matt_unique
New member
I had just a great day on Napoleon yesterday. A buddy and I decided to cruise from Salem up to Newburyport (MA). I stopped off of Gloucester to dive on a wreck called the Chester Poling. This tanker was built in the 30's and was split in half during a crazy storm (30' seas) in the late 70's. It was a dramatic rescue with one fatality. Beyond that terrible history it's a nice New England shipwreck for diving. The water was cold, 40 degrees F at depth. The max depth was 97' to the sand and vis was about 20' and dark. Other than cold it was a nice dive.
Back aboard we cruised up the Annasquam River and continued on to the mouth of the Merrimack River. I run tours for the National Park farther inland on the Merrimack but I had never entered from the ocean. We entered at high tide and it was completely calm.
As you approach the Merrimack from the south you pass Plum Island. This island is just beautiful with miles of white sand beach. The weather was unstable yesterday with passing Low pressure systems but other than a little rain before we left the dock it was quite nice. In fact, when we arrived in Newburyport the sun came out and it was hot. Newburyport is actually the birthplace of the USCG. They had a monument to this just onshore from where we tied up. It's a great New England coastal town with lots of shops, taverns, and nice restaurants. (The Admiral will love this place). My buddy and I walked around for an hour or so then returned to the boat.
I had been warned of an outbound tidal flow meeting with eastern swells. It was some good intel because at the mouth of the river we had some impressive waves. We all know the "wave tales" that are often shared on the internet but I tell you we had some solid 7' waves. There was a 30' cabin cruiser two boats ahead and a 21' cuddy cabin directly ahead. All but the very top of the cruiser would disappear behind the waves and the 21' cuddy completely disappeared from view. The channel is quite narrow so it's mostly single file getting in or out. When it was our turn to take on the big waves we closed all the forward windows. With the Tomcat at about 1500 rpm we pushed through. You would go up a high crest and slam down pretty good. The largest wave delivered more water over the bow of the Tomcat than I have ever had before. I mean we had a large volume of water blasted right onto the pilot house. Once cleared we were able to turn south and out of the tidal/swell zone.
Approaching the north side of the Annasquam we had some swell protection from Cape Ann. With just a slight swell I trimmed the engines for speed and opened her up. We were steady over 40 knots for about 3 minutes. It took some careful wheel handling as we would launch a bit over the swells, hitting them at an angle. We had one pretty good launch; I wish I had a picture. I did not get the engines out of the water (nor would I want to) but it was a good old fashioned fun speed run. I settled the engines back down to a 22 knot cruise. We decided to go around the Cape rather than down the Annasquam for the ride back. After cruising at just over 48mph and launching over swells I did not want to cruise 30 minutes at 5 knots
As per my usual drill I set the barometer before we left. We maintained a steady pressure all day until we were rounding the northeast side of Cape Ann. I looked up to see the pressure had fallen. It came as no surprise that a few miles ahead was a line of fog. We had about 1/3 nm of vis in the fog but I slowed down to about 20 knots and kept a sharp eye on the display. As shown in a picture I took on a clear day a few weeks ago we went past Thatcher Island. The fog thickened a bit, down to about ¼ nm of vis as we passed Gloucester Harbor. Gloucester is a busy port when the weather warms so I sent out a Securite call with our position and intentions. One center console to my port side returning from sea full of young guys maintained a collision course. I sounded the horn to get their attention but this had no affect. We would have crashed had I not slowed the throttles. Sometimes the courtesy on the water in MA not that much different from the roads during the warmer months.
We made our way south and stopped in the harbor at Great Misery Island for a while. This is pretty to home port and it was a nice time to relax a bit and reflect on the great day. We cruised a total of 68 nautical miles. It was a great C-Dory day!
Back aboard we cruised up the Annasquam River and continued on to the mouth of the Merrimack River. I run tours for the National Park farther inland on the Merrimack but I had never entered from the ocean. We entered at high tide and it was completely calm.
As you approach the Merrimack from the south you pass Plum Island. This island is just beautiful with miles of white sand beach. The weather was unstable yesterday with passing Low pressure systems but other than a little rain before we left the dock it was quite nice. In fact, when we arrived in Newburyport the sun came out and it was hot. Newburyport is actually the birthplace of the USCG. They had a monument to this just onshore from where we tied up. It's a great New England coastal town with lots of shops, taverns, and nice restaurants. (The Admiral will love this place). My buddy and I walked around for an hour or so then returned to the boat.
I had been warned of an outbound tidal flow meeting with eastern swells. It was some good intel because at the mouth of the river we had some impressive waves. We all know the "wave tales" that are often shared on the internet but I tell you we had some solid 7' waves. There was a 30' cabin cruiser two boats ahead and a 21' cuddy cabin directly ahead. All but the very top of the cruiser would disappear behind the waves and the 21' cuddy completely disappeared from view. The channel is quite narrow so it's mostly single file getting in or out. When it was our turn to take on the big waves we closed all the forward windows. With the Tomcat at about 1500 rpm we pushed through. You would go up a high crest and slam down pretty good. The largest wave delivered more water over the bow of the Tomcat than I have ever had before. I mean we had a large volume of water blasted right onto the pilot house. Once cleared we were able to turn south and out of the tidal/swell zone.
Approaching the north side of the Annasquam we had some swell protection from Cape Ann. With just a slight swell I trimmed the engines for speed and opened her up. We were steady over 40 knots for about 3 minutes. It took some careful wheel handling as we would launch a bit over the swells, hitting them at an angle. We had one pretty good launch; I wish I had a picture. I did not get the engines out of the water (nor would I want to) but it was a good old fashioned fun speed run. I settled the engines back down to a 22 knot cruise. We decided to go around the Cape rather than down the Annasquam for the ride back. After cruising at just over 48mph and launching over swells I did not want to cruise 30 minutes at 5 knots
As per my usual drill I set the barometer before we left. We maintained a steady pressure all day until we were rounding the northeast side of Cape Ann. I looked up to see the pressure had fallen. It came as no surprise that a few miles ahead was a line of fog. We had about 1/3 nm of vis in the fog but I slowed down to about 20 knots and kept a sharp eye on the display. As shown in a picture I took on a clear day a few weeks ago we went past Thatcher Island. The fog thickened a bit, down to about ¼ nm of vis as we passed Gloucester Harbor. Gloucester is a busy port when the weather warms so I sent out a Securite call with our position and intentions. One center console to my port side returning from sea full of young guys maintained a collision course. I sounded the horn to get their attention but this had no affect. We would have crashed had I not slowed the throttles. Sometimes the courtesy on the water in MA not that much different from the roads during the warmer months.
We made our way south and stopped in the harbor at Great Misery Island for a while. This is pretty to home port and it was a nice time to relax a bit and reflect on the great day. We cruised a total of 68 nautical miles. It was a great C-Dory day!