END OF SUMMER

9-16-09

I'm not complaining....."just stating the facts ma'am" as Sgt. Friday used to say. The weather has been crummy ever since Bill and Karen Murray arrived in Newport. CRUMMY!

The only good thing is the ports don't leak anymore and our bed has stayed dry.

Bill & Karen are boaters, so they know how unpredictable sailing conditions can be, and they are flexible. On the 12th we drove to Boston and entertained ourselves in torrential downpours. Actually, it was a fun day and my first visit to Boston. I loved it!

We took a tour on a D (designed in 1942) U (utility amphibious cargo carrying vehicle) K (front wheel drive) W (double rear axle drive) ..... DUKW.......nicknamed by the soldiers as DUCKS. It was built in Pontiac, Michigan, to carry men and cargo from the ships to the beaches in WWII. The tour on our DUCKS was through the historic streets of Boston and into and up the Charles River all the while quacking when our driver, Sgt. Meatball, gave the command.

Then we had dinner in Little Italy and had a waiter who spoke English with a very heavy Italian accent. It was a treat.

Finally the weather has changed to warm and sunny and just in time for us to put the boat into winter storage in Bristol, RI. What a cute harbor with 500 moorings. Thank heavens for Bill and Karen's help in the unloading process. They have been a huge help!!!!

We're sad the summer adventures are ending, but we are looking forward to going home and seeing the boys. I'm sure Brady has turned into a chubby little ball by now. This month Lisa and Don celebrated their 7th anniversary, my sister and brother-in-law, Joy and Jim, hit the 50 year mark, Kyle started school, Matt turns 36, and Lou will have his 73rd birthday. It's a busy month.

Thanks for sharing our adventures with us. We look forward to seeing the Sytsema family in Mt. Pleasant for Brady's baptism in October. Until next summer, good-bye.

Newport with the Murrays

Karen and Bill Murray


We're having a good time "seeing" Newport with Bill and Karen Murray who have never been here before. It's been a wet-windy few days. So windy, in fact, that we had to turn the sailboat around on the floating dock. The waves were slapping up under the transom so loudly that it felt like you were sleeping with the train.

Newport, RI

Courtney (soon to be 11) - Kelli (the mom) - Sydney (8) on Tequila on 9-7-09


This has been a 5 day lay-over in one spot, so we've had time to "experience"Newport and the harbor. What an experience!!!! Newport is considered the center of yachting in the Northeast, and it's easy to understand why. The harbor is filled with more sailboats than I've ever seen in one harbor. There are many 12-meter racers from the classic America's Cup era. The New York Yacht Club occupies a beautiful mansion here and sailing traditions are strong-------cannons are fired at 8 am and sundown to alert crews to raise and lower their flags; the race committee wears slacks, blue blazers, and ties to monitor races; the Newport Sailing School has students zipping in and out of the mooring field on fast little J-22 boats.


But, it's the big yachts (make that mega-yachts) that are breathtaking. How important does someone need to be and how much money does it take to buy a yacht and put a small helicopter on the roof? I can't begin to imagine it. As we dingied by, we saw 2 of these "monsters" from Georgetown, Cayman Islands. We wondered if we had met them on one of our visits. :-)


I'd say the highlight of our stay here has been taking Kelli and her daughters (Courtney and Sydney) out for their first sail. Kelli is the daughter of some old-time Michigan friends, and we've know her since she was about 7 years old. They were all good sports even though the waves made them a little queasy. Kelli had a million questions about daily living on a sail boat.....


*Q-Why doesn't water come out of the tap?

A-We are out of water and then the pump has to be turned on. (Three days at the mooring
completely empties our two water tanks.)


*Q-How do you do laundry?

A-We take it to a laundromat by bike or by dingy.


*Q-How often do you grocery shop and how do you get the groceries back to the boat?

A-Right now it's been three weeks. (Don will never believe that I can stay away from the
grocery store that long!) That's why we're out of everything. They got crackers and
peanut butter for lunch. :-(


*Q-What do you do all day?

A- Lou sails, navigates, reads-----I read, help a little, fix meals (skimpy as they may be)
While we're in a port we attend to the necessary tasks like getting water and fuel, finding
showers and Internet spots, doing laundry, etc. It's a pretty simple life.


Today we'll take the boat launch into town, ride our bikes to the Information Center where we'll catch the purple bus to Walmart and a grocery store for bread and fruit, find a place to do the blog and read email, and then return to the boat for a hot dog roast for dinner.


On Wednesday our friends, Bill and Karen Murray, will be arriving from Charlevoix with our car for a few days of sailing. Our plan is to go to Martha's Vineyard and maybe Buzzards Bay with them. Then we'll take the boat to Bristol and get it ready for winter.

BLOCK ISLAND, RI

Sunset at Block Island




We have spent the afternoon and night in the New Harbor at Block Island, RI. It was a wonderful/strange experience. A channel was cut through from Block Island Sound to Great Salt Pond in 1895. For the next 100 plus years the boats have flocked here from all over the world......and now from Michigan. The water is deep (with very few rocks) and the Pond is well protected from the winds.


All that's good, right? I have no idea how many boats can dock at the 4 marinas - maybe 100. Then, there are an unknown number of private moorings. Then, there are 100 town moorings that sometimes have 2 boats rafted together. We arrived at 1 pm and all the public moorings were gone. So, we anchored in the large anchorage area with 300 (give or take) other boats. The web site says that there is space for 1,000 boats to anchor. It was the most unusual anchorage we've ever been in!


Now for the wonderful part. We sat on the deck and watched a beautiful sunset (almost as good as Beaver Island's sunsets), ate homemade chicken noodle soup, and watched the lights on the masts come on. It was like being in a star field with the stars almost close enough to touch. It was magical.


I love the feeling that Lou and I are sailing in the same waters Matt and Brian sailed when they were on Trader. I first noticed this feeling as we came down the Erie Canal and again when we were around the Statue of Liberty. As we head toward Newport, it's a strong feeling again.


The trip from Block Island to Newport is like being on a freeway with so many boats heading in both directions. We have a beautiful blue sailboat off our starboard that Lou is having an unofficial race with. The other boat has a main and head sail up, and we are sailing with just a head sail. So far we're winning.



NEWPORT HARBOR 9-4-09

Sometimes (despite the recent stories otherwise) I think we live under an umbrella of good luck. For example, if you want a campsite at White River Campground for the Labor Day Weekend, you would need to make a reservation in June or early July. I called Carl, the owner/manager or moorings in a section of Newport harbor, this morning and he saved us a spot on a floating dock. When we arrived, he said he'd have several calls after mine and this was the last mooring he had. So, for $45 a night we have a safe location away from the craziness of Center Harbor just off a State Park beach. One of the marinas charges $300 per night plus $20 for electricity. Ouch!!!!

Now we go exploring.

HAUL OUT

Going up!

I KNEW it was going to be a no-good-very-bad day as soon as I woke up. You've heard of "getting out on the wrong side of the bed" right? Admittedly, that's hard to do when you sleep on a boat that doesn't have walk space around the bed. But, believe me, I got out of bed on the wrong side today!

Actually, weather-wise it couldn't be better. The sun was shining and the breeze was comfortable. Weather was not the problem.

We ran aground leaving Watch Hill. Try as we might we couldn't plow through the sand to get where we needed to be. Even the tow boat captain said the sand was shifting and filling in the channel. Before the tow arrived Lou tried putting up the head sail and gunning the engine.

KA-PLUNK! R-O-C-K-S!!!!! When the tow captain hooked up the tow rope, he said he would try to wiggle us out, but we would probably find a few more "pebbles." He was right. That is a really sickening sound. He also said we were lucky to not need the crane to lift us out of the rock field.

We got out and decided to be towed to Stonington, CT, which is just across Little Narragansett Bay from Watch Hill. It was a piece of cake to get in the travel lift to haul out the boat to check for structural damage. Except for some nicks and dings (some pretty big ones) in the keel, the boat checked out. I can't remember if we've ever had such a thorough inspection. So, maybe this was a blessing. The captain isn't so sure about that!

The next problem appeared when we tried to leave the lift and head for a mooring. The tide was out........you guessed it........and we got stuck AGAIN!!!!! It took 4 yard hands and their boat with a big engine to maneuver us around into a slip. I think they felt sorry for us and let us stay in the slip instead of the mooring at no extra charge. That saved us about $100.

THINGS THAT WERE GOOD ABOUT TODAY.........

*Lou and I didn't kill each other

*The weather was GREAT

*The floor boards got lifted up during the inspection and then the bilges got cleaned

*We're close to a cute town and will walk in for dinner

*The cell phone worked for all the calls to the insurance company

*We have $250 towing on our insurance instead of just $50 on our membership to Boat US

*Best of all this was written as an insurance claim so everything should be covered

Now my job is to remind Lou of all the positives. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day.

Watch Hill, RI

9-1-09

What a fabulous day! We started by touring Watch Hill which took us by the Flying Horse Carousel which was built (so they think) in 1867. Originally it was pulled by 2 men turning cranks, then a horse unwound a rope, then water power, and in 1914, it was switched to electric power. It came to Watch Hill in 1883 by a carnival and then was abandoned.

Originally the horses were carved as spring rocking horses. During the Civil War, they were adapted for use on carousels. The 20 horses are hung by rods from the overhead sweeps. The speed of the ride causes the horses to swing out on their rods, thus the Flying Horse Carousel. The horse hair manes and tails are replaced so that the 50,000 children who ride them can experience the joy of the Flying Horses. We have no idea who these children are, but we wish they were Kyle and Ryan.

Then we took a dingy ride to the spot where we went aground yesterday. We gave thanks (silently) to the rocks for letting us go. You can be assured that we won't make that mistake again! It's beautiful in Little Narragansett Bay, and the houses are HUGE. Maybe we'll come back on our return trip.

ROCKS!!!!!!

I wish I had started a photo collections of lighthouses. There are a lot here and all of them are all different.

Once again we found ourselves in just the right place at just the right time. (This is not referring to the title of the blog.) We decided to "weather out" the winds and rain from hurricane Danny a few days ago on a mooring ball in New London, CT. That way we could swing as needed and not bang into a dock. By the way, our friends in the Caymans are welcome to this hurricane weather.

We returned from dinner ashore and dinghied out to the boat in a light rain. The first thing Lou did was start the engine to charge the batteries and check the dial that tells the "charge and discharge" rate on them. He couldn't believe the readings. After a summer of worry-free battery usage, he was seeing the dial jump from big charge to big discharge. Everything (including the refrigerator) was shut off and we went to bed by flashlights......HIS and HERS.

The winds weren't terrible that night but it rained harder than I can ever remember. Of course, the pounding rain was on the deck about 3 feet above my head.

Saturday morning we came to a dock and called a marine mechanic. Here's the really fortunate part........Carl came to look at the problem on Saturday and returned on Sunday to fix it (and didn't charge time and a half). He was a master mechanic in the Coast Guard and has traveled to the North and South Poles during his career. Our problem was not with the batteries or the alternator or some other expensive electrical malfunction. Instead, the vibration of the motor had caused a bolt holding the alternator to break and thus the wild readings at the meter. It's fixed, and we're on our way again.

8-31-09

It was a beautiful day after several rainy days. We had nice wind and could sail with the main and the head sail. What a pleasure! We weren't going far......we thought Fishers Island but that was only 30 minutes away. Then, we thought of Mystic, but we had been there by car and didn't need to go back by boat. So, we decided on Watch Hill, RI. These ports are so close here.

We took a look at the charts and headed for Watch Hill.

First we needed to sail around for a couple of hours to let the tide rise a bit. (This tide stuff adds an element to planning.) Then, we headed in. We got a bit confused as to whether Watch Hill Yacht Club was to the left where there were sail boats or to the right where there were more boats. In that moment of indecision we got on the edge of the narrow channel and ran aground in a rock field. I saw 5'2" on the depth sounder after we got stuck (we need 7 1/2 feet of water). I really believed that we would need to be towed off after the tide got higher (it was already rising). However, 2 power boats stopped and took the main halyard and pulled the boat over on the side to free the keel. The rail was almost in the water, but it worked. We were able to drive the boat back into the channel. WHEW! Of course, Lou will be checking the keel for "scars" when we pull her out for the winter.

I'm glad we're here. Watch Hill is a quaint town on Little Narrangansett Bay off Block Island Sound. We'll go in search of the restored classic carousel and the beautiful beaches here and explore with the dingy today.