I found the trick to change the radio from HAM to marine (involved some soldering in the main circuit board; scary business!). When that was done I set off, hoping to catch the tide through the Cape Cod Canal. The weather was nothing but perfect: clear blue sky with an occasional white cloud passing by, some 24 degrees, and a stiff southwesterly wind that increased the closer we got the the end of Buzzard's Bay and the entrance to the canal. During the trip I connected all cables back onto the radio and installed the whole lot. Then I collected all my tools that were still lying about everywhere, and did a general clean-up.

The radio could receive and transmit on all frequencies I needed. But when I tried to send an email this wasn't that easy. I first needed to set all the settings in the program; something that I am not very good at! But after about an hour of trial and error, setting baud rates and virtual com-ports, it all seems to be working again. A great relief! And all this while the boat was racing towards the entrance of the canal.

The first buoy I passed indicated a weak tide against me. This was surprising; was I early? I thought I was late (as usual).
With a strong adverse tide I sailed into the entrance of the canal, which has a wide bay on the north side. The wind was now continuously over 30 knots which, in combination with a 4 knot tide, made for steep, breaking waves that I surfed over at great speed. Beyond the bay, named Sonset Bay after the vilage at the end of it, the actual canal starts. At that end there is a railway bridge, that is normally open and closes only if a train is due. (Maybe NS should have a look here?) Off course, when I came closer, the bridge closed. I tried to find a spot a little more sheltered to take down my main sail, but this was hard as outside the channel with it's 1 meter breaking waves, was nothing but shoals. On the very edge of the channel I turned 180 degrees and ran forward to lower the sail, engine full ahead. The sail came down ok, but the boat lay dead stopped and hit the soft bottom on the edge of the channel. Thanks to the wind and the waves I came free quite quickly, but still couldn't make any speed although from the sound of it it was obvious that the engine was trying hard. Fouled propeller. So after another 360 and a slight tough on the bottom, I got the mainsail up again, reefed to 3rd reef. With this, I beat my way back to the other end of Sonset Bay, where a small channel leads to the vilage. This incident showed yet another thing damaged during the lightning: the alarm of the depth sounder; I had set it to warn me and it didn't. Every day I keep finding things!

Once in this small, well sheltered channel, I could make some speed again under power and lowered the sail. I found a free mooring in a small, sheltered inlet and tied up to that. The water was not very cold and I took advantage of the swim to clear the propeller to also clean the waterline and remove some fouling on the rudders. I then took another, better look in the Eldridge almanac and found that I had confused two columns in the table; I wasn't late, I was 5 hours early!

So, lying here with a nice view on the old railway bridge in a setting sun, I send my first email via radio to the blog in two weeks time. Time for a dram of whisky!

Bart

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