We arrived at Sandwich Marina at 1:52 p.m, exactly 25 hours after we had left Maine. We were all happy to get nice warm showers.

Ralph spent the afternoon plotting our next passage on the charts. Franci worked on the blog.

Dinner would be hosted by Stephen and Arlene…….ribeye steaks, new potatoes and zucchinis with sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese. YUM! Hard to believe I did not get photos, but I was very tired that night following our all night passage the day before.

Late in the afternoon a neighbor docked next to us in a very interesting boat with a pilot house. Stephen and Ralph helped him dock and invited him to join us on our boat for cocktails later. He turned out to. be a very interesting fellow from Massachusetts named Buel Hollister. He had great stories to tell. You meet lots of interesting people along the way on a boating adventure.

Saturday, the next day, we walked to the Marshland Cafe for breakfast. Ralph knows all the great places to eat.

It was very popular. We had to wait a short time for our turn.

Blueberry pancakes

Croissant with ham, eggs and cheese

After breakfast Ralph and Alene went to work fixing things on the boat, We called Dick to report the problems with the auto pilot. He said he would order a new one and have it shopped to Cape May, our next destination. Ralph installed the paper towel and towel holders that we had bought in our shopping journeys as well as the TP holder in the bathroom.

Arlene straightened things on the boat, Ralph worked on leaks we were having and we worked on our blog, hoping to get caught up and at least out if the Bahamas.

This is a live basil plant we have grown very fond of.

That afternoon we were invited to have happy hour with Buel on his boat, the Glencannon. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with him. He's a seasoned sailor having owned a number of different boats in his 75 year lifetime. He once again shared many good stories with us.

That evening we walked to another nearby restaurant.

Bobby Byrne's Pub was another place recommended by Ralph. Food was great and we were so busy eating I forgot to take photos. After dinner it was raining and we were drenched by the time we got back to the boat. We hung up our wet duds and went off to our beds for a great night's sleep.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Franci and Stephen

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We left Broadcove Marina at 12:52 p.m., right on schedule. Ralph mentioned that we needed to leave by one p.m. so as to get though the lobster traps by daylight. He was so very right about that. There were lots of lobster pots as they call them and it was important not to get the engines tangled in any if them. We all kept a good lookout. It's still a little early in the season. When it gets warmer the lobster pots will get denser making it very challenging for large boats to get through at all.

Before we left Ralph plotted our course on with the chart.

Arlene takes a look at where we are going.

We passed this charming place on an island.

For lunch we had lobster bisque that Franci had made from the leftover lobster. It was a great way to start the journey.

Stephen took a turn at the helm.

Arlene took a turn at the helm.

At some point Ralph gave the helm to Franci so he could show Stephen how to do something. Franci saw lobster pots dead ahead and grabbed the wheel making a sharp turn to the left to avoid the pots. We had been told that the auto pilot would go off automatically if you took the wheel. However, when she did this the auto pilot came off of its mounting bracket and it apparently did some other bad things as well. We would have to steer the boat the old fashioned way, by hand.

At some point in the afternoon Arlene discovered the refrigerator was not working. We thought we might have to offload food into the coolers, but Ralph was able to jiggle some wires and get it going again.

While he was busy doing repairs, he went ahead and epoxied the auto pilot mount as well.

It took us 25 hours to get to our destination, Sandwich Marina in Cape Cod Canal.

We did four hour watches. Ralph got very little sleep as he also helped supervise us on our watch since radar was totally new to us. The night was cold and very foggy. Visibility was none and we steered using only the radar. At noon the next day we arrived at Sandwich marina.

We refueled and checked into the marina for the next two nights. Weather was going to be bad the next day and, besides, we had repairs to do.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Franci and Stephen

If you are following this blog and get email notice of each new post remember to click on Dolce Vitaville at the top or put the link in you browser. Other wise you may only get the text and not the pictures