August 1
Today is Barb's birthday. Not just any old birthday, but her 50th. You might think that would get her some special treatment and a day off from boat chores. Then you don't know the Captain. She gets to skip the daily flogging, but she still has to swab the decks. Actually, she could have done or not done anything she wanted. She must have been having some cigarette cravings though because she was a cleaning fool, polishing stainless, scrubbing the deck and vacuuming below. She also tackled doing four loads of laundry. The laundry is a fair hike from the boat and there is only one washer and one dryer, so she walked several miles to get the job done.
I figured I better pitch in a little too, so I attacked a job that has been needed for months. While sitting for a month in St. Augustine, we grew a substantial fringe around the waterline of the boat. While I was swimming around it the other day at Fisher's Island, I realized that it wasn't just a three inch wide band of seaweed, but also an inch wide band of barnacles. This happens because the boat sits lower in the water than the designed waterline, and the anti-fouling bottom paint ends a few inches underwater. This is especially true on the bow since with all our storage in the bow, we are a little bow heavy. Anyway, I bought a three inch putty knife and took to scraping. I moved the boat in the slip so I could lie on the dock and scrape. It all came off easier than I expected, although I got several nicks on my hands from the barnacles. I used the dinghy to do the other side, so now there is no fringe.
I also finished the wiring project today. I continued pulling the new wire from the helm to the breaker panel, and hooked it up. I then disconnected the shore power, turned on everything I could, including the a/c running off the batteries, to draw down the voltage as low as I could. I turned on the auto pilot, turned on the backlighting for the instruments, and kept making the auto pilot drive the rudder. In the past, this was when the display would reset. I could not make it reset, so I am cautiously optimistic that the problem is solved. I'll believe it after we have been offshore a couple times.
The big event of the day was a little birthday party that Jack & Carol put on for Barb. They bought a cake and invited several of their marina friends. We sat on the dock, ate snacks, drank, told stories and had cake, for several hours. It was very kind of them to do that for Barb. They also got Barb a DVD for a birthday present. We had a DVD of Spanglish, that may have been an unauthorized copy. We tried to watch it a week ago, and it quit playing after a few minutes. We had related this to Jack and Carol earlier in the week, so they got us a real copy.
GPS N 41-19.230 W 071-59.690 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5887.
August 2
The cleaning continues. Now that the fringe is gone from the waterline, I had to clean the ICW mustache off the hull. I know I have explained the ICW mustache before, but to recap - the water in the Atlantic ICW is very, very, very brown. It looks like iced tea or Coca Cola. This is primarily from rain water filtering through dead leaves and such on it's way to the waterway. When we were in St. Augustine, we paid big bucks to a guy to compound and wax the hull and topsides. I had hoped that the wax would keep us from getting the ICW mustache this year. Well, it probably wasn't quite as bad as last year, but it was still very noticeable. So, I used a new product we found that is a gel. You rub it on with a sponge and it makes the stain disappear. It worked very well, although I found dealing with the gel a little harder than the brush on stuff we have used before. Now we have a nice white hull again. The boat hasn't looked this good in a long time.
The new mainsail got here about noon, and Jack was good enough to bring it down to the slip for me. I decided to wait until tomorrow morning to put it on though, since there is a good breeze blowing from astern today. I don't feel like wrestling a big sail and with the wind trying to pin it against the rigging.
Rob, a young man who works at the marina is repainting the name on the sides of the boat. He does general labor around the boatyard, and runs the launch to the mooring field some days. He is doing this painting for us "on the side". Today is one of his launch driving days, but being a weekday it's pretty quiet, so he's painting between calls. By the end of the day, he had one side done and it looks great.
We met a guy named Jeff, who lives on the next dock at Barb's little birthday gathering. He has a DSL line to the boat with a wireless connection, and was good enough to let me use his connection to upload the last website update. The marina is in a cell dead zone, so I have not been able to get a good enough connection on my air-card to do it. In getting to know him I learned he is a computer guy from the mainframe days of old just like we are. He currently is developing a website for people who want to go cruising called SmartCaptain.com
We also made contact with the canvas shop about repairing our screens. They can do it, but not before we leave Friday, so we are going to leave them and swing back through here in a few weeks and pick them up.
Today's big event was hooking up with my old childhood friend Paul for the evening. Paul and I met when we were about four years old. We lived a half mile apart and were in the same class in school. Since graduating from high school, we have been about as geographically apart as you can be, but we have stayed in touch and have seen each other every three or four years, usually just for a dinner. Paul came to the marina about 18:00 and found the Texas boat with no problem. I have seen him a couple of times since I've owned the boat, but this is the first time he had seen the boat. Paul has been into racing sailboats, big and small, all his adult life, so I quickly pointed out that "this is NOT a racing sailboat". We visited for about an hour and then went out to dinner. Since Paul had wheels, we went further than the marina restaurant. We went to Water Street Grill in Stonington, based on a recommendation from Jack & Carol. Thanks to their directions, we found it with no problem. Stonington is a typical quaint New England town and the restaurant is on the main street. We were seated in one of the front window tables. We started with two dozen steamed clams, something I hadn't had since I left NY in 1975. We then had great dinners. Barb had a filet mignon, and I had the best tuna I have had in quite awhile. We took our time and enjoyed the company and the place before heading home.
Back at the boat, Paul walked back with us and we chatted a little longer before he had to leave to drive an hour or so to where he is currently working. It was great to see him and maybe we'll hook up with him again before we leave the area.
GPS N 41-19.230 W 071-59.690 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5887.
August 3
This morning, the plan was to get the mainsail on the boat first thing when the wind is normally calm. I awoke just about dawn to the sound of a pretty good breeze blowing. I looked outside and it was blowing over ten knots already, so I went back to bed. We got up after 08:00 and decided that we would have to point into the wind to hoist the sail. We have to change slips today anyway, so we'll move first, then hoist the sail. With our slip assignment confusion Sunday, the slip we ended up in is due to be re-occupied by it's seasonal owners Friday. So we told the office we would move to the original slip we were assigned before then.
We untied and backed out of the slip with the wind blowing on our port quarter. The fairways in this marina are not very wide, and I was not able to back out in one maneuver. We did a few back and forths and finally got going the right way without hitting anything. We backed out the fairway and moved over to the other side of the same dock. We originally wanted to back in the new slip so Rob could paint the name on the other side of the boat, but we need to point into the wind to raise the sail. So we went in the new slip bow first. A couple of guys who just happened to be walking down the dock took our lines and we got tied up.
Raising the sail wasn't too much trouble. Barb winched while I fed the edge of the sail into the furling tube. We got it near the top and it seemed we were not going to able to get it all the way up. After thinking about it a minute I realized the problem. The problem looked like the luff was cut too short, but the real problem was that we had not released the main sheet any, so the boom was tight against the bimini top. With the old sail this worked, probably because it was stretched so much. We released the mainsheet and then were able to hoist the sail the rest of the way. We then furled it up and we no longer have the banging of the furling tube in the mast. Nice.
Shortly after we finished the sail, Rob showed up to continue painting. I asked him if he had a minute to spare and handle lines for us and he did. We backed out of the slip, this time in one movement, backed down the fairway, turned a tight circle (backwards) out in the main basin, backed back in the fairway and into the slip stern to. I know I've mentioned before about how the majority of sailboats don't back up well. Two other guys on their sailboats watched this little demonstration in awe. Rob took our lines and we were secure stern to.
During the course of the day Rob got the name done on the other side of the boat. It looks great. The other thing I did was put new zincs on the propeller shaft. I got all my SCUBA gear out and did it myself. In the past I have paid somebody else to do this, but it's not that big a deal when you can see what you are doing.
Carol took Barb to the grocery store and we got reprovisioned to take off tomorrow. The evening brought a brief but strong thunderstorm. Tomorrow we plan to head to Block Island and points east.
GPS N 41-19.230 W 071-59.690 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5887.
August 4
We awoke to an overcast day. Mid morning, Rob came over and finished the repainting by doing the hailing port on the stern. I filled our water tanks and started making sure all the little things were done to prepare to leave this afternoon. It's amazing how fast things get out of traveling order when you spend a week at a dock.
Around noon we went up to the Seahorse for our last lunch there. We have learned the sandwiches are huge, so this time we wisely decided to split one of their chicken sandwiches. We got back to the boat just in time for another line of rain to come through the area. It didn't amount to much and was over in about fifteen minutes. When the rain started, we decided to watch our new copy of Spanglish. We have found that our portable DVD player, which we plug into the TV seems to have bit the dust. Even with the new DVD, it won't play. But, we were able to play it on Barb's computer (which wouldn't play the old copy either), and we plugged in our good external speakers, so it was probably better than watching it on the TV anyway. Our departure today is based on Jack getting off work, which will be about 16:00. We finished the movie just before that and came outside just as Carol was walking down the dock to see if we were ready.
We left the dock about 16:30 and followed Jack & Carol on Reach out of Spicer's Marina. Block Island is only twenty miles from here, so even leaving this late, we should be there before dark. The current is against us, and the wind is almost non-existent, so as usual we motored the whole way. There was just enough wind to let us unfurl our new mainsail and show it of. Not that anybody except us and Reach would know it was new. I did have a little trouble getting the sail unfurled though. I assumed it was jamming, perhaps because the new one might be a heavier material or maybe I just didn't furl it tightly. Turned out the bulk of the problem was that I didn't notice that the rope clutch on the furling line wasn't releasing completely, so the line was fighting me.
Against the current we were only making a little over five knots, so the twenty miles took almost four hours. As we were approaching the entrance to the Great Salt Pond on Block Island, we watched the sun set below the horizon behind us. There were clouds on the horizon, so no green flash this time. We got inside the harbor and looked for a place to anchor. There are ninety town moorings for rent, but at this late hour, they were all full. There are another couple of hundred of private and yacht club moorings that we can't use. The north half of the pond is almost all available for anchoring, but it was also very crowded. There are probably over seven hundred boats here. Reach found a spot in about thirty feet of water and dropped their hook. We went a little further in to where there seemed to be a nice space between boats and dropped ours. When I left the helm to drop the anchor, we were in thirty feet of water, so I put out one hundred and fifty feet of chain (5:1) which is a minimum ratio. Barb later told me that by the time I dropped the hook, the depth had gone to twenty feet, so I probably have too much out. But for now we are spaced nicely between the other boats.
We both launched our dinghies and headed to shore at The Boat Basin. The Boat Basin is one of the three marinas here, and also has a small grocery and a restaurant/bar called The Oar. We headed for The Oar for dinner and beer. The Oar is decorated on all the walls and from the ceiling with oars that people have put the names on. It is very similar to the mementos at Boo Boo Hill in the Exumas, or the t-shirts at Foxy's in the BVI, except it is all wooden oars. Since it was about 21:00, we got a table right away, although the place was still very crowded. We happened to be seated by another couple Jack & Carol know. As we found out, since they have lived in the area for years, and have been coming to Block Island for years, and since Jack is in the boat business, they know a lot of boaters.
One of the things The Oar is known for is the fact that they serve $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon draft beer. I didn't know PBR was still brewed. It has always been one of the choices of cheap beer drinkers since I was a kid. We ordered beer and food. While we were waiting for the food, I was looking around at the oars and reading the names and slogans on them. The dates on them go back to the 70's. Across the room, at the end of the bar, I noticed one that had the paddle portion of the oar cut into the shape of a foot. Before I got up and went to read it, I knew it had to belong to our friends Bobby & Francie on Barefootin'. I got up to get a closer look and sure enough it was theirs. I whipped out the camera and got a picture of it. After we ate and had a couple more beers, we headed back to the boats. I checked e-mail before turning in, and had one from Barefootin'. They knew we were coming here and wondered if we could look for their paddle and get a picture of it. They apparently just left it with the bartender and didn't know if or where it got hung. What a coincidence since I just took a picture.
While we were off the boat for dinner, the wind changed a little, and we were now a little close to one of the sailboats near us. I crossed my fingers and hoped we would be good, and we went to bed. About 01:15, I awoke and looked out the window in the transom, at the head of the bed, and saw the boat next to us about ten feet away. We were pointing the same direction but we were back alongside them and very close. I immediately woke Barb and went on deck to move us. After surveying the situation, and since I now knew we were only in twenty feet, not thirty, where we dropped the hook, I decided not to really move, but just to pull in some of the anchor chain. I went to the bow, and quietly pulled in fifty feet, leaving about a hundred out. One of those things a boater would rather not do is be the one who has to re-anchor in a crowded anchorage in the middle of the night. Moving anchor chain makes a very distinct noise, so I was extra careful to do this all quietly. But, I was now a little concerned about our swinging, so I stayed up in the cockpit while Barb went back to bed. It took over an hour, but I finally convinced myself that we were not moving, and that we would not hit any of the other boats.
While I was sitting in the cockpit, about 02:00, a dinghy with three guys in it came by, with a flashlight, looking for their boat. This is just a wild guess on my part, but I think there may have been a little alcohol involved in their recent past. They never noticed me sitting in the cockpit as they circled MoonSail. They were sober enough to take time out of their hunt for their boat to admire our davits and arch on the back of the boat. They stopped at the back of the boat and shined their light around commenting on it. Then they continued the hunt. They circled the same six boats several times and didn't seem to realize that they kept passing the same ones. I kept hearing them say things like "we anchored near the white sailboat" , and "we anchored just offshore near a house". That's like saying we left something on the ground next to a black and white bird, in a flock of penguins. Neither of those would help narrow down the search. Over the course of fifteen minutes they passed me a half dozen times and then disappeared in the distance. By 03:00, I had dozed off, and at 04:00 Barb came above and woke me. We seemed secure, so I went below and back to sleep.
GPS N 41-11.418 W 071-34.576 Nautical miles traveled today 20. Total miles 5907.
August 5
We slept a little late since the night was disturbed. We got up a little before 09:00, and as soon as I was up, I heard a guy yelling "Andiamo" in the distance. We had been warned about this and knew what it was. Aldo's Bakery runs a boat around the anchorage each morning and each evening selling tasty baked goods. I went above and waved at him to come over and bought two large cinnamon rolls and a loaf of Portuguese sweet bread. We had been told that one of Aldo's scams was that if you needed change, he'd give you another danish instead of change. But I was ready and had the right change. The timing was perfect as our coffee had just finished and the rolls were great. In the evening he sells pies and more dessert things, but we never tried his evening fare.
About 11:00, Jack & Carol called and we agreed to meet them at the dinghy dock. The dinghy dock is at the Boat Basin and accommodates a lot of dinghies. But, if you're not there early, which we weren't, you double park. That means you make a second row, climb through the dinghy in front of you, and tie your line very loose so people in the front row can move your dinghy to get out if they leave before you.
We walked into "town" from the Boat Basin, which is a little over a mile. Where we are anchored is New Harbor, on the west side of the island. Old Harbor is on the east side and is where most of the large ferries from the mainland come. Old Harbor is where the bulk of the hotels, shops, and restaurants are located. We walked down the main street and looked in a few of the shops. We decided that we want to go to a concert tomorrow, being held on the lawn of one of the hotels, so we walked to the Spring House to buy tickets. The performer is John Hiatt who was Jimmy Buffett's first guitar player. Jimmy has recorded several of Hiatt's songs, like The Tiki Hut Is Open, and Windows On The World, and Radio Margaritaville plays him frequently. We got general admission seats, which normally I would not do since I like having an assigned seat, but this is a small venue, on a little island, so I'm hoping it won't be that crowded.
On the way to Spring House we passed a couple of other nice old New England-style inns and houses. In the pictures there are pictures of a private residence named The White House, which it is. There is also one of another good sized hotel that has a flock of Canadian Geese on the lawn. I guess they decided not to go all the way to Canada this summer.
We then walked back into town and had lunch at the Mohegan Cafe & Brewpub. We sat at the bar since there was a wait for tables. One of this places claims to fame is that it is air conditioned. Most places, including the old hotels are not. Since the temperature here rarely gets very hot, and there is usually a nice breeze from the sea, this is not a problem. But, since we had been walking awhile, we wanted cold air. We had a nice lunch and a couple of local brews.
We decided it was too far to walk back to the Boat Basin, so we went across the street to where taxis wait for the ferry passengers. We got in the next cab, which was Polly's. The cabs here are similar to the Bahamas, in that they are all locally owned minivans. Once you find one you like, you get their card and use them for your entire trip. Polly took us back to the Boat Basin, and in just the few minutes we were in her van, we got to know her and like her "local color". She is a full time island resident and has been here all her life.
We dinghied back out to the boats and agreed to meet on Reach later for cocktails. Sometime in the early evening we went over there and met another couple they know from the Mystic area. The six of us sat around and chatted and consumed adult beverages until well after dark when we returned to MoonSail.
GPS N 41-11.418 W 071-34.576 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5907.
August 6
The night was much better than the previous one, and I got a good night's sleep. We have turned around in a full circle plus some, over the last twenty-four hours and didn't hit anybody. As I enjoyed my coffee in the cockpit, I kept thinking we were slowly moving backwards between the two boats on either side of us. I went up to the anchor and watched the chain. As the wind blew us back and the chain tightened, it looked to me as if it went slack instead of the boat coming back forward. This would indicate that the anchor was not really set and was slowly being dragged along the bottom. I couldn't stand it anymore and I had Barb start the motor and pull back on the anchor to see if it dragged or we were set. The chain pulled up taught as if we were set and I signaled here to kill the engine. It seems we are ok, but I'm still a little nervous about leaving the boat.
Being Sunday, the restaurants cannot serve alcohol before noon. So we had arranged last night to meet Jack & Carol at the dock at noon for lunch before we go to the John Hiatt concert at Spring Hill. Jack called me about 10:00 to let me now that they had bumped the boat next to them last night, so they were going to move to their yacht club's mooring which was empty. Unfortunately, they can't raft a non-member to them when they use the club mooring, so we couldn't join them there. But, I had been looking through my binoculars and I thought I could see a couple of town moorings empty. I could see the Harbormaster's boat out in the mooring field so I called him on the VHF to ask if there were any open moorings. He said there were a couple, so we immediately weighed anchor and headed over there. Reach was also on the way to their mooring, but they stopped and picked up an empty town mooring first, and held it for us. You have to understand that when it's this crowded an empty mooring is usually picked up in minutes. So Reach hung on the town mooring until we got there a couple minutes later. They dropped it and we were right there to pick it up. They went over to their club mooring and we were all set. The Harbormaster boat came by within ten minutes and we paid him for three days on the mooring.
We met Jack & Carol at the dinghy dock at noon and we called Polly, our taxi lady, for a ride to town. We went to The Beach Head for lunch. We had another nice lunch and ran into Bill from the boat Blue Jacket, whom Jack & Carol had also met in Marsh Harbor. Bill and his wife live on Block Island and spend the winters in Marsh Harbor. After we finished lunch, Bill was kind enough to give us a ride in the back of his pickup to Spring Hill for the show. The four of us were in the back of the pickup, sitting on the edges of the bed, like you should never do. As we slowly went down the main street of town, a local police car coming the other way cut into our lane a little and stopped with his hand out the window signaling us to stop. He chastised us for sitting on the edge of the bed and told us to sit down on the floor. He was probably surprised to see it was a bunch of old folks instead of kids.
There are two acts before John Hiatt, so Bill dropped us off and will be back about the time Hiatt starts. We found a nice spot on the top level of the three-tier lawn where we had a good breeze and were straight back from the stage. The temperature was in the high seventies, the sky was clear, and the breeze was blowing. It was a great afternoon. Even though we don't have any John Hiatt CD's, we recognized many songs since we hear him on Radio Margaritaville frequently. Bill did join us about the time Hiatt started to play, and after the show was over he offered us a ride back to the Boat Basin. This time we sat down in the back, and he took us the long way around the southern end of the island so we could see a little different scenery. Jack & Carol have been coming to Block Island for twenty years, but it was new to Barb & I.
Back at the Boat Basin, we dropped our chairs in our dinghies and then went back to The Oar for a few $1 PBR's. Later we went back to the boats, and then Jack & Carol joined us on MoonSail for a snacky dinner and rum drinks.
GPS N 41-11.418 W 071-34.576 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5907.
August 7
This morning, we relaxed on the boat until about 11:00 when we met Jack & Carol on the dock. We called Polly and asked her to take us to Mohegan Bluffs. There are two lighthouses on the island, the Southeast Light and the Northwest Light. The Southeast Light is at Mohegan Bluffs, which rise about a hundred and fifty feet above the ocean. At Mohegan Bluffs you have the lighthouse, and there is a staircase of about a hundred and fifty steps down to the beach. Polly asked Jack if they had ever been to the second lookout. He didn't think so, so she took us there first. The second lookout is an unmarked dirt road that takes you to a point overlooking the ocean and the bluffs. From here you can clearly see the Southwest Light, the staircase, and the beach. Polly explained that most tourists don't ever find this place, and she joined us in walking the couple hundred feet from the parking area to the overlook. After we took some pictures, she took us on down to the staircase and dropped us off.
We hiked down the staircase to the beach. The stairs actually end quite a bit before the beach and you have to get down a rocky area on your own. We walked along the beach to Fort Therapy. Fort Therapy is a hut that was built by a visitor in 1999 from the remains of a wrecked fishing boat. It has been added to over the years by visitors with floats and other stuff. In the past year it has collapsed some so it now looks more like a pile of junk than a hut, but you can still crawl inside if you're not worried about it coming the rest of the way down around you.
After some time on the beach we began the hike back up the staircase. It was a lot easier going down. Once at the top, we walked a couple hundred yards down the road to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is being restored and they offer tours to the top, but we didn't partake. While everybody else rested on the porch, I walked across the lawn to the bluff to get a good picture. I noticed lots of droppings on the lawn which I thought were from dogs. I thought it was a little odd that there were that many small dogs walked here. I later learned that the droppings were from those pesky Canadian Geese. While I was taking the pictures, Jack, Carol, and Barb started walking across the lawn to where I was. I told Barb to wave for the camera and she did, while never taking her eyes off the lawn to avoid stepping in anything.
We walked back to town from Southwest Light, which is a mile and a half. Since we were hot from walking that far, we went to the Mohegan Cafe again for lunch. Remember, they're air conditioned. We had another good meal there. After lunch, we walked across the street to Ballard's Beach Bar. Ballard's is a large restaurant, an outside bar with afternoon entertainment, and they have waitress service on their beach. We sat at the outside bar and listened to a singer do classic rock songs for an hour or so. Ballard's is right by the main ferry dock where the taxis wait. As we walked across the parking lot to get a cab back to the Boat Basin, Polly was the first cab in line. She dropped us at Payne's marina, right next to the Boat Basin, where we were going to check out another bar. But, there was no breeze at all in the bar area, so we walked across the lawn to The Oar where we had a few PBR's before going out to the boats.
After showers, we went over to Reach for evening cocktails. While there we discussed our future plans in the area with Jack & Carol since they have cruised these waters for years.
GPS N 41-11.418 W 071-34.576 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5907.
August 8
Jack & Carol are heading back to Noank today. We dinghied by their boat about 10:00 to bid them farewell for now. We will stop back through there in a couple of weeks, but they have to go back to work. We went to shore and rented two bicycles. We are going to go to the Northeast Light which is over four miles from here. I thought bikes would be cool rather than a cab and they would give us the option to stop along the way to see things. We got the bikes and headed out. We were about a mile along when Barb said she had to stop. We stopped in a shady spot and rested for a few minutes. Barb's leg muscles were shaking from the exercise. Even though we have walked a lot in the past year, we aren't in great shape and it was showing. After a rest, we moved on, and eventually got to the parking lot near the lighthouse. From the parking lot, you have to walk another half mile to the lighthouse itself. There is no hard path to walk, it is along the beach. When we were there, the tide was out, so we could walk in the slightly firmer stones near the water instead of the very loose sand at the high tide line. We stopped along this leg to rest also. I assured Barb that I wasn't trying to kill her and we discussed the fact that I don't know any of the procedures for dealing with her medical insurance in case the day's activities proved to be too much for her. We made it to the light and sat there for awhile. The light has been restored since I was here in the early nineties, and has a visitors center. The visitors center is closed however due to lack of staffing according to a sign on the door.
We hiked back to the bikes and started the ride back to town. The first mile or so is uphill, but from there the ride was easier than the ride north. We went into town and parked at the National Hotel. The National has a nice big porch that is the outdoor restaurant area and it overlooks the Old Harbor where the ferries come in. We got seated and had a good lunch. We took our time since it was after lunch prime-time. Once we were done, Barb suggested we walk a little and look in the shops along the main drag. We walked a couple of blocks hitting almost every shop. We eventually got to Ben & Jerry's where we stopped for ice cream. Now, Barb is usually not a shopper. I think this was all a ploy to keep from getting back on that damn bike. Eventually we made it back to the National and got the bikes. It was a short ride back to the Boat Basin where we turned the bikes in. We stopped at The Oar for a beer and then went back to the boat for a quiet evening.
GPS N 41-11.418 W 071-34.576 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 5907.