Off to Maine, finally! And a view of ICAP Leopard

It's 9:00 and we are about 5nm east of Watch Hill Passage (eastern Long Island Sound) and are on our way to Portland Maine.  It's hard to believe that we are finally under way after months of working on Pandora and planning for our summer aboard.  My crew assembled in Mystic last evening, provisioned and had a nice dinner out prior to getting to bed.  We arose early enough to watch the sun rise and at 7:00 headed out to Long Island Sound for the run to Portland Maine.

Pandora's happy crew 5 miles south of Newport RI.  

We have not been to Portland by boat yet so this will be a new experience for us.  We will be hooking up with fellow SAGA owners Frank and Gail of Alcid who live in the area and are members of the club.  It's worth noting that they took Alcid to the Med some time ago and enjoyed sailing the waters from Gibraltar to Egypt for 7 seasons before having the boat shipped back to the states on a ship about a year ago.

Our landfall will be at the Portland Yacht Club, a few miles north of Portland proper.   The cruising guide says that the club is the second oldest in the US, although I wouldn't be surprised if other clubs claimed the same.

It's a beautiful day out on Block Island Sound and while the winds are not sufficient for sailing (It's always that that way when you are trying to make miles) It's great to be out on the water.

A bit later on in the day, off of Newport RI, we spotted a magnificent yacht ICAP Leopard go by at an impressive pace.  Out for a easy day of cruising, Leopard is a go fast world class racer that has participated in many events world wide.  You too can charter Leopard for an afternoon of fun.  Check out their website.  If you really want to be wowed, take a look at some of their videos.  And, if that's not enough.  They have a number of world records to boast about and they do on their website.

This was about as close as we got to Leopard.  

How about this video of Leopard at speed on their record transatlantic?

I couldn't resist putting in a video.  How about this one of Lizard Light at the entrance of the English Channel.

Yes, putting this video in is a bit random but it is the finish line for races from NY Ambrose to England, a hotly contested route for as long as there have been boats crossing the Atlantic.

Well, back to our poky run to Maine.  The plan is for us to catch the tide at the Cape Cod Canal at some point after it begins the flood so that we won't be going against the current, which runs hard at nearly the speed of Pandora under power.  That means that if we are with the current we will be making double digit speeds over the bottom as opposed to 2-3 knots if the tide and current are against us.  As the canal is about 10 miles long that means that the trip will take about one hour with the help of the current or 3-4 hours if it's against us.

If all goes well we should be pulling into the club mooring field at mid afternoon on Saturday.