Aboard Madrigal: Free From the City

We spent nearly an entire month at the docks before we were able to find the time to go sailing. We were busy for various reasons, and wanted enough days in a row to make the trip a little more worth it. I suppose oftentimes, we're the sailors that like to go places, and less of the "let's go for a short sail" kind of people. We like to let the anchor explore new bottoms and actually get away for awhile.

captain.

rocna.

Our plans never quite seem to work how we want them to, and so a trip to Scituate turned into a trip to Cohasset turned into a trip to World's End turned into a trip to Peddocks Island. Let me explain.

The plan was that we'd sail to Scituate and anchor. We spent the money on a nice anchor for a reason, but after scouting out the charts for anchorages and not finding any, Justin called the harbor master. Upon finding out there was no place to anchor in Scituate OR Cohasset, we decided to turn around. We wanted to get somewhere before dark. World's End is not far off from where we live now, but we had never been there so we thought it'd be a good place to go. Also, we knew they allowed people to anchor there, so it seemed a safe bet.

Once we got there, we threw anchor and within five minutes, the Hingham harbor master was asking us how long we planned to stay. Turns out, they didn't really want us to anchor there either. From what I can find online, we should have been given 48 hours to anchor but what he said didn't line up with that - he said he'd make an exception and let us anchor overnight, but that in the future we wouldn't be able to do so. Turns out, they're putting 40-some mooring balls in there soon, so it doesn't sound like there will even be room to anchor.

Before the storm

That evening there was a crazy thunderstorm. The lightning never got too close, but there was a lot of it which made it fairly hair raising for awhile.

The next morning we made our way over to Peddocks Island since we've anchored out there many times and didn't want to risk our luck. Some friends came out a couple of nights later and rafted to us for a few hours, and afterwards we went ashore and got to know some of the locals. It's funny - we've been there numerous times but have never stopped to talk to them. We weren't quite sure if they'd prefer us to leave them alone, but they were very friendly. There's quite a history to the island and (what's left of) the locals that I'll have to write about sometime.

Anyway, this trip was fairly significant because it was the first time I was freelancing at anchor. Well, that's not entirely true. I've worked from anchor before, but this is the first time as a full-time freelancer. It was amusing to motor around the anchorage and choose our spot according to the wind, the depth AND the strength of my cell phone signal. Cell phone signal = internet connection, which was vital this week.