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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