Many new things happeing on Catatude over the winter months.  Two solar panels just delivered and now to get the stainless steel rail made at Mystic Stainless to hold one of the panels. Wow are they big!

October/November/December Now the real work began. Waxing her and preparing to cover her for the winter. But not before Mark climbs the mast and installs the radar. Almost every weekend since then work continues to get done. Things like moving the hot water heater, installing the new invented air cleaner cartridges, wiring for the radar, installing the solar panels to keep the batteries topped off, and taking all essentials off the boat for the winter. The new GPS has arrived and plans to install that move forward. The winds have continuously become a problem beating up the tarp as the season moves along. The lower temperatures make the stitched areas of the tarp more brittle and are easily torn. Patching the tarp will be a constant battle over the winter, but it is doing a fine job.

October 2nd. We would leave a t 6AM and head for the journey up the Connecticut River. A trip I was not too thrilled to make. But much to my surprise I loved it. It was now past the active boating season and the river was not busy. The trip was delightful and the scenery was breathtaking all the way up the river. Arriving at our destination 4 hours later we pulled into Chester Marine. They would lift us out of the water and set us on the pop pits for the winter.

In the next couple of weeks we would make adjustments to Catatude and get her ready for the cruise to winter storage

September 11th

September 11th we would cruise on over to Watch Hill bringing Kristin and Heather. What a great time. The girls love to wake up to the smell of French toast and bacon. It was their weekend and we decided to spoil them with lobsters for dinner which we cooked on board. The next day we walked the beach and had one of the best sails ever tacking all the way back to Spicer’s

September sailing… Hard to believe that it is September and we are on our 3rd nine day cruise. This time we would head for Cutty Hunk on the Elizabeth Islands. Eight foot swells and cloudy skies from Hurricane Danny assisted us on our cruise. It took us nine hours to finally arrive in Cutty Hunk with no help from the wind. We would only spend the night and head for Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard going through Quicks Hole. The sails were in full bloom now and we enjoyed the sail over. After spending a couple of days there we headed for Nantucket. But that was short lived. Lumpy seas and the wind at our nose, we decided to go into Edgartown and wait it out. We did not anchor where we usually do in front of the lighthouse but headed all the way down the channel into Katama Bay. It was a strong North wind and under those circumstances we learned that the harbor master would actually let you anchor. Since Katoma Bay had broken through to the ocean the new rule was made. We had contact with Dayle and Don of “Phantom”. They too decided to join us as they said here was one of their favorite spots. It didn’t take long for us to agree with them. In fact so much so, that we never ended up going to Nantucket. It was too fabulous here!! We were just down from Walter Cronkite’s house. Every year in the past we would watch him sail past us as he paraded in line with all the other boats in the “Blessing of the Fleet” which takes place every year in July. But not this year as he passed away. From here we headed for Tarpaulin Cove but not before touring “Oak Bluffs”. Tarpaulin Cove is one of Marks favorite spots, very tranquil… This is still part of the very private Elizabeth Islands. The cows walk the island freely and cool off in the salt water. A very funny site I might add. We would enjoy the wonderful sunset and walks on the beach and head tomorrow for Cutty Hunk again. We would have to leave very early so we would be assured anchoring space. The next couple of days were absolutely fabulous. Then it hit Saturday night, gusting 33 knot winds. Boats anchors coming loose and boats everywhere smashing into one another in the dark. Needless to say I never slept a wink. We wanted to fender off any boat that would come down on us. The smell of fiberglass was everywhere. Never had we experienced so many boats in such a small area trying to flee the harbor. But there was no place for them to go as the seas were rumbling outside the channel as well. We were one of the luck ones that did not get hit. The winds continued to stay gusting and a decision had to be made when we should actually escape the area without hitting someone on the way out. With the winds still gusting, we would try to lift our anchor. The problem was if we tried to turn Catatude with all its wind age, we could easily come down on another boat. At 1pm we gathered our thoughts and prayers and decided to go for it . We were one of the lucky ones. After getting around the island the wind was at our stern and it would push us all the way to the Harbor of refuge in Point Judith. We spent the night there, fueled up and headed for home. Wow what a cruise…

August would be our 2nd nine day cruise for the summer consisting of the Sag Harbor Cruise that Mark and I love to host every year for the West Cove Yacht Club. After a couple of days here and enjoying the company of Sue and Keith of “GOTALI” and Lucille and Ruedi of “Haus-Boat” we all decided to head to Block Island. When we arrived it was very crowded in Great Salt Pond. But we headed for the spot where our dearest friends, Barb and Bob of "Pinnacle" showed us a long time ago. We dropped the anchor in record time. With the shallow draft on our boat it made this anchorage very desireable. After staying a couple of days we headed for Dutch Harbor. We passed more friends along the way, Gail and Steve of “Atlantis”. We enjoyed the night there then up went the sails and away we went heading for Newport this time. We ran into more of our friends after we anchored. Linda and Deb of “Windchime” who sailed the Caribbean for over a year. It was great sharing stories with one another as we had not made actual contact since with them since they came home. There is so much to see and do in Newport. We always say it’s the harbor that never sleeps. The boats sail past you all night long and the back drop of the Newport Bridge is something that can mezmorize you for hours. The next day we would head for home stopping in Point Judith to fuel up. That’s always a sad time… We dream of the time when we do not have to head for home, but can enjoy the water views for endless days at a time. Other weekends consisted of East Cove, Fishers Island

Today we would go around Mouse Island and head up the Mystic River. On the way we stopped at our friends Sue and Dan of "Gypsy". This couple is preparing their boat to go around the world. "Wow" After visiting we waited for the bridge to open, took some photos and we we would soon anchor in one of the smallest anchorage areas. It's hard to believe we were so close to Noank but yet felt so far. All and all a fun trip.

July sailing consisted of weekends in Watch Hill, CT, East Cove, Fishers Island, and enjoying good friends. By end of July both daughters Kristin and Heather came down to enjoy the day and soak up the warm sun on the ever so inviting trampoline on the front of the boat.

June 26th our 1st nine day cruise. We loaded up the boat and provisioned her for our trip. We would visit areas of Long Island that we were familiar with. First stop was Three Mile Harbor. The following day we would head for Sag Harbor with our friends Dick and Mary Ann of “Harmony” taking pictures of us as we cruised. After enjoying Sag we were off to West Neck Harbor on Shelter Island for a couple of days. Then back through Sag Harbor and off to Coecles Harbor another beautiful area great for swimming. From here we left for Dering Harbor where we visited with friends from our Marina, Maria and Roberto of “Grand Tango”. The great thing we love about Dering is dingying over to Green Port for shopping.  But I must say what Mark loves the most is putting me airborne in the dingy as we hit the wakes of the other boaters on the way over. After staying there a day the wind picked up and came right into the harbor, so off we went around the corner by Bug Light. It ended up being very calm there, and it was a new place for us to anchor. We soaked up the views and enjoyed the bon fires on the beach that night as we sipped our wine sitting in the lazarette. Day nine we had a beautiful sail back to the marina to again face reality (work on Monday).

The month of June

The month of June was full of must to do activities that kept us busy on board. The rainy weekends didn’t seem to matter as decorating and outfitting cabinets and discovering where to put things took up all of our time. Our youngest daughter Heather was of great help as she wrote the lists of what we needed as we dug out from all that we had. Mark dealt with “put this here” and “can that go there”? Gosh he has a lot of patience… But the rain finally stopped and we actually got to scrub the boat from top to bottom as the salt coated Catatude from her voyage over. One would have thought all that rain would have helped.

Margaret is doing her nesting thing and Catatude is looking real nice inside now

The to-do list is long, but a lot is getting checked off everyday we are on the boat.
We had a practice docking this past weekend with all the new dock preparations in place all went very well. Had a wonder sail to West Cove and back and were very please at how Catatude really move out even in light air. These big roached sails are really powerful.
Getting ready to take a trip to Shelter Island next week. Pretty much all is in place for the shake down trip. Have a new generator along with a dingy and outboard that we have to fire up for the first time.