2 New England Voyage July We have finally started our journey once again. We completed our repairs on Monday July 12 in Westbrook, CT. Some work was done to the Single Side Band radio (SSB) to enhance performance and minimize interference between the SSB and the Auto-Pilot. We stayed at the Pilot's Point Marina. It was probably the nicest marina I have ever seen. It was clean, well run, with knowledgeable staff and many amenities.....including a club house that we used all day long to do some additional canvas work with Pete Dayger.....he continues to be a great help with many things as well as a great friend. With all our work done we were ready to start our journey. Tuesday morning we left for Watch Hill, RI. We arrived just before dinner at low tide. I remember the channel to Watch Hill being narrow and a bit shallow. I will never enter the harbor at low tide again. At one point we had only inches of water under the keel. We stayed 2 nights on our anchor. We used our dinghy to go between the town and Boundless. It is a nice quiet small town on the water. We both walked to the lighthouse and around the town several times. Faith stopped in almost every store while I walked, watched and waited. The weather was great and the town was what we needed.......slow and quiet. Thursday morning we left for Newport, RI. It was a nice trip under power. The winds were on our nose for the whole trip. We arrived around 2:00pm and picked up a mooring. A little more expensive in Newport with less services. We used the local launch service to get to shore. Faith went shopping and I took a shower on shore. We had a lobster dinner on the strip. It was really great! Newport is one of the biggest yachting centers on the East Coast. You will always be amazed at the number and size of the yachts around the harbor. These mega yachts are beyond belief. Newport is also the home of many of the 12 meter racing sloops made famous by the various America's Cup races. We were moored next to Columbia..... they are beautiful boats. Friday morning we left for Provincetown on the Cape. It would be a 2 day trip. We were able to sail most of the day. We even flew our spinnaker for a few hours. The last couple of hours we used our engine as the winds were directly behind us. This is almost as difficult a wind direction as a direct head wind. We are currently on a mooring just before the Cape Cod Canal. We actually pulled into the harbor and anchored. I told Faith that we would need to put some additional light on the boat because our stern was sticking into the channel. A person came by in a motor boat shortly after we were done. I expected him to tell us that we needed to do something about our choice of anchoring locations. Actually he offered us an empty mooring for the night...for FREE! Typically they are $30+ a night. We accepted his offer, pulled the anchor and moved to the mooring....well out of the channel! We had another great meal on board. We are still eating the frozen stores from our aborted transatlantic trip! We are in a nice quiet secure anchorage ready to make the Cape Cod Canal trip in the morning. Timing is critical since the currents are very strong in the canal as a result of the tides. If we hit the canal with the tides against us we would only make about 1mph forward progress. With us we do 8-9mph. This is very similar to the East River and Hell's Gate. From there we will go directly to Provincetown. We hope to spend a few days and decide where to go next. We both wish you all well! Rudy and Faith July 1 Today we had a nice trip to Provincetown. We woke early and washed Boundless to remove the collected dirt and salt from the previous days. We wanted to use the onboard fresh water so that we could fill our tanks again when we take on fuel on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal. The Sandwich Marina is good and inexpensive......fuel is about $1.00 a gallon and it's high quality. We exited the anchorage around 9:00am. The winds were 15-20 out of the Southwest....on our nose. We made the 180 degree turn for the canal quickly but not before getting the boat full of salt again! We entered the canal quickly and motored through. We hit a max of 12 knots! More than I expected. Most of the trip was around 11knots. We entered the marina and took on about 75gals of fuel and probably about the same of water. Our trip across Cape Cod Bay was quiet. There were no winds on this side of the canal. I did fish while going to Provincetown with no success....oh well. We did get attacked by killer flies though. In the middle of the bay.....10 miles from nowhere we started attracting these kamikaze flies. They hurt! Well, armed with my trusty fly swatter we had dead flies all over the top side of the boat. We closed all the hatches except those with screens. Faith and I survived but the body count of the killer flies was incredible! The trip took over 6hrs. We anchored in about 17ft of water to find that the tide fell almost 10 ft. That didn't leave much water under the boat at low tide (6 « foot draft). I'll certainly be careful of the tidal range as we move North. We put the engine on the dinghy, found the local dinghy dock and toured P-Town.....quite an experience! We did some shopping, had an appetizer at a local restaurant and enjoyed another fine meal by Faith! The breeze kept us cool during the heat.