Bristol, Wickford, Woods Hole

While we were walking around Bristol, Lisa brought my attention to these 2 boats. Me thinks they are owned by the same person.

Next on our list was a visit to Wickford, RI which is only a two hour sail from Bristol. The winds were very light, but we were able to sail wing and wing (front sail on the opposite side of the mainsail) and still manage to dodge the lobster pots on the east side of Prudence Island. Sojourner left for Wickford the previous day, so Rick and Linda were waiting for us when we arrived. We ate lunch together, walked the town, and did some grocery shopping. Then Sojourner had us over for Rick's special spicy spaghetti. Very good.

Wickford is another very charming RI town with lots of pretty trees and old houses. The town is very small and it doesn't take too long to exhaust the shops and eateries.


Pretty house in Wickford.


This house stands guard over the main mooring field as you enter the harbor.

While in Bristol, Claire and Paul inspired us to get into the spirit of New England. The seafood they served us was so good that we knew we needed to try our hand at it. So we stopped at the fresh seafood place that Claire recommended (in Wickford) and got a couple of lobsters and a couple pounds of mussels.


The lobster is giving us the L sign for "Luke warm water please".

Note to PETA. Some mean person had put him on ice. We were only trying to help.

The meal was great. I think boaters should get a discount on lobster considering the constant stress their traps put on us. Maybe I could be the Lobster Czar. We need more Czars.

It was time to move on. Our goal was sail to Buzzards Bay and check out Woods Hole, Mass., then go to Martha's Vineyard and possibly Nantucket. The Kinder and Gentler One (man, Bush was a meanie) was taking his freak show and campaign to Martha's Vineyard at the same time we had planned to be there (he did the same thing last year). This was not good, but we decided to go ahead anyway.

On the way out, we decided to stop at Dutch Harbor for a day to do laundry, and I was able to do a good scrubbing of the topsides of the boat as well.


Dutch Harbor the night before heading to Woods Hole. Sometimes I can't believe we have to suffer in these kind of surroundings. To make it worse, the temperature was perfect.

The following day we had a wonderful sail to Hadley Harbor, near Woods Hole. This is a very busy destination for pleasure boaters, and we knew Friday was not the best day to show up. But we couldn't name it Tuesday because it was Friday. No new math involved.

Hadley Harbor is beautiful, but like most of the northeast, the main harbor is filled with mooring balls. There is room to anchor, just not with good all round protection. Forbes owns the main island, and a lot of well known politicians frequent these harbors.

On Saturday we took the mile or so dinghy ride to Woods Hole and enjoyed the day exploring the town and it's surrounding area. We were glad we were able to visit Woods Hole, because weather was on it's way. The forecast was now calling for a Nor'easter with gale force winds to arrive Sunday night and linger on through Wednesday.

With the Kinder and Gentler One disrupting the normal flow of Marthas Vineyard and some extended bad weather, with limited bad weather anchorage, we decided to high tail it back to Dutch Harbor. So we took a left on Buzzards Bay and headed back to the little state.

It was another spectacular sail with some light rain in the mix. When we got to the mouth of Narragansett, things got a bit dicey. The winds were mostly in the mid twenties gusting over 30 knots, then a squall hit us. The tidal currents of Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound sort of collide near the mouth of Narragansett Bay--then the currents join together in harmony and shoot north or south depending on the tide cycle. All of this made the seas quite large and square and close together. The large square waves assisted us as we tangled up the genoa around the forestay while we tried to roll it in. But we were able to untangle it all by ourselves without any help from the waves. Once we entered the bay everything laid down in an orderly fashion.

We were anchored by early afternoon with good protection and the knowledge that we would get a lot of reading done in the next few days.