Bear takes the pre-hibernation run

  11-Oct-2016: Bear transits from Waquoit Bay to up near Wareham, where she'll be stored for winter.  This is a bi-yearly ceremony.

The wind was unexpectedly weak on the first leg from the Waquoit inlet through the channels at Woods Hole, so we spent a lot of that on the motor.  Only after clearing the channel into Buzzard's Bay could we really get to some *sailing*.

[Read my first introduction to this craft, with more technical observations]


[Images here are linked to larger copies.]
View aft, finally under sail: crew huddled down, nice wake Around the lunch break I finally fetched out the camera, and went forward for a view aft of the wake with the crew sort of huddled down over food.

Plenty of water ahead Lots of water ahead; clearing Woods Hole was only about a third of the trip.

Wind-vane showing we're right at the upwind limit Once into Buzzard's and against a fairly steady north wind that finally decided to show up, we stayed right around the limit of Bear's upwind capability as indicated by the vane at the top of the mast and the two little flags showing minimum recommended wind angle.  We could been closer-hauled, but that would deliver quite a bit less overall speed, so it's all a compromise.

Colorful crew garb Colorful jackets and PFDs.  It wasn't all that chilly after all, but still not quite warm enough to start shedding layers, and of course our progress was making the wind artificially stronger. 

Marion forest of masts at the harbor A grey surface in the distance that looked like either a cliff or a large seawall with a funny vertical texture, turned out to be an absolute *forest* of boat masts moored around Marion.  From this angle one looks along the length of Sippican Harbor, and an aerial view reveals that there are *hundreds* of moorings there.

Southbound traffic Very little traffic out today -- a normal weekday, substantially into the off-season time.  Still, there were a couple of near encounters.

Furling the main Buttoning up after arrival at Mark's Inlet.  Rolling the mainsail onto the boom ...

Rolling the jib onto boom for storage ... and then the jib, such that the combination gave a roll of uniform thickness with no net taper along it.

A last look back on the final dinghy run Looking back at Bear on the final dinghy run to shore.  She looks like some sort of weird aircraft from either end...

_H*   161013