were pushing down the Penobscot Bay at 6.5 knots  – an awesome way to start the trip!  Once we reached the Gulf of Maine the wind started to subside forcing us to turn on the engine and motor sail to keep up speed.  By three in the afternoon we were seeing wind filling in from the southwest (the direction we were going) with gusts to 20+ knots.  We struck sail and powered into the increasing sea swell while playing a never-ending game of dodge the lobster pots!  After watching our speed decrease from about 5 knots to 2 knots we made the decision to find a closer anchorage – at 2 knots we were not going to make Monhegan before dark.  We first poked into Mosquito Harbor – because with a name like that it is oh so inviting – and quickly made the decision to head to Port Clyde (about 4 miles away).   Port Clyde is a beautiful harbor, and they even let us stay on the dock for the night, allowing us a restful nights sleep.   We all woke up to a rainy cold morning and will be pushing off the dock in about an hour bound for Provincetown staying there Wednesday night.  We will see what the day holds….  

Goldie becoming a sailor - he is just letting the boat do the work.

"I'm a sailor now!"