When we last left you we were still in Hadleys Harbor. We spent the day with Lee and Cheryl just
relaxing, clamming and had a nice dinner on Shalaylee. In the morning they left but we stayed since
it was forecast for rain and for once they were right. It was a quiet day with the high point being
when we baked a cake. It was nice to
have a treat for several days.
Wednesday, the 12th dawned bright and clear, it
is time to move on. We raised anchor and
left the harbor and headed into Buzzards Bay.
On the way we were passed by the three masted ship “Mystic”. I would love to sail on one someday. We motored down the bay to the Island of
Cuttyhunk since everyone said we needed to visit there. We stopped here on the way to Martha’s
Vineyard but only anchored out not going ashore. This time we moved into the inner harbor and
anchored off to the side of the mooring field.
The first to hail us was Patrick who was next to us at Hadley
Harbor. We got the local information:
where to get water, drop off trash, where the dinghy dock is and so on. Several people had told us it was a nice stop
but one day would be all it would take to see everything. We stayed for four days.
We took a walk around the small village checking out the
market and following Tower Hill Road to the top of the island to check out the
view. We made the mistake of not
bringing cameras. We came back the next
day to take pictures. The summit has a
WW II bunker that has been turned into an observation platform. There are trails leading to several other bunkers
that were built during WW II as observation posts for subs and ships at the
mouth of Long Island Sound and Buzzards Bay.
We also took the dinghy out of the harbor and went ashore along a sand
spit that leads to the cut opening from Buzzards Bay to Vineyard Sound. We didn’t find shells but a lot of variety of
rocks. On Saturday we took the hike down
the island to the south end. Here there
is a pond used for raising shellfish and is also the location of the Gosnold Monument. History has always interested me but there is
so much that we are not told. For
example: Jamestown settlers landed on the James River in Virginia. How did they know to go there and what was
going to be there when they arrive? It
turns out that five years earlier Bartholomew Gosnold traveled the area,
charted the islands, built a small fort and stayed on Cuttyhunk for about a
month, traveled the coast extensively and was one of the captains that brought
the settlers to Virginia. Basically,
historians need to pick a starting point to begin their records and gloss over
what happened before. From the monument
we followed the shore back to town, climbing along a rocky shoreline to get
back traveling about a third of the island in the process. My poor knees, thank goodness Cori thought to
pack us a lunch.
Sunday, 8/16/2015, it was time to move again. We had received word from Dan and Marcia on
Cutting Class that they were on their way to Block Island. We made plans to meet up with them. First we decided to make a stop at Newport
again to provision and get cleaned up.
It was a motorboat ride until the wind came up and we could put out the
headsail and motorsail. We learned a lesson;
don’t come into Newport Harbor on a Sunday afternoon unless you want to deal
with traffic. We dodged everything from
small sailing dinghies to big sport fishers moving up, down and across the
river. Once anchored we were ready to
launch the dinghy. On our previous stay
we had always gotten wet from the chop splashing into the dinghy. We decided to stay dry this time and called
for a launch to come pick us up. At $3
each we thought it was a good deal. They
dropped us off at the Maritime Center; we stashed our stuff in a locker ($3)
and walked up to the grocery store. Once
back from the store we hit the showers ($1.75).
Once we were all cleaned up we called for the launch to pick us up and
return us to the boat. For dinner we had
the fish that Cori caught the day before while we were in Cuttyhunk. That’s it, our entire stay in Newport; we
left first thing in the morning.
We were off to Block Island.
Every sailor has heard of Block Island, it seems to be every east coast sailor’s
destination. There is a large natural
harbor that is filled with boats and as we entered Dan came alongside in his
dinghy to give us the lay of the land.
There are a lot of moorings here both private and public. The public moorings were full (and expensive)
so we moved to the anchorage area to choose our spot. The anchorage gets as crowded as the mooring
fields. We found a spot we felt
comfortable and dropped anchor, let out a lot of chain and set the anchor as
hard as we could. The bottom is not the
best and boats are known to drag anchor and go for a walkabout. The wind was kicking up and the harbor was
getting rough so we chose to stay on the boat.
In the morning we launched the dinghy and headed to shore to check out
the island. From the marina that has the
dinghy dock to town is about a mile walk.
Once ashore the breeze was not as noticeable and it was HOT. We walked around town checking out the shops,
watched people, and had lunch. Block
Island has been a vacation spot since Victorian times and it still is. The ferries arrived regularly discharging
their passengers heading to the beaches.
There are some very nice beaches but the town is very touristy. We were back to the boat in the early
afternoon then went to Cutting Class for a visit. After drinks, snacks and advice we were back
on-board for the evening. We were
planning to leave in the morning but by then the winds had died down and the
harbor was not as rough. Cori launched
her kayak and paddled to shore to check out a beach. I stayed on-board and took care of a couple of
maintenance projects. One of the
features of Block Island is the coffee and pastry boat in the morning and then
returning in the afternoon to sell fresh fish.
We had cinnamon rolls in the morning and bought some swordfish steaks
for dinner.
Thursday 8/20/2015.
Time to move on, we pulled anchor to be surprised by a clam that had
attached itself to one of the wire ties I use to mark the chain. That was a first. We headed out early since there was a
forecast for rain but none of it materialized.
We tried sailing to Montauk on the east end of Long Island. While crossing we were taking the waves on
our side causing a lot of roll. The wind
died to less than 10 knots and everything was taking a bad beating so we fired
up the engine and motored across. The
advantage of motoring is that I can also run the water-maker but we are burning
fuel and not sailing. Once in the lee of
Long Island the swell decreased, the
wind came up 15-20 knots so it was back to sailing. We bypassed Montauk Harbor and chose to
anchor for the night in Old Fort Bay.
Next time we will have to go ashore but for now we just spent the night
and moved on in the morning. During the
night we saw a bright yellow anchor light across the bay that looked unusual. In the morning we saw that it was a Coast
Guard cutter. They are a little more
armed with bigger guns then the smaller CG boats so we gave them a lot of space
as we left. We were on our way to
Greenport.
We bypassed the Greenport harbor and its mooring field and
marinas and dropped anchor in Pikes Cove.
Marinas and moorings are extremely expensive in this area so we choose
to save our money and anchor out.
Saturday 8/22/2015.
We took the dinghy to town and hit the farmers market for some fresh vegetables
and eggs then walked around to check out the business district. Greenport is a very old town with a long
history of shipbuilding, whaling and oyster harvesting. Had we been here over the 4th of
July we would have seen the tall ship rendezvous and the arrival of the Hermione,
a replica of the ship Lafayette took to the Colonies to aid with the
Revolutionary war. As we were leaving
the harbor we were flagged down by a small sailboat that could not get into the
harbor. It was powered by an electric
motor and something was wrong. We hooked
a line and towed them to their dock. Our
good deed for the day. After lunch we
headed back to town to check it out some more, visiting more shops, a museum
and Cori’s favorite, the local microbrewery tasting room. Before leaving we made a run to the marina to
buy gas for the outboards and the generator.
While there the attendant gave us the schedule for the Monday night
concerts in the park so I guess we will be here for a few days.
It is Sunday 8/23/2015 and we are spending the morning with
the generator running and the water-maker pumping out fresh water. We are able to make about three gallons an
hour. What doesn’t sound like much but
it is helping us avoid stopping at a marina.
We have not been to a marina to charge batteries and take on water since
the beginning of July, our longest stretch yet.
Usually we try to stop about once a month to let the batteries get a
good deep charge. Since then we have
been relying on solar, charging while we motor and the generator. For water we are making our own, filling jugs
when we go ashore or as we did in Edgartown, pull up to the water raft and fill
the tanks. We are staying as self-sufficient
as we can.
We plan on staying here a few more days taking the dinghy on
excursions to check out the area then head back to New London to return
borrowed cruising books then continue back towards New York City and points
South. We still do not have good Wi-Fi
service so pictures and map updates will have to wait.
