Jamestown RI and Dutch Harbor

What a nice passage from Cuttyhunk this afternoon.  We got up in time for church and David enjoyed some personal attention at the Sunday school.  He was one of 4 kids attending, and the only 4 year old.

The service was Catholic,  and it was good to sing some of the hymns from my childhood.  There was no priest, so the homily was the first "communal homily" I have experienced.  There were maybe 30 people and we were invited to share our thoughts about the readings.  It was different and interesting.

After church we said goodbye to Veit and Hansi Mueller from the s/v Atman.  A wonderful couple that we met in Cap May and managed to link up again in Cuttyhunk.  Veit and I also share a professional interest in energy saving.  He runs a company that sells european type LED fixtures in the United States.  Their German accents are wonderful and we wonder what they must think of our Western Oregon DRaawwll.

The passage was mostly up hill with winds from 12-20 knots.  Gypsy Queen really finds her stride when  the winds are at least 12-13 knots.  We ended up on a beam reach into Newport bay area doing about 7 knots and 30 degrees of heel.  This is the first time that we have heeled that far for any length of time.  We stayed on that tack for at least 2 hours and Christine was comfortable resting in the sun on the deck.  Normally that is just too exciting for her, but we are learning to trust the boat even when the rails are getting wet.

This is also the first time that we have broken out the hammock under sail attaching it to the inner forestay and the mast.  I took a turn and my cell phone came out of my pocket.  Miraculously, the phone stayed in the hammock even though it was was whipped around in the wind.

Christine takes the first turn!

There are some incredibly beautiful boats in these waters including fully rigged schooners the the like.

 

We ended up at Dutch Harbor near Jamestown RI (across from Newport) just at sunset.  It is hard to believe that this is just 'life' for us.  Most everyone else around us are on 'vacation' mode and are surprise when we tell them our boat is our only home.  This is Labor Day weekend so by Tuesday I anticipate it will start getting pretty lonely at the anchorage and our thoughts will begin to turn SOUTH.