Block Island

We have been in Block Island for the past two weeks. Block is one of our favorite stops, we used it as a vacation destination when we lived in Stamford CT. We have been able to anchor in New Harbor, and although deep very good holding in mud. The weather has been nothing short of brilliant, allowing us to hit the beach several times, bike around the island and generally enjoy summer and warm water. We have also used these past two weeks to establish our intended daily routine, with "household" chores in the morning, which normally consist of lugging water, one or two boat projects, laundry and cleaning. We follow this with home schooling for Jake. After taking lunch we then head out for an afternoon of play.

We also got our fishing equipment set up (a big thanks to my friends and colleagues at Bunge). Though we have not really "fished" yet, we have played around. The kids enjoy using small nets to catch the thousands of jelly fish. So now we wait for offshore waters south of NJ to see what fish we can land.

We have also been witness to several interesting anchoring techniques, all vessel names withheld to protect the innocent. The first event was a raft of three boats that were on one anchor. The captains and crews were all on shore when a strong thunderstorm came through. While the winds were not that strong, the first gust popped their anchor out and off they drifted through the entire anchorage, apparently only hitting one other boat on their way through. The local Sea Tow and Harbor master corralled them and took them across the channel to a mooring ball. After the storm dissipated the captains returned with chagrined looks and ultimately open pocket books for the Sea Tow boat.

The second event was a soft grounding in the entrance channel, ok not really an anchoring issue, but near low tide there is a sand bar that extends into the SW portion of the channel, catching the keel of a sailboat, where they waited for three hours for a little additional water. This by the way was the same spot we bumped over in May on the way in.

The third included yours truly in the happenings. A sailboat anchored rather close to us and one other boat, using all rope rode, while we and the other boat where on all chain, or chain/rope combination. The winds were extremely light to non-existent. First the new boat started drifting randomly towards the "other" boat. The "new" boat then turned on their motor to drive away, but did not move anchor. We found this amusing as they immediately started drifting back towards the "other" boat once the engine was off, which frankly should have been of no surprise. Eventually, we retired for the evening as did the winds completely. At 6:00 am I woke as normal, opened my eyes to see a sailboat mast (Rae and I sleep in the forward cabin) directly overhead on our port side. I get up and make my way to the cockpit while mentioning the situation to Rae Ann. Rae wastes no time and jumps through the forward hatch on to deck to push "new" boat gently away from her nestled position against our bow. "New" boat of course glides right back to us, but by then I have reached the bow and give "new" boat a mighty push. At around 7 am "new" boat has drifted back close enough that our loud (assisted by children now) conversation about their wanderings wakes them. They were a crew of two, man and woman, with an interesting dynamic. The woman was extremely loud and rude, repeatedly telling the man to "shut up, I am trying to drive" or "shut up I am trying to pull up anchor", all the while the man tried to follow orders but seemingly had never been on a boat before. All very entertaining, and no damage to our boat so all in the name of fun and games.

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Boston

After leaving Isles of Shoals we sailed south to the Boston area where we met Dave's parents. We spent two weeks exploring the area via boat and car seeing Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead and Plymouth in addition to several trips into Boston. We kept the boat at Hingham Shipyard for the majority of the time - a very good marina with great management. The kids greatly enjoyed the grandparents electing to stay with them at their hotel every other night, which mom and dad where very happy to sacrifice these evenings.

From Boston we started heading south again, aiming for Block Island for a longer stay this time around to enjoy the great beaches and generally fun boating atmosphere. After we exited the south end of Cape Cod Canal we had 15 knot SE winds and were sailing along at 8 knots. We elected to push onto Block Island, though are arrival would be about midnight. We have been in the harbor several times so were comfortable with both the entrance and finding anchoring room. About 9pm we received a report of very strong thunderstorms right in our path. We decided to divert to Newport arriving there at 11 pm and missing all but the edge of the storms. We then left early the following morning to make Block Island. And now... we swim and enjoy the beach and warm waters for a while.

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Isles of Shoals

Departing Sebasco we moved SW through Casco bay to Jewel Island. Jewel has been a rumored pirate hangout and a sub lookout during WWII. The only thing we could confirm is the WWII part. Jewel Island is a part of the state park network for Maine. We anchored for 3 days taking advantage of the many different trails and beaches. We explored the military installations, the lookouts were easy, the underground bunkers. Unnerving especially with fading flashlights. We drug anchor for the first time, though at 7:30 in the morning as we were drinking coffee in the cockpit. This was simultaneous with two other boats. As the anchorage was packed and is very small everyone used very little scope on their rode so just a high tide (tide ranges are 10 feet) with a strong wind and some waves and presto our anchor broke out.

We then did a drive by of Portland harbor, rounded Cape Elizabeth and sailed to Isles of Shoals. These islands are about 7 miles off the coast and the city of Portsmouth, NH. They have a long history including a sighting/landing by John Smith (he named them the Smithys after himself but lost out in the naming game eventually). The islands were a very successful cod finishing outpost for many years. There was also a discovery of a pirate treasure of four silver bars there, which paid for the construction of the first breakwater for the harbor. Also rumored to be where Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, left his young bride. Among the notable events; 1) Betty Moody’s cave where she fled with her two infant children to escape an attack by Indians only to slaughter them to keep them from crying and giving away their location with their crying and 2) a double ax murder of 2 women by allegedly a former employee, who in the middle of winter rowed from the mainland killed the two women and rowed back, all during the night. The testimony of the one surviving women resulted in the conviction and execution of the “murderer”. A great book by Anita Shreeve, the Weight of Water, retells the story. All of this happens, by the way, on 7 islands, each of which can be walked entirely in about 30 – 45 minutes.

On our last night in the Isles of Shoals we got hit by a massive thunderstorm. The harbor is untenable unless on mooring, which we were as were the many other boats there excepting one. I am guessing but think the winds were as high as 50 knots at the peak. All of the boats including ours were swinging wildly around the anchorage with rain gushing down and whitecaps on 4 foot waves. The boat that was anchored drug onto the rocks as did one boat on a mooring, both saved themselves though by motoring off quickly. We kept our engine on as I am sure everyone did, just in case. This was about 7:00 pm, lasted no more than 45 minutes, then the sun came back out, everyone was a little wetter and out to BBQ their dinner. These thunderstorms, though not nearly as violent have followed us all the way down the coast since.