NARRAGANSET BAY

Thursday, May 28

Lazy morning sleeping in. After a couple of cups of coffee we decided, since we had a rental car, to drive up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to see the town and visit Nancy & Henry, friends who own the PDQ 34 SNO DOG. It took a couple of hours to get there - thanks, in part, to the traffic moving slowly through Boston - but we got there mid-day and had a nice walk around town,

Portsmouth Town Square

diverting into a bakery/restaurant at just the right time to 1) have lunch and 2) let the thunderstorm pass.

We had a very pleasant day with Nancy & Henry (and Adie), spending the evening over a delicious quiche Lorraine, red wine & brownies (of course). While Henry & I were checking out his new Devlin launch,

Henry's new boat

I got a call that our prop was repaired & we could pick it up Friday AM.

Friday, May 29

We left Portsmouth after breakfast and drove straight to the prop shop in Middletown, RI to pick up our shiny, newly-repaired prop. We took it back to the boatyard, and by early afternoon they had hauled our boat, again, and installed the prop. I stayed on the boat as it was lifted from the water - a strange feeling. The captain is supposed to go DOWN with the ship, not UP!

On the travel-lift

 It was a beautiful day, with hardly any wind, unlike the previous three days, so we thought we could quickly take off and maybe even reach Block Island this afternoon - until we remembered we had to turn in the rental car. Elaine took of with the car to Fall River and I got the boat ready so that when she got back, about 4 PM, we could leave and, at least, get down to Newport and anchor for the night. Winds are forecast to pick up again pretty strongly by tomorrow afternoon (35 knots) so we hope to get out to Block Island early morning, before the heavy winds begin. It’s only about 20 miles from Newport, so 2-3 hours should do it. Once there, the Great Salt Pond provides a very protected anchorage in which we should be able to ride out any heavy winds.

This is the second time we have anchored in Newport Bay, the first being with our trawler AD LIB about 5 or 6 years ago. That was not the best experience since a huge thunderstorm with tons of rain, lightening and 45 knot winds hit while we were on shore walking Duke. It’s much better this time, with a gorgeous sunset and the winds dying down for the night…