All Hands On Deck   Adventures on land and at sea

Remember when I said we were going to Block Island after Newport? Well, I was just kidding. Really, we changed our plans this morning when we finally got out of Newport.

Monday in Newport was pretty blah. It rained and it blew. We mostly sat on the boat all morning and then biked around a bit in the afternoon. It was great to be back on my fabulous bike again! Our anchoring job held all day and night.

We got up at 5 this morning and left the harbor around 6:30am. Our plan was to get a head start on the wind so we could make the trip to Block Island before the increasing wind forecast for the afternoon. It was glassy calm heading out of Rhode Island sound. The swells were pretty big so the boat was bounding and rolling all over the place. As we rounded Point Judith I suggested that it was kind of pointless to waste fuel motoring all the way to Block Island, which is a bit out of the way. Stonington started to sound appealing to we altered course and made our way to Fishers Island sound.

The wind did eventually pick up to about 8-10 knots. It was perfect! An absolutely picturesque sail! It wasn’t very warm but Pirat sailed beautifully in the light wind and wide, rolling swells. I really love how well we perform upwind (at least in relatively flat water so far). We got to Stonington around 1pm, filled our diesel tank, topped off the water tank, and rented a mooring from Dodson’s Boat Yard for the night. We’re glad we’re on the mooring now. There are thunderstorms moving in and the wind is howling at 30+. Our wind generator is threatening to fly off the boat. We’re also really glad we’re not still out in the sound, where these thunderstorms produced very strong, shifty wind, big seas, and lightning. Not my idea of fun.

Once again, sorry for the lack of pictures. Still no good internet and uploading images through Lee’s cell phone internet would take decades.

I really felt it sink in today. We’re actually doing this. This isn’t a vacation. it’s our life. We’re home in our boat but we can go anywhere! Tomorrow: South, somewhere between here and Stratford, CT.