Elaine and I went over to the dark side for a day in October. We again participated in the Newport Sail for Hope race. We sailed on White Wolf, a Morgan 38, with our friend Jeff Schuldheiss.
There was almost no wind and the "race around the island turned into a "drift" down the bay. We ended up withdrawing and cruising around Newport harbor and having a great lunch.
There was an after party at the Newport Boat Yard and lots of money was raised for the Red Cross.
On Thursday August 18 we left home to
cruise to the Brewer Mystic yard. The
weather and seas were calm. We cruised
past Point Judith and over to Watch Hill.
After rounding Watch Hill and entering Fishers Island sound we
encountered a strong tide against us. It
was between 2-3 knots all the way to the entrance to Mystic harbor.
https://www.byy.com/marinas/brewer-yacht-yard-at-mystic-mystic-ct/
The Brewer Mystic was easy in and out with the boat. Most of the boats are bow in. They
had only one dock hand on duty and he was at the fuel dock. He would come over to help is asked but we
docked with no problems. The docks are
new or being replaced. The showers were
clean, the pool and hot tub were refreshing.
There are grills at the end of every dock and they were clean when I
used them.
On Thursday night we made the short 25
minute walk to downtown. We went to The
Engine Room http://www.engineroomct.com/ for dinner. The beer menu was less than what I expected
and the menu choices were lacking so we just had an appetizer and beer and
left. We then went over to the S&P
Oyster Company http://sp-oyster.com/
for dinner. They are located on
the water next to the draw bridge. The
food was very good, I had monkfish, Elaine had a seafood trio. We walked downtown a little bit and then went
back to the boat.
On Friday we went to Mystic Seaport http://www.mysticseaport.org/
. It was about a 30 minute
walk. There was a lot of interesting
things to see and do. We had lunch at
Latitude 41 http://www.coastalgourmetct.com/latitude41/
which was located right next to the Seaport. They have great outside seating overlooking
the upper Mystic river. The food was
very good but the service was just OK.
On Saturday we left Mystic and cruised to
Bristol for the night. The tides were
against us almost the whole way and really slowed us down. We reserved a mooring ball from Bristol
Marine http://www.bristolmarine.com/visiting/bristol
It was a little windy and it took a few tries to get the ball but we did
and settled down nicely. Barry and
Suzanne Shapiro on SPRAY joined us for the evening. I like Bristol Marine because they will take
you to downtown Bristol when Bristol Yarcht Club will not. Walking is almost two miles.
We had dinner at Redlefsen’s http://www.redlefsens.com/
The food there is always great and they have real German beer. They also have a patio so Lucy can join us.
August 21, 2016
Start time
and hours 10:15 3239.12
End time and
hours 11:45 3242.65
We left Bristol harbor mid morning and
cruised back home to Cowesset.
We cruised to the Kickemuit River for the
Van Vleck’s annual Clam Boil. It is held
at their riverfront home in Bristol. It
is also one of the CHNYC cruises. We
cruise over on Saturday, stay the night on a mooring and then come home on
Sunday.
The weather and seas were beautiful on
both trips.
With the oil cooler back in we decided to
take a day cruise over to Bristol to return a T-shirt that was the wrong size.
The ride over was smooth with little
wind. We called the Bristol harbormaster
and asked for transient dock space for a few hours. They had space at the town dock for
$10/hour. It is a T dock and easy in and
out. http://ri.usharbors.com/harbor-listing/bristol-harbormaster
We exchanged the shirt and went to Quito’s
for lunch. http://quitosrestaurant.com/ We only
stayed about 90 minutes and the harbormaster only charged us for one hour.
The wind picked up for the ride home. Getting out of the harbor was a chore trying
to dodge all of the small sailboats from the sailing camps.
When we got back to Brewer’s we docked out
boat for the first time by ourselves. It
went smoothly with a southwest wind that turned form southeast just as we
entered the fairway.
No start time and hours for this
entry. Anegada da Vida was laid up
waiting for an oil cooler to me made and shipped.
We cruised with Manny and Joanne on their
boat Moving Up over to Bristol and stayed at the Herreshoff museum marina as
part of the Brewer Rendezvous. Ed,
Allison, and Emma joined us on their boat Just Wonderful. http://www.herreshoff.org/
We got over to Bristol around noon on
Friday. It was a sunny, hot, and humid
day. Thunderstorms soon rumbled in and
for about an hour it was a deluge with strong winds and lightening. Just as quickly as it came in, it went
out. We walked into town to have
cocktails and oysters at the Bristol Oyster Bar. http://bristoloysterbar.com/ All last year they
had buck a shuck every day from 4-6.
This year it is only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We had a drink and fewer oysters than we
planned for and then went out for dinner.
Dinner on Friday was at the Lobster Pot,
http://www.lobsterpotri.com/ waterfront dining a short walk from
the marina. The food was very good and
the view was beautiful.
Brewer arranged for a continental
breakfast on Saturday morning and then followed it with a guided tour of the
museum. It was very interesting and
informative. The old wooden boats on
display are amazing. Lunch was at Nacho
Mammas http://www.nachomammasbristolri.com/ fantastic Mexican food. We explored the downtown for the afternoon
and went to many of the quaint shops.
Brewer had a cocktail party on Saturday
night that had so much food that we did not need dinner.
We cruised back on Sunday. The whole weekend was a lot of fun with good
friends.
We cruised on our occasionally annual trip
to Bristol RI for the July 4th parade and cook out with the Coasters
Harbor Navy Yacht Club (CHNYC) at the home of Cathy and Gary Holmstrom. Their beautiful home is on the parade route
on Hope st. It is an old family home
called Four Eagles.
The cruise over was with perfect weather
and seas. We had a west wind and flat
seas. After grabbing a mooring ball at
Bristol Yacht Club, $40 per night, we settled in for lunch on the boat. http://www.bristolyc.com/
We went ashore with the BYC launch and had
dinner with the CHNYC gang at http://www.leosristoranteri.com/ on Hope st. It was nothing spectacular but the company
was great. We had 22 club members for
dinner.
After dinner we went back to the boat for
the fireworks. They are shot off over
the harbor and right over our boat.
It is the
oldest July 4th celebration in the country. The Holmstrom’s host a breakfast before the
parade and a cook out after the parade.
They are very gracious hosts.
After the cook out we walked back to the
Bristol Yacht Club. It is a comfortable
walk of about 45 minutes. We had
afternoon cocktails on the back deck of the club and then retired to Anegada da
Vida for the evening. The winds picked
up from the south and the mooring field was a little rolly but still
comfortable for sleeping.
The
next day we slept in and cruised home late in the morning. We cruised slowly home because the weather
and seas were so nice.
We cruised to Dutch Harbor for the night
along with Barry, Suzanne, and Lucy on Spray and Manny and Joanne on Moving Up.
The weather was perfect with temps in the
high 70’s and bright sunshine. The seas were
less than one foot and winds very light.
We had lunch at the Shack in Dutch
Harbor. It is a shack that served tacos
and burritos. It was a little overpriced
but very good. It was crowded around
lunch and it took about 30 minutes to get our food after we ordered.
We then walked into Jamestown, about one
mile. We walked around the downtown and
checked out a few shops. We stopped at a
lemonade stand on the way back to the boat and helped out a few kids.
While hanging out in the cockpit having
cocktails Elaine noticed URSA coming into the harbor. Our friend Brooke was on the bow ready to
pick up a mooring ball. I think that she
got the mooring that our other friends Ed and Allison could not use. Small world.
We walked back to town for dinner. We at Fish out on the patio. The food was very good and the beer selection
was good. Again, because it is Jamestown
in the summer it was a little overpriced.
We went back to Spray for Suzanne’s
birthday party and had drinks and cake.
Later we retired to Anegada da Vida for the evening. The next morning, we cruised back to our slip
in beautiful conditions. We also hit the
pump out station at Brewer.
We cruised for the CHNYC summer sailstice
raft up in Potter cove near the Newport bridge.
Barry and Suzanne and Lucy came along for the ride. The seas and wind were a little more than was
forecasted. Probably about 15+kts and 2+
foot seas. The ride down was good but
the ride back was a little rough. The
wind gusts caused our boat to accidently jibe a few times. At least that is what it felt like.
We rafted up with three other boats, White
Wolf, Free Spirit, and Charlie’s Mainship 34.
We had drinks and snacks for a couple of hours. When Charlie attempted to raft up with us the
first time he caused a few rollers with his wake. White Wolf and our boat bumped rub rails
which caused a little cosmetic damage to ours.
It was easily fixed by me the next week.
We cruised to Block Island for the
weekend. This would be our first trip
alone outside of Narragansett Bay. We
went along with Barry and Suzanne Shapiro and their boat Spray, a 37 Nordic
Tug.
The ride over was very calm. We had 1-2 foot seas most of the way and
light winds off of our starboard side. The
trip took about 5 hours with good tides and winds.
We stayed at Payne’s docks along with
about ten other boats from Brewer Cowesett.
Payne’s does not have floating docks and they raft almost everyone stern
to. Getting on and off the boat was a
challenge at times.
We walked into town, about one mile, and
checked out some shops and Ice cream parlors.
On Saturday we had a guided bus tour around the Island. Saturday night was a barbecue and Sunday
morning was a breakfast before heading back.
June 12, 2016
Start time
and hours 8:25 3191.08
End time and
hours 1:25 3196.13
We cruised back to home with a forecast of
3-5 foot waves and 15-20kts with gusts over 30kts from the west. The ride from Block island to around the
south of the Jamestown bridge was much better than expected. From there until we got to our slip it was
blowing a steady 25kts with lots of gusts over 30kts. The wind was on our port side and heeled the
boat over slightly. We took some spray
over the bow and once in a while into the flybridge.
For some reason the winds calmed slightly
for the ten minutes we needed to dock.
Docking was good because the SW winds pushed us into our slip and away
from Ed’s boat.
We cruised over to Brewer Greenwich bay to
get diesel fuel. The fuel dock is an
easy bow in and out. We put 60 gallons
in the port tank and 32 gallons in the starboard tank. Price was $2.34 per gallon.
Not too bad for diesel.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Plasteak cockpit trim
When we bought our boat we were looking for as little outside teak as possible. We did not want to take the time away from cruising to take care of the teak.
We removed the teak trim and sent it to plasteak and they manufactured the pieces and sent them back to us. https://www.plasteak.com/ I like the look and it is zero maintenance.
I also repainted the outside walls with Petit epoxy paint to freshen things up a little.
We cruised with Cheryl Cox and her
“husband” Steven. We cruised around the
south side of Prudence island and stopped for lunch in Potter’s cove. The anchor worked great.
We cruised to Newport Marina with Manny
and Joanne and their boat Moving Up.
Again it was off season and we got a deal. The city was less crowded than in October as
there were no cruise ships in port. The
weather forecast was terrible for Sunday so we had planned to go home on
Saturday evening. However, the forecast
changed last minute and we did leave on Sunday morning. The seas and winds were very calm on the ride
home.
May 22, 2016
Start time
and hours 9:40 3183.99
End time and
hours 12:00 3186.24
Cruised home from Newport Marina to our
slip. My neighbor at Newport Marina
Went
out on a sea trial with Jeff from Brewer.
Jeff did most of the engine and running gear work during the
winter. Everything checked out OK. The boat ran smoother with less vibration
than last year.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Salon and V-Berth Painting
It was time for a sprucing up of the salon and v-berth. I removed all of the teak doors and applied several coats of poly to make them shine. I also re-painted the salon walls and the v-berth. It made everything a little brighter.
