MORE BLOCK ISLAND

Tried to sleep in this morning, but when it starts getting light at 5 AM, it’s hard to stay in bed. Finally got up around 7:30 and spent the morning doing little projects on the boat. Late morning, we took the dinghy down and docked at the nearby marina to walk into town. It’s only a mile and a half or so to get into town, and it was a pleasant walk, although the wind has been quite steady.

We both now have the requisite Block Island T-shirts, so our shopping spree is over. We walked over to Dick & Carol’s house to meet them for some clamming. We went to their favorite spot over by the Coast Guard Station and started grubbing through the sand.

Look out clams! Here we come.

Basically, you just rake your fingers through the wet sand, getting 3-4 inches below the surface, and feel for anything hard. There is a size limit, and Dick supplied us with some measuring devices to make sure we didn’t get any undersize clams. We went around low tide, so we had plenty of sand to choose from and we got about three dozen clams in a little over an hour. Dick took them home in a bucket of sea water to sit overnight to clean the sand out of them, and we plan on eating those little critters for dinner tomorrow night.

Measuring the clam to make sure it's legal size

We got back to the boat and, although it was still pretty windy and rough on the mooring, I used the dinghy as a platform to clean the outside of the hull. It had gotten a bit marked up while we were in the boat yard, so it needed it. I cleaned everything with salt water, since we aren’t on a dock, but it is forecast to rain tonight and tomorrow, so that should rinse it all off for me.

We took the dinghy in to a nearby restaurant for dinner tonight, trying not to get wet in the wind and waves. We had just been seated at our table overlooking the bay when, in the course of about 5 minutes, the wind changed direction 180 degrees (from southwest to northeast) and started blowing even harder as a front came in. We managed to finish dinner and get back to the boat before any rain came down, but it was a rough, and wet, ride back. Once we were back to the boat, I doubled up all the lines between HERON and IMPROV. HERON is on her own mooring, and IMPROV is staying in place by being tied to HERON (rafting, in boating terms), so I wanted a secure connection. The wind is very strong tonight, so I made sure all of the cushions on the flybridge are securely put away and I braced the bimini frame with several lines, primarily to keep it from rattling all night. It looks like it’s going to be a bumpy night with the rough water in the bay. Oh well, being rocked to sleep…