Bird Island Sail

Voyage #9

Family First Sail - Bird Island - Jib + Main

Fri., 20 June 2014

~3h30' (17:09-20:26)

9.0 nm; Ave 2.4 kts

Today marked out first full sail: wife and her kids aboard, under both mainsail and jib.  Skipper and Mate left the house a little early, rowing out to the boat to make preparations.  We were to pick up the Admiral and the Admiral's Daughter on Dexter's Dock within the hour.  As Dylan busied himself with the usual pre-departure procedures, I attached fenders (bumpers) and readied dock lines.  The VIPs arrived a bit earlier than expected, yet waited patiently on the dock for us to bring over the boat.  This was only my second docking maneuver, and the first since the launch.  Everything was going splendidly as we approached the dock, until I tossed a line to the Admiral.  As for what followed, well, let's just say that I had one plan in mind for this procedure, while the Admiral had another.  I might also add that Admirals don't like to take orders.  But that dog is sleeping now; best to just let it lie....

Once our VIPs were aboard, just after 5:00pm, we headed out to run down the river into the bay.  Winds were out of the south at about 10-12 knots, with waves 1-2 feet, as we reached 'Red 6' and raised the mainsail for the first time.  What a great feeling to have both sails set as we tacked southwestward.  In less than an hour we had sailed down to Bird Island, a familiar local landmark at the entrance to Marion's Sippican Harbor.

Bird Island

Bird Island, covering about 1.5 acres, hosts a historic lighthouse that once helped mark the approach to the Cape Cod Canal (which recently celebrated its centennial).  It now functions mainly to warn mariners of the rocks around Butler Point such as "Centerboard Shoal" (Ouch!).

Bird Island Light

The Admiral and I visited Bird Island, by kayak, a few years ago during a relatively balmy day in early November.  Although we had not known at the time, Bird Island is off-limits each May through August, when it serves as a sanctuary for an 'endangered' population of Roseate tern (Sterna dougallii).  Once common throughout the greater region, these birds were hunted to near extinction for their plumage, which was used for hats.  More than half the Massachusetts population of these colony-nesting, plunge-diving migratory marine feeders inhabit Bird Island during the summer months (for more on the Roseate tern, click here; for the Buzzards Bay Tern Restoration Project, click here).

Roseate Tern

Bird Island is perhaps better known for its historic lighthouse, over ten meters high, said to be among the oldest original lighthouses, built in 1819.  Deactivated in 1933, the light and its outbuildings on the island were battered by the 1938 New England Hurricane, which only the light tower survived.  Subsequently sold off by the federal government, the town of Marion acquired the property in 1966.  The light tower was restored in 1976, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.  The light was reactivated in 1997, with a solar-powered automated system currently operates as a private aid to navigation, flashing 0.6 seconds every six seconds (Fl 6s PRIV).

Bird Island Light

(original Lantern Room)

Several tales of the macabre have centered around Bird Island through the years.  Some legends of curses and hauntings relate back to the mysterious fate of the wife of the first lighthouse keeper, William S. Moore, a veteran of the War of 1812 (for more on Bird Island Light, including some of its ghost tales, click here).  It also featured in Randal Peffer's novel Listen to the Dead (2010), a murder mystery based on the unsolved 1988 serial killings in nearby New Bedford (for more, click here).  

Poetic License: That is not actually Bird Island Light on the cover...

Rather eerily, when we kayaked out there that November and walked about the island, we found it littered with bones.  It was creepy, for everywhere you stepped you crushed bones.  I reassured the wife that they were bird bones, but what do I know?  I never studied comparative anatomy.

We came about and headed back up the bay on a broad reach.  The Admiral took the helm for a while.  Astern of us, bound for the Canal, was a towering merchant vessel.  A quick look at my MarineTraffic app ($4.99) identified the ship via AIS as the Green Lake, headed from Baltimore to Boston (via Davisville, RI, and Sandwich, MA).  Built in 1998, this leviathan was nearly 200 meters long, with over 57,000 gross tonnage, and had a top speed of almost 18 knots.  We made sure to stay well clear of the canal approach channel.

Green Lake

Once we reached Wings Cove, the Admiral allocated sandwiches from a deli in Mattapoisett.  Dylan would not eat his (to no one's surprise); he subsists largely on Capri Sun juice packs, popsicles, Oreos, and Goldfish crackers.

Sun going down over the starboard quarter.  Lauryn at the helm.