From Newport, the plan was to head to Massachusetts and the Elizabeth Islands which are off of Buzzards Bay. First stop would be Cuttyhunk, and then a bit further east to Hadley Harbor off of Woods Hole. From there we would cross the narrow Vineyard Sound and explore (as much as possible) Martha's Vineyard, Chappaquiddick Island (I will refrain from any comments), and Nantucket Island. Because we plan to be at the Annapolis Boat Show, we decided not go to Maine this year. Perhaps Maine's notorious fog played a small role in this decision. We really want to go to Maine sometime in the near future--hopefully next summer.
Our sail to Block Island was wonderful. The weather was beautiful, and the winds were perfect. We had a strong urge to just keep on going.
Block Island Is about 6 miles long and 3 miles wide. It has a harbor that is about 1 mile long and 3/4 mile wide. The island belongs to Rhode Island and is about 12 nautical miles south the mainland. It is about 35 nm from our anchorage at Orient Harbor on Long Island.
A good bit of the harbor is taken up by undisturbed shellfish beds, and a large part of the the harbor is taken up with mooring balls--mostly private. They say there is room for over 1000 boats to anchor in the harbor. We heard that weekends in July and August are very crowded and more so on holiday weekends, so we timed our arrival on a Monday. We could not believe the congestion when we entered the harbor--on a weekday. We arrived early afternoon and dropped anchor in 42' of water in the first spot we considered adequate. Then we hung around to make sure we held and that other boats wouldn't drag onto us. The pleasure boat traffic going in and out of the harbor was unreal. The island is close to Long Island, Conn., RI, and Mass. So there are a ton of potential visitors all summer long. Block Island has a bad reputation of poorly anchored boats dragging when the wind pipes up, so we were a bit nervous and on guard.
Like many other boaters, we pay attention to how boats around us anchor--their procedure, their ground tackle, the amount of scope, how close they are to other boats etc. All was looking OK until just before dark a Hunter 36, which was a charter boat, showed up and anchored very close to us. I won't go into it other than to say it was a Chinese fire drill and he maybe had a 2 to 1 scope--which was mostly rope (for those of you who aren't boaters, the text books say if you have all chain use a 5 to 1 scope in normal conditions, and 7 to 1 scope if it's stormy // if you use rope use a 7 to 1 scope in normal conditions and 10 to 1 if it's stormy--mind you VERY few adhere to this. The longer the scope the less chance of the anchor pulling out or dragging.). And he promptly called the launch and they went to town. The following day, I was about to take a shower, looked out the window and saw the Hunter was about to weigh anchor. So I quickly got half dressed (the important half), and Lisa and I grabbed some fenders. He was driving the boat zig zagging all around dragging about 40' of rode and his anchor--then the rope jammed in the windlass--and he kept driving around. He went across our bow (about 12 feet in front) dragging his anchor, blew down (it was windy) to within a couple feet of our boat on the port side (he started on the starboard side), where we had fenders ready. He reversed out of trouble just in time and went to a marina. It was a miracle that his anchor didn't hook our chain or that his rode didn't get caught in his prop. We knew the marinas and mooring balls were full, so he must have gone for fuel or water and would have to reanchor. We waited until we saw him reappear and mercifully anchor right outside the fairway about 300 yards away from us. So I took my shower and Lisa spit up blood.
A good bit of the harbor is taken up by undisturbed shellfish beds, and a large part of the the harbor is taken up with mooring balls--mostly private. They say there is room for over 1000 boats to anchor in the harbor. We heard that weekends in July and August are very crowded and more so on holiday weekends, so we timed our arrival on a Monday. We could not believe the congestion when we entered the harbor--on a weekday. We arrived early afternoon and dropped anchor in 42' of water in the first spot we considered adequate. Then we hung around to make sure we held and that other boats wouldn't drag onto us. The pleasure boat traffic going in and out of the harbor was unreal. The island is close to Long Island, Conn., RI, and Mass. So there are a ton of potential visitors all summer long. Block Island has a bad reputation of poorly anchored boats dragging when the wind pipes up, so we were a bit nervous and on guard.
Like many other boaters, we pay attention to how boats around us anchor--their procedure, their ground tackle, the amount of scope, how close they are to other boats etc. All was looking OK until just before dark a Hunter 36, which was a charter boat, showed up and anchored very close to us. I won't go into it other than to say it was a Chinese fire drill and he maybe had a 2 to 1 scope--which was mostly rope (for those of you who aren't boaters, the text books say if you have all chain use a 5 to 1 scope in normal conditions, and 7 to 1 scope if it's stormy // if you use rope use a 7 to 1 scope in normal conditions and 10 to 1 if it's stormy--mind you VERY few adhere to this. The longer the scope the less chance of the anchor pulling out or dragging.). And he promptly called the launch and they went to town. The following day, I was about to take a shower, looked out the window and saw the Hunter was about to weigh anchor. So I quickly got half dressed (the important half), and Lisa and I grabbed some fenders. He was driving the boat zig zagging all around dragging about 40' of rode and his anchor--then the rope jammed in the windlass--and he kept driving around. He went across our bow (about 12 feet in front) dragging his anchor, blew down (it was windy) to within a couple feet of our boat on the port side (he started on the starboard side), where we had fenders ready. He reversed out of trouble just in time and went to a marina. It was a miracle that his anchor didn't hook our chain or that his rode didn't get caught in his prop. We knew the marinas and mooring balls were full, so he must have gone for fuel or water and would have to reanchor. We waited until we saw him reappear and mercifully anchor right outside the fairway about 300 yards away from us. So I took my shower and Lisa spit up blood.
One of the dinghy docks at Block Island.
Block Island really is pretty. It was quite hot, but we walked the town and enjoyed the day. We will probably not go back because we could never feel that our boat is safe from other boats there.
Hurricane Bill caused us to cancel our Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, and Vineyard Sound agenda. We decided to head to Oyster Bay which is mid Long Island Sound on the south shore. There is reasonable protection there, and it would get us further away from Bill's projected path. And we know from Ike, that the projected path is just a guess.
Block Island really is pretty. It was quite hot, but we walked the town and enjoyed the day. We will probably not go back because we could never feel that our boat is safe from other boats there.
Hurricane Bill caused us to cancel our Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, and Vineyard Sound agenda. We decided to head to Oyster Bay which is mid Long Island Sound on the south shore. There is reasonable protection there, and it would get us further away from Bill's projected path. And we know from Ike, that the projected path is just a guess.
Back to Orient Harbor behind Long Beach.
So, to catch a fair current, we left Block Island at around 5:30 am and headed back to our anchorage on Orient Harbor. We started out with a brisk sail with some good wave action. Since the wind was close to our nose we had to tack back and forth, but it was fun sailing. We had to motor the last couple of hours since the wind died down.
So, to catch a fair current, we left Block Island at around 5:30 am and headed back to our anchorage on Orient Harbor. We started out with a brisk sail with some good wave action. Since the wind was close to our nose we had to tack back and forth, but it was fun sailing. We had to motor the last couple of hours since the wind died down.
Once again, to take advantage of a strong fair current, we were on our way at 5:30 the next morning. It was a bit foggy when we left and then it got worse. We would not have been able to proceed without radar and a chartplotter. The fog stayed with us most of the way, but by late morning visibility finally improved. We made it through Plum Gut with no problems and rode the fair current all the way to Port Jefferson--a bit over 50 nautical miles. We debated continuing on to Oyster Bay, but the current was turning against us, so we just ducked in at Port Jefferson.
House at Port Jefferson.
Now I hear Obama is going to be at Martha's Vineyard this weekend. I told you he was stalking me. We kept our change of plans a secret. We are relieved Bush is no longer president, because we all know he was responsible for Katrina (I don't think Ike was his fault since it hit Texas). We have full confidence that B. O. will protect us from hurricanes this year.
After reviewing the weather updates we decided we could stay a day at Port Jefferson before continuing on to Oyster Bay. The winds were very strong at our anchorage making it very undesirable to make the long dinghy ride from the anchorage to the dinghy dock, so we never made it into town. After listening to weather again we decided we needed to move on. So at 2:30 pm we upped anchor and started the 25 mile trek to Oyster Bay. The change in plans caused us to have a foul current the whole way. The winds were between 25 and 35 knots about 30 degrees off the bow. The only good thing, was the wind was not opposing the strong current. When we were leaving Port Jefferson, a Catalina 30 tall rig was coming in with a loose forestay. He was able to keep the mast up using a spinnaker halyard. The bobstay had parted causing the bowsprit and pulpit to rise up under the pressure of the forestay. Fortunately he made it into port with his mast still in the air.
Now I hear Obama is going to be at Martha's Vineyard this weekend. I told you he was stalking me. We kept our change of plans a secret. We are relieved Bush is no longer president, because we all know he was responsible for Katrina (I don't think Ike was his fault since it hit Texas). We have full confidence that B. O. will protect us from hurricanes this year.
After reviewing the weather updates we decided we could stay a day at Port Jefferson before continuing on to Oyster Bay. The winds were very strong at our anchorage making it very undesirable to make the long dinghy ride from the anchorage to the dinghy dock, so we never made it into town. After listening to weather again we decided we needed to move on. So at 2:30 pm we upped anchor and started the 25 mile trek to Oyster Bay. The change in plans caused us to have a foul current the whole way. The winds were between 25 and 35 knots about 30 degrees off the bow. The only good thing, was the wind was not opposing the strong current. When we were leaving Port Jefferson, a Catalina 30 tall rig was coming in with a loose forestay. He was able to keep the mast up using a spinnaker halyard. The bobstay had parted causing the bowsprit and pulpit to rise up under the pressure of the forestay. Fortunately he made it into port with his mast still in the air.
Partly cloudy, slight chance of rain...
The winds were strong, and it was bumpy, but we were in the lee of Long Island so it wasn't too bad. We were trying to outrun the swells from Bill as well as strong thunderstorms headed our way in the Long Island area. We beat Bill's swells, but not the thunderstorms. We barely noticed the storm because the winds were already quite strong. We dodged another one.
Just before we turned into the inlet, the winds died almost completely. We made it to our anchorage just after 7 pm.
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