Free Energy just departed Cuttyhunk after spending Memorial Day weekend there. Free Energy is now heading north in Buzzard Bay towards Onset as she leisurely makes her way back to Boston.
Cuttyhunk is a small town on the southern most of the Elizabethan Islands with a permanent population of just over 100, and is my favorite places to visit in Buzzards Bay. The island doesn’t feel over built up like so much of Cape Cod these days. There are 2 road intersections on the entire island and plenty of undeveloped land.
Weather was mostly cool (50s) and cloudy over the weekend, but the morning tended to be sunny so I walked a few miles each morning Free Energy was there. There is a beautiful lookout at the highest point on the island that’s only about 2 miles from where Free Energy was moored. The photo above is from that lookout, and if you’re eagle eyed you can see Free Energy in the mooring field.
I’m looking forward in bringing Free Energy back to later this summer when it’s a bit warmer and I can enjoy swimming the in the ocean.
Free Energy arrived in Newport, RI roughly on schedule yesterday and is now safely docked at a Marina. The last 40nm approaching Newport felt like some of the longest of the trip. The conditions were fairly benign compared to what Free Energy has gone through earlier in the passage. It was just after having traveled ~1000nm, 40nm seems like so little and let it’s still 5-6h of travel.
Now that I’ve been back for a day I’ve had a chance to reflect on the passage while it’s still fairly fresh in my mind that I’ll go over in this blog.
Free Energy
Free Energy performed really well. The capability of most sailboats exceeds that of the capability of the crew and this is more true of Free Energy than most sailboats. Even though Free Energy was built in 2024, she is an old school design that is intended for long offshore passages where your much more likely to encounter heavy weather. This is rarity this day in age, most modern sailboats are intended for day sailing and coastal cruising. There isn’t anything wrong with that. It’s what most people want to do with their sailboat, heck it’s mostly what I do with Free Energy. The robust, offshore, heavy weather design is also not without compromise. Free Energy has less living space than an modern boat of the same length. The deep safe and well protected cockpit is awesome on rough passages, but in pleasant conditions it can be nicer to have a more open cockpit. Nevertheless, one of the reasons I decided to buy an Outbound 46 (Free Energy is an Outbound 46 sailboat) was because of the robust design and I’m happy with my choice.
One of the times I was impressed with Free Energy on this passage was on the last night as we traveled along the length of long island. I knew the winds would be strong and gusty so I’d reduced our sail area at sunset so we wouldn’t be overpowered in the high winds during the night. The winds, however, turned out to be a bit stronger than expected and I worried about being overpowered even with the reduced sail area. One of the ways you can tell a boat is overpowered is it becomes difficult to steer, especially in gusty winds, so I checked the autopilot to see if it was struggling to steer in the high winds. To my surprise it wasn’t struggling at all. About 60% of the time it was keeping the rudder dead straight (i.e., not need turning the rudder to change Free Energy’s course) and when it did adjust course it didn’t need to turn the rudder very much.
Sailing Ability
I’ve owned Free Energy for a little over a year and I’ve been living aboard solo for the vast majority of that time. While I still have much to learn about Free Energy I’ve learned a lot about Free Energy since she was first built, and I really felt that on this passage. There are always things I need to address on a passage like this, but every time one of those things came up on this passage I always knew what to do.
One example occurred when I needed to reef the main sail in the middle of the night. This can be slightly tricky because the sail rolls up inside the boom itself when you reef it and you need to have the sail roll such that the sail doesn’t walk forward or backwards along the spindle it’s being rolled up on. That night when I rolled up the sail it kept walking forward on the spindle. You can generally prevent this by pulling harder in the main halyard when the sail comes down, but that wasn’t working. After trying twice I realized the boom angle must be the issue even though it was in its normal position for rolling (I speculate that in high winds the boom angle needs to be different than usual). Sure enough once I tweaked that the sail rolled up just fine. I’m not sure I would have figured that out a year ago.
I also have a better feel for how the boat handles in different conditions, and how to handler in those conditions when they arise. Last year when I first got Free Energy I would never have had her out in some of the conditions I chose to sail in on this passage.
Starlink & Weather Models
Free Energy is equipped with Starlink, which provides high speed internet access wherever Free Energy goes. High speed internet access has only been available for a few years on private offshore vessels, and it’s a real game changer because it provides easy access to very detailed weather models. Prior to this you could get weather information underway, but it wasn’t easy to get, updates were less frequent, and it wasn’t as detailed.
I checked the weather models constantly during this passage (I’ll go into what resources I used to do look at the models in another blog). This let me develop the strategy of hugging the east coast of the US after Free Energy passed Cape Hatteras that resulted in a much calmer sea state. Without Starlink I don’t think I would have recognized that was a viable option.
Sleep
I need to learn to sleep better on passages. We arrived at Newport yesterday and I slept for 8-9h last night, but I still felt somewhat exhausted for most of the day. Over the passage I build up quite a sleep deficit that I think I’m paying for now. While on the passage I didn’t feel this that much, but the day after the passage I really feel it. I’m expecting with another good night sleep I’ll finally feed rested.
The reason I ran such a sleep deficit was in part due to the rough conditions we had several of the nights. The crew also needed me several times during the night (I told them to always get me if they needed me), but they only woke me up a few times. The biggest contributor was my obsession with the weather models and navigation of Free Energy. I routinely woke up after 1.5h of sleep picked up my iPad and looked at weather models for 45min rather than going back to sleep. Keeping a close eye on the weather is obviously a good thing, but I probably need to balance it a little better with sleep.
Misery Loves Company
A bit of a facetious section title, but on the way to Newport I was contacted by a sailboat on No Foreign Land about 40nm south of us asking if we were going to Newport like they were. We wound up talking regularly about our routing strategies and what conditions were like. After we both got to Newport they swung by Free Energy and we chatting for a while about our respective experiences. It was fun chatting with someone who had just been through the same passage and talking about to all the ups and downs we experienced.
Crew & Teamwork
Doing an offshore passage like this is a rewarding experience, in part due to the dynamics of the crew. These passages do have some danger to them. While Free Energy is designed for this, she needs a crew to sail her well to be safe. That means the crew and I depend on each other to do their jobs well. There is something very satisfying being part of a team that needs to work together to keep each other safe. Sebastian Junger talks about this is in book Tribe, albeit with teams in much more dangerous circumstances.
Beauty
I feel like I may have leaned into the difficulties of the passage to much in these blogs. It is amazing doing an offshore passage like this. We saw dolphins swimming alongside Free Energy 150nm offshore. The night sky is spectacular offshore away from light pollution, and my crew reported seeing several meteors at night. I was fortunate enough to have the watch schedule that let me see the sunrises and sunsets.
The sight I remember the most about this passage happened late one night. I’d gotten up to in the middle of the night in some rough conditions to make some changes to the sail plan. As I was finishing I happened to look off the starboard side of the boat and see that the moon had just risen over the clouds to cast a silverly path over the ocean waves. I didn’t have a camera with me and even if I did it would never have captured the moment, but it was spectacular!
Free Energy is a near the tip of Long Island about 40nm from Newport. We expect to arrive later this morning around 11am. Free Energy has a slip reserved in Newport for the rest of the week which she will use to ride our some very nasty weather coming later in the week.
The crew will depart later in the day today and I’ll take Free Energy myself up to Boston once the weather improves using coastal rather than offshore passage making. The difference is that in costal passage making your are only underway during the day, while in offshore passage making you are generally underway 24h/day.
Offshore passage making is more challenging for a number of reasons. One of them is that I bring crew onboard for offshore passage making, ideally 3. While crew is obviously helpful while underway the logistic of scheduling crew adds a lot of complication. Crew will only be onboard for a fixed about of time dictated by the schedule of their normal lives, which means that any offshore passage will have to take place within that time. This means that we might have to be underway at time in less than ideal conditions, which certainly happened a few times in this trip.
In coastal passage making Free Energy anchors or docks by shore each night and if the weather doesn’t look good the next day Free Energy can always just wait till the weather improves to move again. Since I live aboard alone, I am not generally as constrained by schedule. I’m actually quite looking forward to using coastal passage making to make my way from Newport to Boston as there are a lot of lovely places to stop in along the way.
Having crew onboard for offshore passage making also requires leadership skill. Different crew have different skills, comfort levels and physical abilities I need to be aware of and manage. I always make sure that the each crew member is aware of what conditions they are likely to experience at the beginning the their watch, as well as keep them informed of the overall strategic choices I’m making with respect to the weather. Most importantly I make it clear that if they have any questions or concerns they should tell me about them at any time even if that means waking me up.
Free Energy is about 170nm from Newport off the coast of New Jersey. Last night was not the most comfortable night on the boat, but conditions improved as the night went on as we got ever closer to the coast. The sailing we’ve had most of the day today has been very pleasant.
We are planing to anchor near a little fishing village on the New Jersey coast this evening. This will let us avoid some nasty weather that will pass later tonight nearer to Long Island. Tomorrow morning we’ll resume heading to Newport and are currently expecting to arrive Tuesday morning.
Conditions for sailing are quite nice now and normally we would be moving by the wind and sails alone, but we are also running the motor with the sails up to boost our speed. The reason for this is the anchorage we are headed to along the New Jersey coast has a tricky entrance and I want to make it to the anchorage while it’s still light out. I also called the Boat US office that’s located in the harbor to get some local advice on how to pass the tricky part of the entrance to the harbor and now feel confident about being able to enter safely this evening.
You can think of Boat US as the equivalent of AAA (American Automobile Association) for the water. You pay an annual membership fee that’s fairly nominal and if your boat becomes disabled or needs assistance Boat US has vessels they will send out to tow or assist you. Any situation that is life threatening the Coast Guard will assist, but if you vessel is just disabled and everyone is safe you’ll need use your Boat US (or Seatow, another equivalent company) membership or pay a large fee to have them assist you if you don’t have a membership.
I used my Boat US membership last summer when Free Energy snagged a lobster pot outside of Boston. Because Free Energy was snagged on the pot I couldn’t easily bring the sails down and because the sails were up I couldn’t get into the water to free the pot because the boat would take off without me onboard. So I called Boat US and they sent a boat with a diver onboard who got there in about 1h and spend all of 15 seconds under Free Energy to get the pot off.
Free Energy is about 300nm from Newport heading north along Cape May about 40nm off the coast. We’re moving along at about 7.5kts. That is a good clip for Free Energy but we are missing the 3-4kts boost we had been getting from the Gulf Stream since we passed by Cape Hatteras earlier today. So we’ll be going somewhat slower than we have been for the rest of the journey.
The current sea state is waves of about 5ft. That somewhat rough and uncomfortable sea state, but not unsafe. I’ve included a brief video of what the sea state looks like from Free Energy’s cockpit. One thing I’ve learned however is that photos&video just don’t do a good job of conveying how it feels to be in a rough sea. The worse sea state I’ve ever been in was in the Greek Isles, but when I look at the photos that were taken they look fairly tame to me even though I was there an I know they were not.
After passing Cape Hatteras today we decided to take a slightly curved path to Newport along the east coast, rather than continue to head directly to Newport. The down side to this is it will extend our travel time to Newport by roughly 1/2 day, the upside is it gives us options to stop alone the east coast if the weather and sea state get bad. We are likely to take advantage of that upside tomorrow even and stop in a protected anchorage for the evening and let some bad weather pass that night before continuing on the next day.
Our sister ship, another Outbound 46 we had been traveling with named Stella Blue, opted to head directly to Newport from Hatteras. Stella Blue will likely get to Newport about a day ahead of Free Energy (assuming we anchor overnight tomorrow), but Free Energy will likely have a more comfortable passage. Both options are quite safe, and well within the abilities of both boats it’s just a matter of preference to choose a faster or more comfortable route.
Free Energy is a little bit south of Cape Hatteras as of this writing and about 500nm from Newport. For reasons described below we are no longer planning on heading straight to Newport but will be hugging the coast after we pass Cape Hatteras.
Last night was a rough night. Yesterday evening and through the night we had a following sea (meaning the waves came from behind the boat) that was about 5ft and a 20kt breeze also from behind. This is a recipe for making the boat roll around a lot which is very uncomfortable especially if you’re trying to sleep. So most of the crew including myself didn’t get much sleep last night. Fortunately conditions were much calmer during the day today and we were all able to catch up on some sleep during the day. Unfortunately tonight will likely be similar conditions.
So far no one has gotten sea sick. No one board is prone to getting sea sick, but poor sea states can make anyone seasick if they are bad enough. One of the keys to avoiding getting sea sick is to be as comfortable as possible aside from the motion of the boat. For this reason I run the air conditioner or heater as needed while under way to keep the cabin comfortable. We also stay well hydrated, and while we do eat we avoid foods that could make your stomach at all unhappy.
Another thing I do to avoid crew getting seasick is to have a crew complement of 4. With 4 of us total we do 3 hours watches. So after each 3 hour watch we have 9 hours off. That leaves plenty of time to sleep and relax between watches and keeps crew from getting exhausted. I know many boat who make passages with fewer crew, but I finding exhaustion to be an issue on long passages with fewer than 4 crew.
The most obvious thing to prevent sea sickness is of course not getting into rough water. We are stuck with our current sea state for the next day or so, but after that we’ll start sailing much closer to the coast. This should result in milder conditions that I’m hopeful will actually be quite pleasant!
Free Energy departed from Palm Beach, Florida heading for Newport , RI. This will be an offshore passage up the east coast with an expected passage time of around 5 days. I have 3 crew onboard in addition to myself and we’re sailing together with another Outbound 46 sailboat named Stella Blue who is also heading to Newport. Stella Blue is pictured above in the sunset photo from last night.
Currently Free Energy is passing by the border of Florida and Georgia about 100nm offshore in the middle of the Gulf Stream current and Newport is roughly ~800nm from our current position. The Gulf Stream is a wide strong current the runs up the east coast of the US until around DC and is giving a big boost to our speed while we are in it. The normal top speed of Free Energy is around 8 knots (knots stands for nautical miles per hour, often abbreviated kts), but the Gulf Stream is adding 3 to 4 knots to that right now.
Yesterday was a bit rough as there was a moderate breeze coming from the north which made it quite rough in the Gulf Stream. Last night the wind shift to come from the south, which has resulted in much more pleasant conditions. The waves are only around 2ft which is quite comfortable for seasons sailors.
Another advantage of being in the Gulf Stream is the water is warm, around 75F, which keeps the air warm. I’m currently perfectly comfortable in shorts and t-shirt out on deck. When we pull out of the Gulf Stream in a few days the ocean and air temperature will be in the 50s and I won’t be wearing shorts and T-shirt on deck for the rest of the passage.
The wind is expected to get stronger as we head further north, peaking with sustained winds around 22kts with gusts up to 30 kts. That’s a pretty stiff breeze but Free Energy will be going with the breeze and I expect she will handle those conditions just fine.
I’m keeping an eye out for Dolphins, although I haven’t seen any yet. Last year on this passage we were visited by dolphins about every other day.
