12 Aug 14

Weather is good again, so we got away from the marina at 09:00 for the relatively short run across Cape Cod Bay to Provincetown. The wind was SE 10 - 13, perfect direction for a sail, so we hoisted all plain sail, but motored the whole way as well, just to get in to Provincetown early enough for a good stroll round town. Arriving at the marina at 12:30, we had a quick lunch and went for a long walk around town. It’s a bit of a typical tourist beach town, with a strong bent toward the LGBT crowd, but there are a number of very nice restaurants and bars and dozens of art galleries, as this is also a big (some say the original) artist hangout. It is also where the Pilgrims first touched the North American shore and signed the Mayflower Compact, so there is a big monument, the Pilgrim Tower, and museum. This was also a big whaling and fishing center until 1898, when most of the wharves were wiped out in a big storm. We could not find a good marine store; I need a chart book for the coast from here to Maine. Dinner aboard, in anticipation of dinner out tonight with our friends from Houston, who are vacationing on the Cape. 42-02.932’N, 70-10.978’W.

13 Aug 14

As the forecasters had been predicting, the wind got up in the wee hours; we had 30 kn and light rain by the time we got up at 7:30. We were snug enough in the marina, but we are the most windward boat, so we acted as the breakwater for everyone else to leeward of us. We pounded against the dock lines all day, and I doubled the springs and tripled up the dock lines and dodged showers. Our friends, Paul and Barb, from Houston, met us on the boat at 15:00 for early cocktails. Afterward, we got wet walking into town, had the obligatory drink at General Bradfords pub (highly over-rated), followed by dinner at The Pointe (which was excellent and is worth a re-visit on our way south). Paul and I decided not to enter the “ass Wednesday” competition at the Atlantic House bar. We got back to the boat about 21:15 and found that one (of the 3) stern lines had chafed right through (good job I had tripled up that line). It was still blowing 30 kn and the boat was bouncing around pretty wildly, so I put on additional stern and bow lines. The wind finally started to slack off about midnight and we got a good night’s sleep.