August 16
We left Nantucket early this morning, at about 06:15. The reason for leaving so early was to take advantage of the current. Also, our destination today is Woods Hole, MA, which is one of those places that a sailboat normally wants to do at slack water or with the current. We went north out of Nantucket Harbor, along with one of the large car ferries. There are jetties that run quite a ways out of the harbor, and along the western jetty is the mast of a sunken sailboat. It is right at the edge of the jetty, and must be in about twenty feet of water, because the water level now is about the first set of spreaders on the mast. It has not been there very long, as the furled foresail is still intact. We heard they tried to cross the jetty at high tide when it is submerged, but aren't sure if that's what happened or not. At any rate, it is one of those things you hate to see.
About six miles north of Nantucket, once clear of the shallow waters that lie northwest of Nantucket, we turned west headed for Woods Hole. Woods Hole is home of the aquarium of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. We had a fair current all the way, so we were making good time, and should be there a little before noon. In Woods Hole, there is a pond inside a drawbridge that has a marina and moorings run by the marina, and outside the drawbridge is Great Harbor which is supposed to be a nice anchorage. I started trying to call Woods Hole Marine, the marina, to see if there were any moorings available. I kept just getting a recording, so I left a message. When we were about ten miles away, I tried hailing them on the VHF, but got no response. I tried calling again and was now getting a busy. A few minutes later, they called back and said they had no moorings available until Monday. So, I guess we'll anchor.
We got into Woods Hole and north into Great Harbor and found it filled with private moorings. The guy at the marina had suggested I call the Harbormaster when I had said we would anchor, so I hailed the Harbormaster on the VHF. He informed me that anchoring was not allowed in Great Harbor anymore since it was full of moorings. I asked him what my options were, and he said to call the marina. I explained that they were full, and he answer was that I was out of luck. Welcome to Woods Hole. To say I was a little pissed would be an understatement. It really galls me that people get to take over an anchorage with private moorings. Who deeded them the rights to the public waters? Especially when a number of them were basically small barges with houses built on them. They weren't even real boats.
Well, we proceeded north through the rest of the Woods Hole passage into Buzzards Bay. Cuttyhunk is just about ten miles west of here, so I guess we'll go back there for the night. Another stop there was in the plan anyway. At least it's still early in the day, so we have options.
As we approached Cuttyhunk, we saw a huge pirate-style ship anchored off the beach. It was a boat named Kalmar Nyckel. Later when we were ashore, we heard locals talking about it, and nobody knew anything about it. It's not here for any official visit, and apparently is just stopped here because it's a good anchorage. We later did an internet search and found that the Kalmar Nyckel is a reproduction of a Swedish ship that brought settlers to the New World back in the early 1600's. The "new" ship, is from Delaware and tours the northeast. After admiring the Kalmar Nyckel we went on into the pond where the town moorings are, and where we spent a night a week ago. There were lots of empty mooring that we had our choice of.
Since it's early in the afternoon, we decided to launch the dinghy and venture ashore. There isn't much here, but we had heard town was worth a visit. We landed the dinghy at the town dock and walked uphill into town. When you live at sea level, there's nowhere to go but uphill. We hiked up to the top of the hill where there was a spectacular view. We could see the mainland of MA, Martha's Vineyard, and up the string of the Elizabeth Islands back to Woods Hole. It was the closest view to anything we had seen in the Bahamas. Back in town, we stopped in the Historical Society's building to view an exhibit about the evolution of the island's ecology. We saw the Town Hall, Public Library, and one-room elementary school all grouped together. We visited the small grocery store just to see what they had, just like we would in the islands. There are about nine hundred people in Cuttyhunk during the summer and thirty-five year-round. The restaurant in town had a sign out front that August 19th would be their last day of operation for the season. They don't even consider the "season" to be up through Labor Day. We spent about two hours ashore, walking and sitting enjoying the island feel of this little town.
Back at the boat by 17:00, we relaxed with a beverage. A little while later, the raw bar boat that we had seen last week started making the rounds of the mooring field. I waved them down and got a dozen oysters for me and a cup of clam chowder for Barb. The oysters were good, but nowhere near as big as Texas ones. A little later we finished the evening's dining with a couple of hot dogs.
GPS N 41-25.535 W 070-55.467 Nautical miles traveled today 33. Total miles 6024.
August 17
Today we are heading to Newport. Newport is considered the sailing capitol of New England, if not the country. The famous Newport Yacht Club is here, and the New York Yacht Club has a branch here. The twelve meter boats that we saw in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket live here. I have been to Newport before by land, so it's another one of those places that I'm tickled to be coming to by boat.
The trip was over was pretty calm. There was about a two foot swell rolling in from the south, and a small wind driven chop going the other way, but with main up and a fair current, we motorsailed along a little over seven knots all the way. We have been noticing a lot of bilge pump running again the last week or so, so I decided to look around while we were motoring to make sure there weren't any leaks in the engine room that only were apparent while underway. So, I opened up the engine compartment, and everything looked normal there. I did see a significant amount of water running along the hull coming from the aft of the boat though. This would be the case if the leak is the same old rudder post problem. So, I went in back and tore the bed apart so I could see the rudder post. Well, the good news was the water was coming from the same old place. The bad news was that while watching the rudder, I could see that every time the autopilot made it move a little, the whole shaft has a noticeable wobble in the tube where it goes through the hull. That will have to be checked before we leave the country. I tightened the packing nut again to slow the water inflow some.
As we approached Newport from the east, we could see the back sides of the famous mansions that are here. If you're not aware, Newport was the summer getaway for the wealthy New York high-society folks from the gilded era of the late 1800's. They built huge mansions here with magnificent ocean views that were only used for eight to twelve weeks a year in the summer. We rounded the point that marks the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay, and turned north. Even though it's a weekday, there was tons of recreational boat traffic, and the occasional lobsterman checking his traps. As we came north, we were approaching the Jamestown/Newport bridge. We won't go under it today, but we noticed a house out on a rock almost under the bridge. Guess this is where the rich trolls live. We rounded Fort Adams which guarded Newport Harbor and entered the harbor. There are hundreds of moorings here, and many that are available to transients. We hailed one of the mooring operators and were assigned a mooring in the inner harbor, just off of the main downtown area.
We had been warned that the prices in Newport were out of sight, but the mooring is only $40/night. Yes $40 is a lot for a mooring, but in Nantucket they were $60, so we were pleasantly surprised that they weren't higher. There is a launch service that serves the whole harbor, and I thought I had read that it was included when you rented a mooring. So, we hailed the launch to take us to shore to check in. Turns out the launch is $3/person each way, so we'll be launching our own dinghy later. Once ashore, we checked in and paid for four days on the mooring. We also dumped two large bags of trash that we have been collecting for the past week.
We walked around the immediate waterfront area and found a place to have lunch. The place we chose was The Black Pearl, which I suspect has been named that long before the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were made. We had a pleasant lunch and then strolled around some more. We found the free dinghy dock at Bowen's Wharf, which will come in handy later. We found the Visitor's Center and picked up several maps and brochures. We also bought tickets to tour the mansions. There are several choices of how to see the mansions depending on how much time you have and how many you want to see. We bought the package that let's you pick any five. The lady at the ticket window asked us where we were from, and we gave our standard answer that we left Texas a year ago and now we are "from" wherever the boat is. Well, she was just amazed at this and chatted with us for several minutes about what it is like to live on a boat and just wander. You wouldn't think this would be such a foreign idea in a town based on sailing, but it was.
We walked some more and found that there is a second free town dinghy dock further south of the one we found earlier. That gives us more options depending on where we are headed. We stopped at a fancy bar called H2O, right by the free dinghy dock for a drink. I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, and got a one-of-a-kind drink that was ok, but not like any Long Island Tea I've had before. They had run out of sour mix and were making up a replacement with lime juice and sugar syrup on the fly. It was an ok drink, but sort of a cross between a Long Island and a margarita. After this, we hopped a launch back to the boat and enjoyed dinner aboard. The tourist thing will start in earnest tomorrow.
GPS N 41-29.034 W 071-19.194 Nautical miles traveled today 26. Total miles 6050.
August 18
Our two events for today are mansion touring, and visiting with an old high school friend whom I haven't seen in thirty-five years. We plotted our five mansions last night, and are going to start at The Breakers. It is probably the largest, and most famous, and it opens an hour earlier than the rest, thus our choice of starting there. We launched the dinghy and went to the free dock on the southern end of town. Our plan is to bus to The Breakers, then walk the rest of the day. It's an uphill/downhill choice again. We walked along the waterfront north to the main bus station (a flat walk) and caught the 67 bus to Bellevue Av. While on the bus, a couple asked us if we were here for the Coaching Weekend. Not knowing what it even was, I said no. The Coaching weekend has nothing to do with football or any other sport. It has to do with horse drawn carriages that were used in the era of the mansions. There is apparently a worldwide deal of restoring these carriages and training horse teams to pull them in competitions. Every three years there is a weekend event in Newport, and it is this weekend. We got info from their brochure about what is happening tomorrow and thanked them. We got off the bus at The Breakers and were there just in time for the 09:30 tour.
I should explain a little about the history of the Newport mansions. As I said earlier, most of them were built in the late 1800's as summer homes for the wealthiest families of NY. Names like Vanderbilt, Astor, and Rockefeller were the norm. As times changed, the descendants of these families increasingly found they could not afford to keep these houses. As early as the 1930's the Newport Preservation Society started acquiring properties so that they wouldn't fall into disrepair and be lost. Remarkably, as many sites as they have preserved, we saw a display of photos depicting over twenty equally impressive homes that have been demolished over the years.
The Breakers tours are guided and since we were early on a weekday, we had fewer than a dozen people on our tour. You are only allowed to take pictures of the outside, so my pictures are limited. We spent about an hour at The Breakers and then walked to Marble House. Here the tour is an audio tour where you wear an MP3 player and go at your own pace. You can blow through the minimum tour, or listen to lots of optional explanations of stuff. We pretty much listened to everything and took over an hour here. Our next stop was down the street at Rosecliff. Here the tour is half guided and half on your own. The first floor is covered with the guide then you are turned loose on the second floor to just explore and read the signs. Rosecliff is where The Great Gatsby was filmed. From here we walked to Chateau Sur Mer. This is a guided tour, and I think the tour guide might have worked for the original owners. Our last stop was The Elms where we had another audio tour. We didn't listen to as much of the optional stuff on this one, because we were running out of steam. When we finished the tour of The Elms, it was 15:45 and we had been going non-stop without any break for lunch or even a drink. The Elms has a small snack bar in the carriage house, where we got drinks and a piece of cake just before they closed.
Our route through the mansions has left us near the dinghy dock we parked at. Near being a relative term, it was still a several block walk. We got to the dinghy and were back at the boat about 16:30.
We are going to meet up with Corey Smith and his wife Karen this evening. I went to high school with Corey and have not seen him since we graduated in 1970. We showered and were at the Black Pearl's outdoor bar at 18:00 to meet them. Of course, we wondered how we would recognize each other after all these years. I told him I'd wear a Hawaiian shirt to maybe stand out a little. We got to the bar first, and were watching the faces of approaching people carefully. We need'nt have worried though, because as soon as he came into view we recognized each other. We visited over a few drinks and then walked a few blocks to a neighborhood pub for dinner. After that we walked a few more blocks to the house that they have been renovating on weekends for the past year. It is just about done and looks great with the restored hardwood floors and woodwork. We visited another hour or so and then they drove us back to the dinghy dock about 23:30. We were surprised to see that the waterfront bars and restaurants were still going full tilt and would be for a while still. We dinghied back to the boat and crashed.
GPS N 41-29.034 W 071-19.194 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 6050.
August 19
After such a big day yesterday, we slept in today. We didn't wake up until 09:00. The Coaching demonstration at The Elms starts at 10:00, so we dressed and headed ashore without even making coffee. We docked at the south dinghy dock and headed for The Elms. We stopped along the way and got coffee to go. There is a steady stream of traffic moving slowly in the direction of The Elms. We got to the grounds at 09:55 and found a place to stand up on the back porch of the main building, overlooking the huge backyard where the event will happen. There was a large crowd all around the edge of the back yard, and a classical group playing music as a warm up. We had only been there a few minutes when the event started. One at a time, the coaches entered the yard from the carriage house area and lined up facing the back of the house where we were standing. There were fourteen carriages in all, each with a team of four horses, each carrying a dozen people, several with trumpeters, and one with a Dalmatian.
Once all the teams were lined up on the field, they had a short contest for the best horn blower. They were all good, but one stood out as excellent. These were not your average trumpets they were blowing. They were four foot long straight horns with no valves that would have been used in that era. Unfortunately the judge was the mayor, who was as old as most of the carriages, and he didn't notice that after the guys blew their horns, they were rearranged in the order they were standing to take a nice picture. So, when he announced the winner as the second from the left, it wasn't the same guy who was second from the left when they played. Everybody except the mayor seemed to recognize the screw up.
After the horn contest, each carriage was introduced and they took a parade lap around the yard in a big figure eight pattern (this is a huge back yard). The dozen people on each carriage were all dressed in period costumes, including top hats for the Whips (the driver) which were removed in a salute to the reviewing stand. It was a very interesting show. The whole thing took about an hour, after which the carriages were to go on a parade through the mansion part of town. We left where we were and instead of following the crowd to exit, we cut through the side yard and came out on the front driveway. Just as we were about to merge with the main drive, a guy stopped us because the carriages were coming. We had the perfect spot to get pictures of each one as they passed on their way to the street. My favorite was the one with the Dalmatian following dutifully behind. During the main demonstration the emcee had explained that the Dalmatian following the wagon was something used by beer wagons that delivered beer though neighborhoods to discourage hooligans from trying to pilfer beer from the back of the wagon while underway.
After the carriages had all departed, we walked a few more blocks to the Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is a path that runs three and a half miles along the top of the bluffs on the shore behind the mansions. This is basically a public right-of-way over the private lands that back up to the sea here. The link offers a good history of it. We walked but a short portion of the whole thing, from the Forty Steps, to a little past The Breakers. At the bottom of the Forty Steps, there is a small beach where a number of people were swimming. Several hundred yards offshore was a large rock outcropping with a guy on it. He apparently swam out there and was resting. The tide was coming in there and just in the time we could see him, it was noticeable that the water was washing over his perch, so he was going to have to swim back soon. We passed The Breakers and exited the Cliff Walk back to the real street. We came out near a bus stop, as if we knew what we were doing, and caught the bus back to town.
We walked a few blocks from the waterfront bus stop that we got off at to a pub for lunch. This was an interesting place because it appeared to be two separate businesses (upstairs and downstairs) but it was really all the same place with two names. We went upstairs to an outside patio to be seated. We had been told about, and have experienced, the fact that a high percentage of the seasonal service industry workers in this area are imported for the season from Eastern Europe. In Block Island, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard, it was very obvious. Even the Martha's Vineyard bus driver we had was Polish and spoke with a heavy accent. All the waitresses and waiters we encountered were imported. They stay in small accommodations that are probably part of their employment package. In Newport, there seemed to be more American kids doing bartending and wait staffing, but at this place, all the waitresses were Eastern European. The girl who waited on us was the first of these imports that seemed a little challenged by the English language, and who didn't give us excellent service.
After lunch, we walked back to the dingy. We decided to continue the day's adventure by dinghying over to Fort Adams, which is across the harbor entrance from town. I had called first to make sure they had a dinghy dock so we wouldn't have to pay $6 each for the ferry from downtown. Once there, we got a guided tour from a sorta strange tour guide. The fort is huge and they keep it all locked up all the time. When your tour departs from the visitor's center, the guide unlocks a big gate to go inside, a process that was repeated at several more gates along the way. The guide would get to one of the places where he would speak, think about what he was going to say for a minute, and then give us his memorized speech. Most of the fort has been subjected to the ravages of time but the main structure is all intact and quite interesting.
After the tour we dinghied back to the boat, with a stop for gas and ice at the Newport Yachting Center's fuel dock. We have noticed several other boats in the harbor flying Texas flags. A little later in the evening, we took the opportunity to dingy over to Windwalker, from Austin and Milano Myst from Houston. We chatted with each one for about forty-five minutes about where we have been, where we are going, and friends we have in common. The rest of the evening was spent reading and writing.
GPS N 41-29.034 W 071-19.194 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 6050.
August 20
During the night we had strong winds and quite a bit of rain. It was one of those nights that you're glad to be on a mooring and not anchored. We awoke to heavy overcast and a stiff breeze, but the rain was gone. The forecast is for a 60% chance all day, but the radar doesn't show anything behind the blob that has moved on east. Nevertheless, we knew the forecast was for a crummy day, so we don't have any big plans ashore today.
I do want to call your attention to something I have added to the website. If you click here, you will be taken to a poem written by a fellow cruiser. We met Hal Schade in Kemah back in 2004 when he had his boat across form us for a couple months getting some work done on it. He is now cruising in Central America. His website contains this poem, and I have copied it to my site with his permission. You may also want to checkout his logs.
We did end up going ashore for dinner. The skies had cleared and the wind subsided so we didn't get wet on the dinghy ride. We went to one of the waterfront restaurants with the intent on having lobster. Barb had wanted a lobster dinner for her birthday, and we had the one in Martha's Vineyard but it wasn't that great. So we did a repeat. We both ordered the lobster dinner, which was "market price" and we didn't ask how much that was. The lobsters were each two pounds, and they were delicious. The bill was a bit more than I expected, but it was a treat after all. Newport's waterfront is not the place to expect a deal on lobster.
GPS N 41-29.034 W 071-19.194 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 6050.
August 21
Today we are traveling a whopping thirteen miles north to Bristol, RI. We had a nice leisurely morning, and dropped the mooring about 09:30. Since it is such a short hop, I didn't pay any attention to the tides, so of course we found the current to be strong against us once we were out in Narragansett Bay. What should have been a two hour trip turned into three. About the only interesting thing along the way was passing the Naval Education and Training Center. We couldn't get too close because of the little gray patrol boat, but at the dock were the USS Saratoga and USS Forrestal two aircraft carriers that saw service from the late 1950's to the early 1990's. If you are at all interested in naval history, follow the links to their stories.
We also passed one of Hinckley Yachts facilities. Hinckley's are on the high end of boats, both sail and power. We didn't stop there with our lowly Catalina. Once in Bristol Harbor, we found a huge mooring field. The Waterway Guide says there are moorings here available form the Bristol Yacht Club, or to call the Harbormaster about renting a private mooring that is unoccupied. Unlike Woods Hole, there is also still ample room to anchor. At the south end of the mooring field, just as we approached, there were nine or ten moorings clearly marked "transient". So, I hailed the Harbormaster on the VHF and he said to pick up mooring six or seven for $35/night. We got number seven and prepared to go ashore. We had towed the dinghy instead of hoisting it, since we went such a short distance. We were headed to shore within thirty minutes of getting the mooring, at about 12:30.
Our first order of business was to find the Harbormaster's office to pay for the mooring. We could see a boat at a dock with the word Harbormaster on it's side, so we figured that would be a good place to look. We found a small dock with a sign that said "ten minute docking for unloading/loading only" and tied up. Nearby we found a building that said "Community Center", but no signage indicating where the Harbormaster's office was. A local guy perceived our lost looks, and asked if we were looking for the Harbormaster. He pointed us at the Community Center and said the office was on the second floor. We went in and inside we found several signs directing us to the second floor office. Putting one of those outside the door would be a vast help. Upstairs we found the guy who appeared to be the Harbormaster, although he directed a kid who may have been his son to get us the paperwork and take our money. As we were about to leave the office, he asked us how we knew about the transient moorings. We told him we didn't and that we just saw them on our way in the harbor. I guess they have just put them in, although the balls themselves don't look new. We also asked him about dinghy landing, and he directed to move it a little further north to the public dock.
A little further north we found J. G. Goff's Pub, right on the water. And, they have a dock for small boats for up to three hours for customers. We tied up and went in for lunch. It was a very pleasant place, right on the water. We sat inside since the wind was blowing pretty hard. The fifth game of a weekend baseball series between the Yankees and the Red Sox had just started on TV. There are fewer sports rivalries bigger than the Yankees/Red Sox, and it has been interesting watching the fans (mostly Red Sox up here) react to the games. There are no inter-state rivalries in Texas like this in any sport, and Texas sports fans are known for being laid back and quiet, so it fun to watch the people get into the games. We ate our lunch and had an extra beer while watching the game.
We went for a walk around town, specifically to find the Herreschoff Museum and check on their hours. We walked down the main street and found the Visitor's Center. We went in and picked up a map and a couple of brochures. Next door was a memorial to all Bristol veterans who served in all the wars since WW I. It was a black granite wall similar to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. The whole little park it was in was nicely done.
We continued down the street and found the museum. We noted their hours to come back tomorrow. We also noted the twelve-meter boat on stands in the yard. You can't miss it, and actually we had seen it from the water as we came in. We'll come back tomorrow to check the whole place out.
We walked back towards the dinghy dock, which meant passing J. G. Goff's again. Since we both needed to use the facilities, we stopped in again. And, since the ballgame was still on, we ordered another beer to enjoy while we watched the end of the game. The Yankees won again, sweeping the series. The local fans were pretty bummed.
We went back to the boat and relaxed for a while. Since we had a late lunch, we just had a snack for dinner. We decided to take a dinghy ride around the harbor before it got dark, so we loaded up a couple of beverages and headed out. At the far north end of the harbor, we spotted another Manta catamaran. I've lost track of how many that makes. The name of this one was Salty Paws. We have many times heard a Salty Paws on the Cruisehiemers Net, so we wondered if it was the same one. We stopped and knocked and met Bentley and Jim, and their two Corgis, Petrol and Ethyl. Bentley is indeed the voice we have heard many times on the SSB. We chatted for quite a while with them and pet the dogs. If you are not familiar with Corgis, they have a mid-sized body, with a big-dog head, and stubby little legs. They are very cute and if I were looking for a dog I would have to consider a Corgi.
We left Salty Paws just before dark so that we could get back to MoonSail without having to hunt in the dark. The wind had died down by then and we had a nice quiet night.
GPS N 41-40.095 W 071-16.976 Nautical miles traveled today 13. Total miles 6063.
August 22
This morning we were up to check in on the Cruisehiemers Net since I knew Bentley was hosting it. We could hear him clearly of course, being right next door, and we could clearly hear St. Jude in New Bern, NC whom we haven't been able to hear for a while. (The range and reception of SSB radios varies from day to day with atmospheric conditions.) We checked in and also heard Diva, who's not too far from us, and Hurrah, whom we met in Nantucket.
This morning I actually took advantage of my solar panel mounts. I noticed that given the way we were pointing into the wind, one panel had sun while the other was shaded since the sun wasn't very high yet. I loosened the mounts and winged the panels out to the sides so they were further away from the boat and now they were both in the sun. It's the first time I have winged them out like that.
About 10:30, we took off for the Herreschoff Museum. The museum has it's own docks, so we dinghied right there. Nathaniel G. Herreschoff was a famous boat designer in the late 1800's. He designed, and the company built, many America's Cup winners in the early 1900's. Now I have never been into sailboat racing, and I believe wooden boats are beautiful as long as they are owned by somebody else. That aside, it was incredible to see the huge collection of photographs, and boats that are here at this museum. The museum is on the site of the company, which stopped building boats after WW II, when they built one hundred boats for the Navy. The America's Cup Hall of Fame is located in another building across the street and is part of the price of admission (which is only $8). We found an old picture of Jimmy Buffett in there with the captain of the training boat from the successful 1987 bid to win the cup back from Australia. Although the museum isn't that large, we spent three hours there stepping back into a different era of sailing.
After the museum, we dinghied back to the boat for an Advil fix. After being on my feet for three hours, my back was killing me. From there we went to the dock closer to the center of town again. We walked in search of a different place for lunch. Not that yesterday was bad, but we wanted a little variety. We found Aidan's Irish Pub and went in for another late lunch. Food was good, but it isn't right on the water.
After lunch we considered a walking tour of the historical buildings in town, but opted instead to go back to the boat and just chill. We had a brief visit from the crew of Hurrah, and from Bentley from Salty Paws in his sailing dinghy. We also enjoyed watching a gang of little sailboats and small catamarans go race around the bay for a while. A little after dark we were visited by the Harbormaster's boat who thought we had just come in and not paid for our mooring. The guy driving the boat was the guy we paid, and after we reminded him that we came in yesterday and paid for two days, he apologized and left.
GPS N 41-40.095 W 071-16.976 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 6063.
August 23
This morning we got a leisurely start and moved to Wickford, RI. Wickford is about twelve miles southwest of Bristol. We motored over in almost no wind. Wickford has an outer harbor that is protected by a breakwater with a clearly marked entrance channel. Just inside the breakwater is one of the best reasons to come here - five free town moorings. You can only use them for twenty-four hours, but free is free, so we picked one up. Since we had just been running the motor for a couple of hours and had lots of hot water, we showered before dinghying into town.
The primary reason I wanted to stop in Wickford is that my half-sister used to live here. She had a house right on the water overlooking the outer harbor. The mooring we are on is only a few hundred feet from the site of her house. She sold the property almost ten years ago, and the new owners tore down the old house and built a new one. There was a decorative lighthouse in the yard at the head of the stairs that lead down the seawall to the water which is still there though. So, this is another one of those places on my list of places that I have been by land and now by boat also.
The ride into town is not too far. The inner harbor is narrow and has marinas on one side and boats moored bow and stern between pilings on the other. It's kind of like driving down a street with cars parallel parked. I heard of this type of mooring, but this is the first I've actually seen it. At the head of the harbor is the town dock. You can dock a dinghy here of course, but what is really neat is that you can tie up your big boat for two hours while you do things in town. There is a grocery store right across the street from the town dock, so it makes for easy provisioning. We'll do that tomorrow.
We walked just a little ways to the first restaurant we saw for lunch. We ate at the Tavern by the Sea, which is right next to the grocery store. We had a nice lunch and then went for a walk. The main street of the town is lined with historic buildings. As the Waterway Guide puts it, "There is nothing ersatz or "restored" about these structures; they are just old, lived in, and well maintained." And that describes it perfectly. You can tell that these are not homes that have been renovated or rebuilt to look like the original structure on the outside. Rather they are just fine two hundred year old buildings that were built to last. After our walk, we came back to the heart of town and poked our heads in the grocery store to see what their selection was like. We also checked out the drug store and package store. I picked up some beer and we hopped back in the dinghy.
We went back to the boat for a while and watched a couple dozen sailboats head out for some evening racing. This was obviously a just for fun kind of racing like we had on Wednesday nights back in Kemah, because there were all shapes and sizes of boats involved. We decided to take an evening dinghy ride around to the other side of the harbor and see what was back there. There are actually two separate inner harbors here. Up the other channel we found the Wickford Yacht Club, another mooring field, a boat repair yard, and the Wickford Marina. We were just about to turn around in the Wickford Marina and head back, when I spotted a familiar looking stern. We went a little further down the fairway and lo and behold, there was a Catalina Morgan 38. And, the owners were aboard. We introduced ourselves and explained why we were so excited to see their boat. This is the first time I've ever actually touched another one. We saw the one in NJ a month ago, but they wouldn't even talk to us on the radio as we passed. This one is a 1995 model, hull #36. (MoonSail is #26). Bob & Cathy invited us aboard and we spent at least an hour with them comparing notes about what we had done to our boats and what problems we have had. They live aboard the boat here in the summer and have a home in FL for the winter. They were very impressed that we have taken ours on such a journey as we have. It was very interesting to see some of the little changes, mostly in interior things, that the factory had made in two years.
After our visit, we headed back to MoonSail, just about dusk. The last of the racers were coming in as we went out. We had a light dinner as the sun set and enjoyed a quiet evening.
GPS N 41-34.378 W 071-26.365 Nautical miles traveled today 12. Total miles 6075.