Month: September 2014

We had an amazing trip from Block Island to Port Washington. We managed to have the wind and current in our favour for the first 8 hours thanks to P’s checking the weather and tide reports, then the wind slowly died and the current slowly turned against us and we turned on the motors for 7 hours.

Having never arrived to a destination in the dark, we both agreed it would be worth it for a full nights sleep. A full moon would have been nice, but it was not in the cards. So darkness would be it.

P woke me about 20 minutes before we got to the Port Washington entrance so I could enjoy the view of the New York City skyline in the distance before we turned and it went out of sight. This is the joy of a night arrival, we could see those lights.

Our night eyes were both glued on the water, avoiding buoys as we motored slowly into the harbour. Luck would have it that we found a Yellow Mooring ball, free for the first 2 nights. It had no tether so we had to pick it up from the aft of the boat and walk it forward. No wind made this almost effortless. We were settled on the ball just after 10:30pm.

On Saturday the temperature soared to 80 F. What a treat after the rain and cold we had in Block Island. We took some time to explore the shore and visit the grocery store for enough provisions to get us the rest of the way to Annapolis. Ending the day sitting on deck with a little music watching the boating world go by. Gotta love it.

We plan our departure from Port Washington to coincide with the tides and current to make our way through New York city via the East River. We are so excited to see New York from the water.

There’s something to be said for staying longer than planned in any given place. This is truly the case with Bristol, Rhode Island. We arrived in Bristol at on Sept 11th and departed on Sept 24th.

Initially we thought we’d be a few days, long enough to arrange to have our life raft recertified. However, upon arrival, we discovered the Newport boat show was just getting underway, making it impossible to have the life raft picked up until a few days after the show was over. We had a decision to make, stay and wait, or leave and come back. We decided to stay and wait and explore Bristol.

We started by walking the town after locating the downtown dinghy dock, discovering it has an abundance of churches and schools. The church bells ring in sync on the hour (one following the other). No need for a watch in this town, just listen and you’ll know what time it is.

The following day we took the bikes ashore and cycled partially through Colt Park then made our way to the Seabra Supermarket for fresh vegies. I must say this market has the freshest vegies I’ve seen in awhile, the cilantro and parsley appeared to be fresh picked that very day.

The weather was favorable for both cycling and walking. There is a bike path that runs from Bristol to Providence (about 14 miles long). We cycled half of it one day, discovering a larger grocery store about 6 miles along so we stopped on our way back to buy things like tofu. With our back packs and baskets full we returned to the boat exhausted.

The only problem with cycling, is Charlie doesn’t get his exercise while riding in the basket and wants to play when we get back to the boat when we just want to rest. So we’ve learned to look for places to stop and throw the ball for him or to take a block or so and have him run alongside the bike (not as safe for either the rider or the dog). We opt for the field to throw the ball when possible.

Here’s what I like about Bristol
1. The church bells (and on Sundays they play tunes)
2. The cycling trails (basically flat and you can go far)
3. The quiet and safe harbour
4. The two dinghy docks (in low season lots of room, but I imagine fully loaded in mid summer)
5. Angela’s coffee shop, with nice red tables outside and they offer soy lattes
6. No street lights in the downtown core and traffic stops for pedestrians
7. No one is hustling and bustling, just a nice peaceful pace
8. Shop owners are super friendly and most have water bowls and treats for dogs
9. Hair Heart and Soul Beauty Salon click here to see their site, where Mandy fit me in for a haircut and did a fabulous job
10. Beautiful old homes well restored, many with dates of when they were built and the name of the original builder (one dated back to 1680)
11. More people out walking, cycling, sailing or fishing all the time. The local people here are fit, we rarely saw anyone overweight.

We do plan to return to Bristol one day to experience the big 4th of July events which we hear are not to be missed. Until then we have wonderful memories of this twelve day stop over. (pics to follow)

Time to head out to Block Island.  Expect a 48 hour passage because we will let the wind do most of the work for us (try not to get impatient with the motors).

So the winds became terrific at the start and gave us another opportunity to attempt to fly the parasailor.  This time with success.  The key was to leave the mainsail down as the swirling eddy behind it tended to wrap the parasailor around anything convenient before it could be fully deployed.  Nightmare!  But this time it went well.

So after a successful day flying the parasailor (love it – great boat motion, easy downwind sailing), we met with minor disaster taking it down.  Snuffing it was challenging and resulted in another swirling wrap around everything.  Finally just hauled it down old fashioned style and sorted out the ugly wrap a week later in Bristol.  Obviously still lots to learn here.

After another day of sailing, the sunset was beautiful as the winds quickly dropped while we anticipated a very early arrival at Block Island the next morning.  Lesson learned #2.  All going according to plan until the wind died 8 hours earlier than forecast.  Blew a big hole in our plan to sail 100% of the way there.  With absolutely no wind at night, we had to resort to the iron jenny until some wind showed up around 4 am.

Ok, so we were too tired to take great arrival photos.  But the moon made a spectacular appearance (photo didn’t work – moving sailboat, low light = bad combination) just before sunrise.  Just awesome.  We arrived at the break of dawn and promptly went to bed after securing the anchor.  The next day was a bit of a write off as we cleared the cobwebs from our brains.

We spent 2 full days at Block Island, using our new bikes both days. Our first day we took a five mile cycle to loosen the legs after a 2 day passage (no pics). We treated ourselves to a beer and lunch at The Oar restaurant afterwards where they allowed us to sit outside with the dog.

The second day we took a longer cycle to the northern tip of the island to a nice beach where Charlie and I walked while P kept an eye on the bikes (forgot to bring the lock). This was a much longer cycle of ~10 miles which ended in town at the grocery store. Nice store with lots of fresh produce. There are so many things to like about this island, from the huge protected bay to the cycle friendly roadways. It’s a definite favorite so far on this trip. (Click on a photo below and you will get a slideshow).

Looking across Cow Cove to Block Island north light. Charlie and Gwyn hiked almost there while Paul guarded the bikes (forgot the lock).

On the way back from Block Island north light

Happy campers exploring north coast of Block Island after a 5 mi bike ride on our new folding bikes

On the way back home after visiting Cow Cove. Stop for a breather after a big climb to this point. Downhill from here. Yeah!

A view back to Blue Sky from Block Island

OK, so the Cohansey river was unique and absolutely isolated except for the very visible mammoth steam plume from the nearby Salem nuclear plant. Then again, I guess that’s better than a mammoth coal dust plume, at least as long as nothing goes wrong and someone figures out how to “retire” the plant eventually.

Once underway, it was the normal challenge of crabpot dodging – good thing I had that strong coffee.

Lucky people who have a short enough mast to cut through the canal rather than go around the outside!

Finally we made it into the harbor and kicked back for the night.  But not before the Coast Guard showed up and made all the boats move closer to shore so we were no where near the channel.  Our shallow draft came in handy.  Next day we had a quick look around the harbor then a long walk through town to the grocery store.

With groceries in hand, it was a long walk back to the boat for a beautiful sunset before setting off to Block Island.

OK, so we got a lazy start out of Chesapeake City.  Decided to give Charlie a long walk in the morning and explore Chesapeake City.  What a gorgeous town with many houses beautifully restored.  Nothing was open on our early weekday walk and it was cloudy – but it was still beautiful!  Have to return to explore in more detail.  Anchorage was serene and calm in about 10 feet of water.

However getting out the next morning proved a challenge.  After all the posts online we expected problems but with our dilly dallying in town, we managed to leave right after low tide of 0.4 feet.  Chart wise we should be good at 7.5 feet.  However, we attempted multiple exits and found the deepest point at only 3.7 feet, so enlisting all 150 hp of our engines we furrowed our way, plough style, through the sand until we got out.  Methinks there needs to be a bit of dredging there to get to the charted depth.  There may have been deeper water somewhere but we sampled most of the exit (including the recommended NE corner) without success.

After breaking free, we had a delightful 1.5 to 2 knot current push through the canal to Delaware Bay.  This made for a quick transit and a subsequent push down the Bay with the favorable current at about 1 knot until the tide turned about an hour before we got to the Cohansey River.  (Local boat knowledge note – watch the tide line and if favorable stay to the channel side of the line.  The current reverses in the shallows about an hour before it reverses in the channel).  In short, if current is favorable, stay towards the channel until it turns.

Cohansey River – home sweet home for the night.  Only place I have anchored where the power of the current kept us pointing at the current but the power of the 8 knot breeze kept us on top of the anchor despite the current.  Boat, captain, and mates were all confused by this but we appear to be stuck solid for the night.  Tomorrow – Cape May!