Friday, July 31, 2009
Road Trip
We have spent the past 9 days in lovely East Greenwich Cove. Our days have been spent helping friends Ray & Marianne renovate a house that they purchased recently. Lots of different projects - painting, installing new bathroom fixtures, nailing in a wood ceiling, and the list goes on and on......we still spend our nights on "Kismet". It has been fun exploring the area. East Greenwich has is nice town with more barber shops, hair salons and nail spas than we have ever seen! I actually convinced Jim to get a haircut - it has been quite awhile; about 5 months! Ray & Marianne have also shown us many of the hotspots here - $2.99 margaritas at Chelos and fish & chips at Iggy's in Orchard Beach. Oh yes, one afternoon we actually went for a sail - the wind was blowing about 15 knots and we had a wonderful sail. We realized that during the past year this was only the 3rd time that we went out for a daysail! Tomorrow we leave; by car, for a week trip back to Norwich. We have now been living aboard "Kismet" for a year. We love it - Jim says he can't imagine living any other way!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Back in Rhode Island
I spent a wonderful week in Los Angeles visiting daughter, Elena & sister and brother-in-law, Gail & Hank. We relaxed, went to the beach, shopped for bargains, fixed things, ate out at fun restaurants, went to the Getty Museum, and went to The Self-Realization Temple for a special event, "India Night"; dinner, a dance demonstration, and an Indian fashion show. After a nearly sleepless night on the "Red Eye" flight back to Rhode Island, it was nice to be back on "Kismet". We said good-bye to Nancy & Dick in Wickford and we sailed the short trip north on Narragansett Bay to East Greenwich Cove in RI. We are so fortunate to have met such wonderful people along the way this past year. Marianne & Ray live near East Greenwich and own/manage moorings all over RI. They offered us a mooring for a next few weeks while we take a land trip back to Norwich, NY for a visit. Today we helped Ray & Marianne with house renovations; painting, wiring, etc. to a very cute house that they recently bought to rent/sell.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Settled in Wickford, Rhode Island
On our way from Essex CT to Wickford RI in the Narragansett Bay we made stops in Watch Hill RI and Pt Judith RI. Watch Hill Cove was a great place to anchor. We toured the village; enjoying the beach town atmosphere complete with a "flying horse" carousel (for children only), the St. Clair Annex for ice cream, the gorgeous ocean front homes, the rebuild of the Ocean House Hotel, and unique stone walls. Then the next day we were off to Point Judith; by way of Block Island because the wind was right on our nose. It was a great sail though, and we were anchored in Pt Judith Pond by 1600. Went off in the dinghy to "Jims Dock" for dinner to try out the Rhode Island seafood. We each ordered the crunchy flounder which was delicious - 1 order would have been enough for 2! After getting fuel, water, and pumping out at the Pt Judith Marina on Friday morning we headed to Wickford, a 20 mile trip up beautiful Narragansett Bay. The wind was VERY light so we motored up the Bay and entered the Wickford Breakwall at 1500. We were greeted by Dick Meader from "Amariah", friends that we met cruising. We rafted to his boat which is on a mooring ball in the harbor. We will stay here for about 2 weeks where I will leave from to go to CA to visit Elena and Jim will work on the boat fixing the broken engine mounts & leaking chainplates. Dick & Nancy live nearby in a lovely condo. Yesterday, Nancy & I went to the Wickford Art Festival, the oldest open air fair in the US! It was a fantastic show. Last night we went to dinner with friends of Jim's from college days - Terry & Arlene who live nearby.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Magnificent Long Island Sound
We spent the July 4th weekend in Northport, Long Island, anchored at the north end of the mooring field. Great town with farmer's market, laundromat, delis, grocery store(a short walk - uphill). There wasn't a designated town dinghy dock - but the bay constable graciously offered us his dinghy spot for a couple of days. We saw fireworks displays in all directions - very cool. On Sunday, July 5th, we sailed downwind with our spinnaker - 30 miles to Milford, CT. We anchored behind Charles Island. We dinghied into town - there is a beautiful town green here - second longest in New England (Boston is #1!). It was pretty rough at the anchorage; so sleeping wasn't the best! Yesterday we pretty much motored 35 miles to the mouth of the Connecticut River. We had our first experience in pea soup fog. For about an hour or so we had about 100 feet of visibility. Every few minutes we blew our horn and the radar was VERY helpful. We decided to head 6 miles up the river to check out Essex, CT for a couple of days. We anchored very near Essex, behind Nott Island - a peaceful, uncrowded anchorage. The mooring balls here are $50.00 and slips are $4.50 ft/day! We are very content at the anchorage. Today we went into town - there is a nice town dock where you can tie up the dink for a couple hours for free. We treated ourselves to lunch out at the fabled "Griswold Inn", then back to "Kismet" before the thunderstorm hit!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Surviving Hellgate
We left Point Lookout, L.I. on Tuesday morning with Maryann & Peg on "Windancer", friends that we met last September. They were going to spend the holiday weekend in Red Bank NJ, so we thought we'd sail with them to Atlantic Highlands, NJ, before heading up the East River to L.I.Sound. After clearing Jones Inlet, the sails all went up, and we had a fantastic sail, 30 miles, to the Highlands. After we anchored, we heard on the VHF that a 34' Tartan sailboat had dragged anchor and was banging on the rock jetty very near us. Captain Rescue, a.k.a Jim, dinghied over to save the boat but was intercepted by Tow Boat US, who took the boat for salvage! Needless to say, the owner was distressed when he returned and the boat was gone. After that excitement, we had cocktails on "Windancer" and then we all went ashore for dinner at the Memphis Pig Out and enjoyed the Firemans carnival. Jim and I left at 0630 on Wednesday morning to travel up New York Harbor, through the East River, HELLGATE, and out Long Island Sound. There is a great deal of hype regarding travel through HELLGATE. All the cruising guides warn boaters about planning this trip carefully with attention to the currents & tides. Jim did much planning (unusual for Jim)the night before so that we would arrive at HELLGATE at slack tide; and we wouldn't get swallowed up by a whirlpool there. Well, we arrived perfectly at slack tide - and we looked at each other and smiled at the perfectly flat water. We survived HELLGATE! By 1400, we were picking up a mooring ball at Steppingstone Park at Kings Point, Long Island. My Aunt Estelle & Uncle Mel live there, so this was a great opportunity to visit. We spent a very enjoyable evening with them. What a beautiful spot - free mooring balls for the resident's guests with launch service. So nice that we decided to spend an extra day here. Today we walked to the US Merchant Marine Academy (a 5 minute walk). Jim's Uncle Elliot, who was his sailing mentor, graduated from there, and we recently donated a memorial plague in his memory that had just been laid. We found the plague, and toured the beautiful grounds & buildings. A great afternoon!
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