If it's Labor Day it must be Newport

We left BI (Block Island) early on Thursday the 3rd of September for our long weekend in Newport. We had been looking for a place to spend the long Labor Day Weekend where we wouldn't have to tolerate big crowds and partying. o we were able to get a slip at the Navy Marina in Newport which would afford us the opportunity to enjoy the port but also provision, get chores done and pick up some things we've been missing.

We left BI and went to Port Judith for refueling. Above is a picture of Port Judith Light House. We went to Port Judith for fuel because they were about $1.25/gal less than the fuel docks in Newport. The current was something to deal with but mostly because we had to dock with the current behind us and there were several small powerboats that we had to wait for.

After refueling we motored our way into Newport Harbor since there wasn't much wind and it was behind us. We found our slip just north of the Pell bridge and savored our success in making it to the quintessential yachting town in North America for a busy visit. Now that we are ready to leave it would have been nice to stay longer but winter is coming.

We split our time between errands, chores and sightseeing. We rented a car one day that enabled us to do shopping and get some needed parts for the boat. since this was our first visit to a dock in about 2 weeks we took advantage to do some chores that we had deferred. I was able to get the engine oil changed but that meant I had to dispose of the oil. But after this stop we are ready for another couple weeks that should get us back to Oxford and the final repairs that we should need before getting to where we need to be after our major refitting of the boat that we did last year.

In between our working we did some sightseeing. We biked down to Fort Adams which is a primary fixture on the Newport waterfront and one of the largest coastal fortifications built in the US. Today we hiked the larger portion of the Cliff Walk between the Newport mansions and the cliffs down to the oceans. We could easily spend more time here and it's easy to see why many people do.

Tomorrow we leave for Stonington, CT and Mystic as we work our way south and west on our way back to the Chesapeake before heading south again. The weather is getting cooler and we need to be getting to warmer weather.

New England has been wonderful. Beautiful scenery, great food, pleasant cruising but the coast is very cold. Today was a "scorcher" inland but we'll put the heat on tonight.

So on to Connecticut.

A Block Island state of mind

The three days here on Block Island have been incredible fun. But, the calendar moves on and so must we. Tomorrow we leave for Newport for the long weekend, to do some boat chores and reprovision for our trip through Long Island Sound.

The 2 lighthouses. Top is the southeastern and lower is the northern. Both were among the first lighthouses built in the US.

The past 2 days we spent exploring the island on our compact bikes to see the sights and enjoy some down time on the wonderful beaches. The water is extremely clear but cold. It is about 10 degrees colder than in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. We saw that on the way over. Nantucket and the Vineyard have the influence of the Gulfstream. BI is firmly entrenched in cold water like most of Maine was. The water here is about 10 degrees warmer than Maine. In Maine the water was about 60. Here it is <70 and on Nantucket it was <80. To stay in for any length of time requires a wet suit.

We also took the opportunity to enjoy some of the local eateries at lunch while we were out and about. Many great places to eat but the best place is back on the boat because it's easier to keep to our diet. When we go out we have bad things like lobster and pizza. But all things in moderation.

So we were able to get some good exercise and see some very beautiful scenery. Most of this week the island hasn't been too crowded since prime vacation season is over although it will fill up for the long weekend coming.

We could see spending more time here in future summers.

So many places to enjoy, so little time.Now, on to Newport.

Getting here and our first day on Block island

We left Nantucket very early Sunday because we knew it would be a long trip to Block Island. In addition to being long it was slow and tiring. We left Nantucket on a falling tide but it soon turned and we began slogging our way against current that would last for most of the day. Additionally, there wasn't much wind in the morning but as we rounded the top of Martha's Vineyard it built and stayed int he 15-20 kt range most of the day. If we could have sailed it would have been great but it was not even far enough off the nose that the sails could be much help. The heavy winds also generated heavy chop which was also right on the nose. So slogging against the tide, wind and chop we could only motor about 5 kts when we usually zip along between 7-8 kts.

Sunday was a busy day on the water for the Coast Guard and rescue agencies. For most of the afternoon the radio hummed with crisis conversations from boaters in crisis to rescuers feverishly trying to locate them. At one point there was even a "mayday" call because of a power boat on fire. It was one of the busiest I can recall.

So we made it into Block Island just before sunset and were able to get a mooring which is unusual in the summer. But, we're finding that the summer crowds have gone since kids are back in school making this week a little more pleasant with fewer obnoxious events occurring around us.

Since we didn't make our usual Sunday breakfast on Sunday we made it today on Monday. We started the day slow and relaxing to make up for yesterday. After getting caught up we dinghied ashore to explore.

Just down the road from the marina was the Harbor View Inn. A very classical looking group of buildings with commanding views of the center low part of the island.

Several views of downtown.

And a couple of the beach. Can't believe anyone is in the water. It's only 70.

Boating is really a small world

Last week while sailing down to the Vineyard another boat called us and we began a conversation that led to mutual friendship. Seems that there in Buzzard's Bay and a region far removed we found a couple who lived less than a mile from where we used to live. Turns out they keep their boat in the same marina we used to keep our boats in and they know other people from the marina that we know.

This isn't the first time we've run into people who know other people we know.

But tonight I was searching the USCG Vessel Documentation website to see if our previous boat name change documentation had been processed. Because on the Marinetraffic.com website it still reports our old boat under the name Amekaya. The buyers told us they were changing the name to Papagayo. Turns out there is a boat on the mooring next to us named Papagayo. But it was a fairly big Beneteau and of course our 380 was an Island Packet.

While looking through the listings that came up for Papagayo I came across one that had as a former name "Joss." Joss was the name of a Beneteau 50 just down the dock from us in Herrington Harbour, Deale, Md. that belonged to a friend of ours who was selling his boat at the same time we were selling our 380. He also was very interested in buying our boat once he sold his.

Well fast forward. We sold our boat before he sold his and he didn't get to buy our boat.

So I looked at the information in the listing and the boat on the mooring next to us had the same hailing port as the one listed for the former Joss. This evening when the owners returned I went over and confirmed it is the same boat.

Here we are hundreds of miles away and we through chance end up on a mooring next to a boat that we lived almost next door to for a couple years. We knew the boat having seen it many times, had been in it and the biggest coincidence is that the buyer's of Joss and our boat both renamed their boats the same name.

What a small world. The former Joss and the former Amekaya that once lived on the same dock are now Papagayo.

Last day in Nantucket

Hard to believe we've been here 3 nights and spent a fair amount of time ashore. Nantucket is a wonderful places and really feels like an island. It has a touch of Key West to it. All the activity around the docks from the ferries coming in frequently during the day with cars, trucks and lots of passengers. Many of their passengers just come for the day.

It is of course very interesting and different traveling around to these places in our house. Because we're here to sight see but at the same time we have all of our regular chores to do along with maintenance and repairs. The last few times we ran the generator it didn't sound right. It seemed that not enough cooling water was coming out the exhaust. So common wisdom is to replace the impellor which is the wheel inside the pump that pushes the cooling water through the system. So yesterday I dug around and found one of my spare impellors and this morning I opened up everything to get in to do the work.But before I did I wanted to check the water flow into the pump.

I pulled the hose off the pump and no water came out when water should be running out. I had just cleaned the strainer a week ago so I knew that was clean so I took off the hose going into the strainer and likewise only a trickle of water was coming through. I tried to blow air through it to unblock it but after a half-hour of trying gave up. I would have to go under the keel and see if the intake as blocked. But it was early and cold with lots of current flowing so we decided to  go to town and go diving later. This evening I dove on the boat and found a huge clump of seagrass forced into the intake and on two dives was able to pull it all out and the generator runs fine.

We went to town this morning and visited the oldest house on the island the Jethro Coffin House which was originally built in 1686. We toured the house and had a lovely conversation with our guide who now lives here having moved here from North Carolina.

We had lunch at a very well reviewed place called Something Natural and it was packed. We even bought a loaf of their bread that is just like home made but from their bakery.

We walked around through the historic district an stopped and visited the Wind Mill that was first built in 1746 to grind corn. Had an excellent discussion with the tour guide who was also the speaker at the Whaling Museum yesterday on the Sinking of the Essex. The Essex was a Nantucket whaler that got attacked and sunk by a whale that was the inspiration for the classic Moby Dick. But we got a thorough explanation of how the mill ran.

Tonight we are getting ready to sail out in the morning early for our long trip back to Block Island.Wind forecast is for dead on the nose so we'll see. Would like to sail but it's a long trip. About the same as Rockland to Harpswell a couple weeks ago in Maine. The Newport after BI.

 Sunset and full moon rising.

First day in Nantucket

What a beautiful day on this lovely island. Our anchor held well overnight with all the turning from the wind and current so after a leisurely breakfast and some chores we dinghied to town to see the Whaling Museum other sites.

The Whaling Museum had exhibits and artifacts from the time that Nantucket was considered the whaling capital of the world. Their ships covered the globe whaling and especially for the Pacific Sperm Whale because of the high quality oil it held in its head cavity. This was used in lamps, machinery and for medicinal purposes. Other whale oil made from blubber was used in candles and other things.

The museum is very interesting and as we belong to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum we had reciprocal privileges.

Sitting here in the cockpit tonight looking at a nearly full moon over the water it is always magical.It's really funny. We live on the water and spend most of our days on the water and when we're ashore we want to sit by the water. Its beautiful. That's why everyone want to own property by the water, vacation by the water and part of the reason we are doing what we're doing.

It's interesting that this island feels like an island. Not like Martha's Vineyard. This is a lot like the Bahamian islands or the Keys. In fact, here they talk about going back to America when they refer to the mainland. It is a world apart.

Tomorrow more of Nantucket after we do some boat chores in the morning preparing for our move to Block Island on Sunday.  

Exploring the southern coast

We were able to leave the Kingman Yacht Center where we spent our night after the Cape Cod Canal. On the way into dinner we met a family in the marina launch and discussed our plans. He asked if we were planning on going through Woods Hole on our way to the Vineyard and we said we were.

View of Woods Hole as we left it.

He then cautioned us about many issues. The cut through there it seems is much like many of the passages in the Bahamas. They have trick currents, confusing navigational marks (if they have marks) and hidden obstacles that could pose severe risk. So we spent a bit of time studying the charts and determined that slack water would be about 1130 in the morning so we would cross then. We did and the weather was perfect so we had an uneventful passage and saved probably 15 miles from going through the next good passage through the chain of islands that extend southwestward from Cape Cod.

The Edgartown Light.

We motored the short 11 miles from Woods Hole to Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard because there wasn't much wind and a menacing looking storm cloud that could present serious issues if the sails were up. About half way to Edgartown we got into some heavy rain that lasted about 20 minutes and then cleared off. But between Woods Hole and Martha's Vineyard there was very heavy commercial traffic and large pleasure craft running back and forth so constant lookout was required.

Views around the Sound.

We arrived in Martha's Vineyard and took our assigned mooring. We planned to be here or a few days to let a front pass and explore this legendary place. After walking through town it was obvious a few days would not be enough but that's true everywhere. The streets were thronging with tourists and summer residents. This is where many of the scenes for "Jaws" was filmed portraying the legendary town of "Amity."

Today we took our bikes to shore and the rode the ferry over to Chappaquiddick Island where there was far less traffic and beautiful unspoiled rural scenery. We biked out legendary Dike Road and across the bridge where a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne died in 1969 while allegedly in a car with Ted Kennedy. The beach is part of a natural preserve and was our first beach since the Bahamas. Since we got north this is the first water warm and clean enough to swim in.

When we entered the Cape Cod Canal we saw a boat that we had seen elsewhere. We saw it again when we approached Woods Hole and they called us on the radio. Turns out they have retired but still live in Reston  probably less than a mile from where we lived and they kept their boat in the same marina we used to use. So Monday night we met them for happy hour and tonight they invited us over to their boat for drinks with some other friends who we met several years ago when we took our 380 south and also kept their boat at Herrington Harbour. Cruising is really a small world and yu get to know folks fast.

Tomorrow on to Nantucket.

The Chappy Store complete with auto parts.

The Chappy Ferry.