Newport

A beautiful day of sailing from Salt Pond, Block Island , RI to Newport RI.  We were low on water and in need of some showers, so it was a bummer to find that the "coin op" showers at Salt Pond turned out to be tokens only for the marina guests.  Oh well.  

We grabbed 10 gallons from the hose at the end of the boat ramp then headed for Newport.  They have a floating dock in the middle of the bay marked 'water for yachts' so we bellied up to the bar and took a full load which is 157 gallons.  Nice to have warm showers finally.

The number an variety of boats here is just astounding.  Everything from little day sailors to mega-mega yachts the likes I have never seen before.  Christine did a wonderful job navigating around all the close in boat giving me some hair raising moments as we swung past million dollars yachts missing them my 10ft or so.   I'm just glad she was driving.

It is always a little confusing entering a new harbor.  It is good advise to only do so during daylight hours in settled conditions.

Salt Pond

So we did our longest passage to date direct from Cape May NJ to Block Island, RI about 34 hrs of motor sailing in the Atlantic.  Skipped the whole New York harbor thing since we plan to see that on our way back South.  We had hoped for more wind, but ended up the whole time living with the clatter of the iron jib.  Oh well.

What a treat when we got to Block Island.  Charts and maps just can't do a location justice.  In addition to loosing all vertical perspective, you also have no idea about the people.  This place is one of those East Coast vacation spots that is crowded all summer, then virtually vacant after school starts.  It is amazing to see the number of cruising vessels coming and going.

Saw my first Gunboat catamaran here.  Really quite a stunning boat built for speed.  Just toys of the rich and famous.

Odd how the cruising life style brings together people of all classes.  When we fueled up in Cape May, there was a fellow at the dock who volunteered to catch some dock lines for us.  We got talking and it turns out that he is the president of a company that makes LED fixtures.  Since I am in the energy efficient lighting business myself, we had lots to talk about in addition to our love for beautiful and practical sailing vessels.  Normally we would never had the reason or opportunity to meet.  Now we are connected on  LinkedIn.

So, back to the Salt Pond anchorage on Block Island RI.  This is the very first anchorage that I have been to that has a dedicated Bakery Boat.  You read that right.  The Bakery Boat hails on channel 71 and delivers fresh donuts right to your boat... for a fee of course.  But, still, I just had to order one for the novelty of it.