Monday 20 August: Gloucester to Onset Bay Massachusetts.
Glen’s birthday today! He is very popular, receiving lots of messages on all devices and all social media. Keeps him happy all day, replying to family and friends.
Bright morning and windy, perfect for going out at sea and have a nice sail to the Cape Cod Canal. Well, only after we have a rather (again) frustrating call to GoPro customer service, to get a replacement for our faulty karma grip gimbal. After these calls we always feel drained of energy. And lately, it seems that everything we buy has one issue or another, and we need to send items back for replacement.
By 11am we are again in very good spirits and ready to enjoy a good day of sailing. We slip the mooring line and motor out of the channel, dodging the fishing floats, as usual. Soon, the sails are out, and with the 15kts of wind we should fly. But the sea is a bit rough, and we find ourselves thrown around quite a bit. Not long and Oana starts feeling seasick, despite the fact she already took the pill (cinarizine) an hour ago. Or maybe it’s been so long since we had a good sail, that we forgot how it feels in strong wind and large swell.
The wind gradually drops and turns behind us, and our speed drops further, making the rolling and throwing around in the waves even worse, and the main sail bang violently back and forth. After a while, we give up and on comes the engine. Plus, we want to be at the Cape Cod Canal by 5pm, to time ourselves with the tide change.
During our long and boring motoring, Glen keeps busy with the Raymarine chart plotter. The one which is now installed in the cockpit had different setting from our previous one, mostly not having any of our usual settings. So Glen goes through the menu lots of times, to fix each missing functionality: COG, auto tracking, etc.
Despite having some rays of sunshine, it feels very cold. The air temperature can’t be more than 18 degC, without the wind chill. We are in full thermal gear yet still feel chilly. Oana wraps herself in a blanket too, trying to get warm. The sky gets darker and darker as we close onto the canal. A very different weather from the last time we were here, on the way to Maine in July, when it was sweltering hot.
Our timing is perfect, we arrive at the canal right when the tide changed and we are being helped by an extra knot of current under us. It is already getting dark by the time we exit the Cape Cod Canal, and we make a right turn into Onset Bay, hoping we will find some space to anchor. Quite a few boats here, but still plenty of space, and we drop the anchor in 4m of water. Peace at last in this tranquil anchorage completely sheltered from the Atlantic.
When the heating comes on we seal ourselves inside the boat, getting warm at long last. After dinner (or was it a very late lunch?), we keep busy with admin (emails, paperwork, news and packing the Raymarine and GoPro for FedEx tomorrow).
Late evening, after a lovely warm shower, Glen settles for a birthday whisky drink. As he moves through the cabin he somehow spills it all over the cabin. He’s furious with himself, and sets to the clean up – then sits almost naked in the cold cockpit for punishment, whilst downing a replacement drink.
Now that we are south of Cape Cod again we have our sights on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Hopefully getting there before the season finishes at the end of August.

Gloucester video on Sail Cloudy Bay YouTube channel