An overnight race, a 12 Metre sail, and new friends and places round out an unexpected adventure.
Issue 147: Nov/Dec 2022
Tomfoolery clears the Essex Yacht Club committee boat and crosses the starting line of the Sam Wetherill Race. Photo courtesy Essex Yacht Club.
To make lemonade one must start with lemons; in our case, it was the last-minute cancellation of the 2020 Marion-Bermuda Race, for which I and the crew of my 1965 Alberg 35, Tomfoolery, had been preparing for three years. Staged in the Hudson River after transiting the Erie Canal to make the starting line on time, we were stunned when the committee cancelled the race due to COVID-19 issues in Bermuda (“The Lemonade Cruise, Part 1,” September/October 2022).
But an alternate invitation from the Essex Yacht Club (EYC) in Connecticut to race in their annual Sam Wetherill Trophy Overnight Race helped us point our bow in a new direction and provided a jumping off point for what we came to call The Lemonade Cruise. Tomfoolery made it to EYC just in time for the pre-race meeting and party, receiving a warm welcome from club members.
The Race
The Tomfoolery crew is all smiles after finishing the Wetherill Race. Left to right, Jim McGinnis, Mike Crouse, Katie Alley, Tom Alley, and Andrea Johnson.
The next morning dawned with a thick fog, but it quickly burned off as the day progressed. The race was scheduled to start at the time of maximum favorable tide (11:00 a.m.), so we left the harbor a couple of hours early to get down the Connecticut River and into Long Island Sound with enough time to try to read the winds, currents, and waves.
In the Sound, however, the wind took its sweet time showing up. After a two-hour delay, the breeze began to fill in and the race committee initiated the countdown to the start. Just before 1:30 in the afternoon, we cleared the starting line and were on our way—only to sail about a mile when the light breeze began to die and the tide began to turn. Was the committee boat getting closer? Yes, it was. I checked the depth, and we were in less than 30 feet of water.
“Mike! Throw out the anchor!”
“What? Are you sure? Is that legal?”
“Absolutely! Toss the anchor out now!”
Tom Alley shakes hands with Essex Yacht Club Rear Commodore Bill Gunther, who recognized Tomfoolery for being the boat to travel farthest to compete in the 2020 Sam Wetherill Race.
As soon as the anchor took hold, we watched six boats slide behind us. Mike, a seasoned racer from the deep waters of Lake Ontario, could hardly believe what he was seeing. Here was a 56-year-old cruising boat “passing” a small fleet of much newer go-fast racers.
After about 10 minutes, the breeze filled in again, and we raised anchor and proceeded east. We repeated the anchoring maneuver about an hour later when the wind died again, passing another three boats from the group that had started some 30 minutes ahead of us before the wind filled in and stayed with us for the rest of the day. While the racers did eventually pass us, we were quite satisfied that we stayed with them for the first three hours of the race.
Tomfoolery successfully sailed through The Race—a rather notorious, deep, short passage where the waters between Long Island and Block Island sounds mix, mingle, and generally cause a ruckus— against a foul tide and headed for the first turning mark just north of Martha’s Vineyard, about 60 nautical miles distant.
During the night the wind built, allowing us to exercise Tomfoolery’s new mainsail slab reefing system, and it worked much better than what I’d sailed with for two decades. The newly installed AIS transponder made it easy to keep track of our competitors along with the commercial traffic in the area. New lee cloths on the bunks that we had sewn over the winter helped the crew rest while off watch, and newly installed jacklines kept everyone secure on deck.
Best of all, the recent conversion of the ice box to a refrigerator kept the food fresh and the drinks cold, while the upgraded stove gave us hot coffee and soup.
After sailing through some impressive (to us) ocean swells around the south side of Block Island, we battled another bout of afternoon calms on our way back to The Race. Fortunately, this time the tide was with us, so we were “drifting” toward our intended destination at about 3.5 knots.
Around sunset, we caught sight of one of our competitors and engaged in a bit of a tacking duel as we both tried to get through The Race before the tide turned foul again. The crew received a boost to morale when we pulled ahead, and our competitor was swept back out to sea by the changing tide.
Tom at the wheel of the 12 Metre Intrepid, with Tomfoolery crew members Katie and Mike enjoying the ride.
That night, however, we would be tested again as the wind died, and the water was far too deep for us to anchor (200–300 feet). The poor night watch was stuck ghosting along, just barely able to hold ground against the tide. We considered heading toward shallower water to anchor, but the number of rocks noted on the chart reminded us too much of our too-close encounter with Hen and Chickens on the way to EYC.
Just before sunrise, the breeze changed direction and filled in enough to allow us to make progress. At 5:13 a.m. on Sunday morning, Tomfoolery crossed the finish line off Old Saybrook. Shortly thereafter, we were back in Essex to be greeted by other racers who had finished ahead of us.
After getting some much-needed sleep, our crew learned that we had finished 12th in a field of 23 boats. The yacht club was gracious enough to honor us with a token for being the boat and crew who had traveled the farthest to compete. They also invited us to come back to compete again, but I think the logistics involved will not allow that to be an annual event for this skipper and crew—at least not aboard Tomfoolery so long as her home port is 500 nautical miles away on an inland lake.
What Next?
With the Wetherill Race behind us, it was time to make the next decision. We had a little over two weeks of down time until the Marion-Bermuda Race would have started, so we had plenty of time to mull things over. Would we join others in June to sail to Bermuda, or would we spend some time cruising and exploring southern New England? None of our crew had ever visited either destination, so it wasn’t a clear choice.
Katie climbs the steps up from the beach along the southern shore of Block Island near the Southeast Lighthouse. This was the lee shore Tomfoolery’s crew was steering clear of during the Wetherill Race; they could hear the surf crashing on the shore from a mile off.
We deliberated for a while, but in the end, the choice distilled down to the following: sail for 14 days to visit one island for three to four days; or, sail for 14 days and visit half a dozen places in southern New England.
The prospect of visiting multiple destinations won out simply from the diversity of experiences it offered, so we began to prepare an itinerary. To gain more local knowledge, we asked many of the people we had met in Essex what they considered to be must-see destinations and started compiling a list. In a few days, we had more suggestions than we could possibly visit, however everyone’s list seemed to have a few places in common, so those naturally received top priority.
We pulled up a chart and put a marker on each of the proposed sites and then started looking at how to tie them all together with a route. After a bit of back and forth, we had something resembling an itinerary that also provided alternatives and contingencies. We also had a plan in place to allow for various crew to come and go to meet family and job obligations. This worked out well because with people moving around, we could more easily stage vehicles where they would be needed.
The deck layout of Weatherly, a 12 Metre Class America’s Cup boat, moored in Newport, Rhode Island.
At the same time, I contacted other Alberg 35 owners in the area via Alberg35.org to see if anyone was interested in getting together for a small rendezvous. Several owners were eager, so we picked a place that would work for everyone and planned a potluck dinner there.
Block Island was at the top of everyone’s list of suggested destinations. We arrived after a very pleasant and sunny day’s sail from Essex. The harbor was quiet, and we had a prime slip within walking distance (about a mile) of the main town. Our crew rented mopeds the next day and toured the entire island. It was a blast! After our experience as “Heck’s Angels,” we had some absolutely fantastic seafood for dinner at Dead Eye Dick’s Restaurant near our slip.
The following morning, we set off across Rhode Island Sound to sail to Newport. What sailor doesn’t want to visit Newport? We reserved a slip at Bowen’s Wharf, but when we arrived in the early afternoon, we were shocked to learn we were the only boat spending the night. Other marinas around town were similarly devoid of visitors. The dockmaster lamented how slow the season had been so far with very few visiting boats. (This would change the following week with visitors pouring in for Block Island Race Week. At that time, we were told, you could not get a slip, a parking spot, or a restaurant reservation anywhere in town.)
A second surprise was that our berth was right next to a pier with several America’s Cup 12 Metre Class yachts. Shortly after tying up, two of my crew disappeared to get a closer look. They returned wearing big smirks on their faces.
“Did you have anything planned for us to do tonight?” Mike asked.
“No, why?”
“Good! We’re going sailing. All of us. On that boat!” said Mike, pointing to Weatherly.
And sailing we went. Conditions were perfect, with about 10–12 knots of wind that had the boat moving between 7 and 8.5 knots the entire evening. All of us got to take time at the helm, had a turn at some winches and handling sails. What an experience!
The next morning, we picked up a few souvenirs from nearby shops before casting off for our next port. Mike and Jim had to hop off back in Essex to attend to shoreside obligations, so rather than make the 50-mile journey from Newport in one day, we stopped in Stonington, arriving right in the middle of the harbor’s Wednesday night races.
After dinner on the boat, we explored the town a bit and then went to the Stonington Yacht Club (a very nicely converted textile factory) for a nightcap. There, we bumped into a young man who turned out to be the son of Essex Yacht Club Rear Commodore Bill Gunther, who’d invited us to the Wetherill Race. Small world.
Sunset in the Great Salt Pond on Block Island.
Visiting Fellow Albergs
After leaving Stonington, we sailed to Essex to drop off Mike and Jim. The next day, my daughter, Katie, and I sailed west to Clinton, Connecticut, (past Hen and Chickens, this time without hitting it) to meet up with a couple of other Alberg 35 owners. The marina in Clinton also promised a laundromat, a feature that by this time we desperately needed. What looked like a small marina on the chart and Google Earth turned out to be a huge complex harboring hundreds of boats. Good thing we had reservations, because the place was packed.
We spent the afternoon with Mike and Sydney, who live aboard their Alberg 35 with their teenage son and dog, and Bruce and Glynis, who are in the process of refitting their Alberg 35 for some extended voyaging. It was great fun chatting with them about their boats and comparing notes. (We had met with a third boat owner, Walt, in Saybrook earlier; he couldn’t sail his boat to our rendezvous due to a family event that weekend.)
After our weekend in Clinton, Katie and I set out for Essex once more. With a boatload of clean laundry, we would stop there to restock with food and fuel and pick up Jim to begin our trip home the following day, making numerous stops on the north shore of Long Island before heading back up the Hudson River and through the Erie Canal. This final leg of our voyage would cover a bit over 500 nautical miles and take us about 11 days.
I’ll save stories about our experiences in the Erie Canal for another day, as there is much to see and do along the Canal. In fact, the Erie Canal can be a destination unto itself, especially if you are a student of American history.
Our Lemonade Cruise had been a true adventure and an extremely gratifying experience for all of us. In hindsight, it proved to be the right decision to make, albeit for reasons we had no way of predicting. Among them, the country was still “waking up” after an 18-month period of isolation and limited travel due to COVID-19, so we had relatively few issues with finding slips and moorings. We got extremely lucky with the weather; during our final month-long tour and trip home, we had a total of three days with poor weather. This helped us arrive at the Erie Canal a few days ahead of schedule.
Our timing was perfect there, too; we were the last boat through Lock 6 before it broke down and closed for multiple days. Other locks suffered mechanical problems after our transit that resulted in closures totaling a week. After that, heavy rains in upstate New York caused flooding, which closed sections of the canal for an additional three weeks. We got home ahead of all of that.
Finally, had we set out for Bermuda, we would have been greeted by tropical storm Claudette approximately two-thirds of the way there. (Or we would have been forced to call off our trip a second time if the forecasts had been reasonably conclusive with respect to the storm’s predicted route.)
All in all, the lemons turned out to make a fine lemonade. Would I do a trip like this again in the future? You bet!
Tom and his family sail a 1965 Alberg 35 sloop, Tomfoolery, and are active racers and cruisers with the Finger Lakes Yacht Club in Watkins Glen, New York. Tom manages the Alberg 35 user group website Alberg35. org and spends a little time indulging in amateur radio under the call sign NT2S (Nice Time 2 Sail). When he’s not sailing, thinking about sailing, or tinkering with his boat, Tom is either scuba diving, hanging out with fellow amateur radio operators, or (as a last resort) working as an engineer to support his sailing habit and, if there’s any money left over, send his kids to college.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
