Island Time

Three nights, three islands :

 

Friday 9/27 - Cuttyhunk

Saturday 9/28 - Rhode (Newport Harbor)

Sunday 9/29 - Block

 

So we left Onset MA Friday morning after beach play with the pooches and motored SW down Buzzards Bay with the wind at our backs. 3 hours later we reached Cuttyhunk Island, at the mouth of the bay. By then the wind was quite strong but we easily tied to one of the town's 50 rental moorings and dinghied in to explore. Lots of modest, we'll kept vacation homes and not much else, especially post season. We walked around and sort of got lost so we walked and walked, and it was all good.

Here's a view from the top of Cuttyhunk, looking to the NE. Can you find Spray?

Nne

Saturday we set off to the west for Newport and the sea conditions were ideal. We pulled into the busy harbor ( a real boater's paradise) at about 1 pm and for the 1st time in the journey, dropped our anchor in their designated anchorage zone. I got a charge from the cool boats moored near us and sailing nearby, lots of wooden classics. The 4 of us dinghied to a nearby park and walked down Thames Street on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, having pizza slices on a bench and watching the tourists. We found a good health food store and Sheila went in and bought what seemed like 100 pounds of food to lug back to the boat. That night we went to sleep listening to a rock concert at nearby Ft. Adams and were periodically awakened by nasty wakes from ships going up/down Narraganset Bay.

Here is Spray at anchor in Newport:

Sunday the NOAA report looked good for a run to Block Island. Predicted winds of 5-10 knots from the NE, which would be from astern. Instead we ran into 15+ knots from the SE (abeam), and 3-4 ft waves, which was quite uncomfortable. It was 4 hours of hell until we got to the lee side of Block and pulled into the Great Salt Pond and dropped anchor. It's a long 10 minute ride to the dinghy dock but there is a beach nearby for draining the dogs. After rolling at Newport this calm anchorage is welcome. On a busy summer weekend there would be 100's of boats in here but in late September only a few.

We walked to the main town where the ferries land, and tried to loop back to the lagoon but ended up lost and walked maybe 6 miles before we returned to our dinghy, but it was good. Since we like this island and we have time to kill (we'll be visiting my brother and sister, etc. this weekend in CT) we decide to stay 2 days here on Block. Today I finally took some time to do some boat maintenance (sanding Spray's teak transom in prep for revarnishing) and we took another long walk with the dogs, to this cool place:

(Photos in today's blog courtesy of Sheila and her iPhone)

 

Tomorrow conditions look good (we hope) for a run to Old Saybrook CT, at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Might stay there a couple of days too.

 

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