Hope you like all the beautiful and classic yachts as much as we do. We couldn't resist, here are some more. The Nantucket Light Ship in the picture was used to mark the Nantucket shoals, a station established in 1854. The blue hulled sailboat is HUGE, the others are all classic wood....very meticulously cared for. Some of them are the 12 meter America's Cup race contenders.
We are getting pretty good at interpreting weather predictions. We use about a half dozen weather sources as well as current and tide predictors. Our trip from Nantucket, MA to Newport, RI was planned accordingly. We left Nantucket around 11:30 so that we would not face the current from an incoming tide and suspected that the first portion of our trip would be motor sailing at best, but hopefully as we rounded Cuttyhunk Island we would be able to sail a close reach. For the non sailors in the group that means that we would be sailing almost directly into the wind. This is exactly what happened, our interpretation of the various reports was correct. We had a great sail, arriving in Newport harbor at 6:30. The chart below shows the second half of our trip, it is from the new app that we downloaded onto my tablet. We were heeled over a lot more than it looks like the photos below.
Freedom is a fairly common boat name. This old beauty has been anchored or moored near us in Newport, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The schooner Shenandoah was anchored at Vineyard Haven harbor and these kids were jumping into the water from the bowsprit, another kind of freedom.
The Coast Guard announced on the VHF radio that there would be a special security zone around the ferry Island Home. They did not identify the route that the ferry would take, although they did give a time. All mariners needed to stay 250 yards away from this vessel. Don't you just know that Island Home, with it's 3 Coast Gaurd vessel escort turned out in front of us in Woods Hole. Woods hole is a narrow channel with rocks on both sides and STRONG 3 knot current! We were able to slow down enough to let the ferry and the escort get well ahead of us. Below is a picture of our track through Woods Hole.
Bristol is yet another of the many small coastal towns we've visited. We enjoy going ashore and walking these small towns to see the sights and get some excercise.
We met a great couple while we were in the Bahamas. They live in Massachusetts and keep their boat on Naragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Their description of the bay is one of the reasons we decided to spend some time in this area this summer. Deb and Pierre, you are right! This is a lovely area. We sent them a quick email when we got here and like cruisers everywhere, they went out of their way to meet with us and show us around .....yes in a car! We had a great time and lunch at the Portuguese restaraunt was excellent. Thanks again for your generosity!
We enjoy stopping in Stonington. The anchorage is not the best, lots of rolling from the wakes of boats and a bouy horn that sounds all the time (it gets annoying)....but.....the beautiful old homes and overall ambiance is worth the stop.
One of the issues we face traveling north are storms. We try to avoid moving during storms. This can be difficult because the forecasters are quite often wrong. We have sat out days that ended being crystal clear and traveled on days that are stormy. It all ends up ok, we even see some rainbows! Tomorrow we will go searching for a pot of gold.
It is so hot out and there is no wind for sailing. What do we do? We take the dinghy for a ride to a beach for a swim. The speed of the dinghy creates a breeze and a swim really cools us off.
If you've looked at our spot tracker for yesterday & today, you'll see a lot of circling round.
Yesterday it was wind predictions. We thought we'd have favorable winds to head NE up Long Island Sound. We got out into the sound and the wind and waves were right on the nose. We decided to turn around and go back into Port Jefferson and wait for better conditions. We're in no hurry.
Today, we pulled anchor just in time to see the large tanker at the dock getting underway. The current was running fairly strong against us through the inlet, so I chickened out and turned around; circling around in the harbor waiting for the 2 tugs and the tanker to go through the relatively narrow inlet. Discretion and valor and all that.
We're now out on the sound headed NE and the wind that was blowing nicely near shore has vanished. Oh well, it's nice and sunny, calm and the oppressive heat has left us for low 80's temps.
