Provincetown to Nantucket

After 3 nights in Provincetown, we had the right conditions to sail to Nantucket outside of Cape Cod. Hurricane Bertha was far out to sea and they were forecasting northwesterly winds for Thursday into Friday. We ended up motoring around the point of the Cape and after midnight the wind finally picked up. We were warned by some fellow sailors that there is an enormous pod of Right Whales (of the known population of about 50, 100 whales have been counted off the shores of cape cod this summer) of the coast. We played music all night so any pod of whales would know where we were, also I think towing our dinghy (Tater Tot) made enough splashing behind us to give away our position. Allyson heard a pod of whales swimming near us and could see them surface in the moonlight, they were also talking to her through the water. I was asleep during this, so I cannot confirm or deny it. I took over for my shift, so the whales left as I could not hear them talking to me. The moon set around 3 a.m. and then it was really dark, I may or may not have seen a huge uncharted green buoy off of Nauset beach with a really dim green light. Dawn came and the wind picked up a bit for Pollock Rip channel. We arrived about an hour before the current turned in our favor, so we sailed against a 1 kt current, the seas were a bit confused and so was I after only 1 hr of sleep.  We were still able to make 5kts over land against the current and even performed a flawless catch and release of a small bluefish. After the excitement, we had a nice broad reach to the Nantucket harbor entrance. There were megayachts making huge wakes and a regatta going on for race week. Allyson was able to capture a picture of a 40ft boat which sank at the entrance of the harbor (see caption with regatta picture below). We found a busy anchorage and after a nap, decided to move to a quieter spot off of Pimneys point. 

The last thunderstorms passed over Provincetown before our overnight sail.

Glassy Seas, let the motor sailing begin.

Sunset... 7 hours of darkness.

...Sunrise, wind picked up around 1 a.m. and the engine went off for good.

Slogging through Pollock Rip Channel.

Trying to wake up, I need to get better at sleeping underway.

The 40ft boat in the center of the picture  (pointed in a different direction than the others) suffered a collision on their starboard side creating a 2 inch hole in the hull. They were sailing on a starboard tack to keep the hole out of the water. The boat managed to limp into the entrance of the harbor, the Coast Guard was able to pick the crew up but the boat went down.  

Pirates at Brant pt. Light

Finished our first overnight, Relief!