2009 Log
7/1 to 7/15/2009
This is the current period of our log for 2009. At the bottom of the page are links to this year's pass weeks; our earlier voyages are in Prior Voyages.
The Google Custom Search box immediately is an internet search tool for more information on subjects and locations mentioned in our site. We hope you find it useful.
Updated on 01/28/2011
|
7/1/09 - July already! Woke at sunrise to the sounds of wind whistling through the rigging. Our amp meter showed that we'd had good energy generation most of the night. The sky overhead was partly cloudy and a golden red sun was creeping up over Block Island while to the south dark skies threatened. Heavy rain gave AA a good rinsing as a thunderstorm passed over. A couple of hours later I watched a dark conic shape lower out of another maelstrom several times without touching down. That also storm also passed while several vessels rushed to anchor in this area of the harbor. One poor couple anchored 5 times only to find themselves too close to other boats each time they set the hook. Miles reported they had a couple of boats drag in the mooring field. Our 2pm storm had enough lightning to make the 4th of July look wimpy. I'm talking good solid sky to earth bolts; the kind that make you sit up and take notice. I'm not big on boats, electronics and lightning so it will probably take a couple of days for my pulse to settle down. Talked to Ruth today, the more we try to plan her return the less we know about when it will be. On a boat the logistics get a little more complex as you and the boat need to be in the same place on the same date. For the boat 60 miles is a long day. One positive thing you can say for rain, you get your inside chores done. I spent most of the day (when it wasn't lightening outside) working on the three articles that are still works in progress; basically finishing one and beating the other two to death. 7/2/09 - Today is the funeral of Ruth's brother, I woke to find a somber gray blanket over the Block Island Harbor. Over the next 30 minutes the fog thickened and I could see flashes and hear thunder. A strong wind and heavy downpour drove the fog away. Now I could see the lightning really clear - man I hate lightning. It scares the hell out of me. I'm definitely not a happy camper this morning! Horns sounded across the harbor as several boats dragged. At least AA has stayed relative put. I say relatively because with 130' of chain out she settles down in various places in a 230' circle... given the winds and currents here you get to meet a lot of folks. After things settled down I moved into shallower water, 14', and reset the anchor. I have more room here and there is not an inviting space for the crush of boats expected tonight and tomorrow. After lunch we took our 3 dinghies and went exploring in a series of smaller salt ponds that chain off the Great Salt Pond. It was a chance to see some wildlife (birds) and surrounding homes (nice). By then fog was moving in so I opted to stop when we passed AA, leaving the others to explore the beaches by the light house at the inlet to Great Salt Pond. Pat's funeral was at 4pm eastern daylight... Buddy and I listened to the sounds of Willie and Lobo, a CD Pat had a friend cut for us, knowing we'd like it. He was right, of course. I watched for an eagle but I suspect he was busy in Wisconsin watching over a gathering of friends and family. Our friendly neighborhood fog moved in again for the evening, pulling over us like a bedtime blanket - good night. 7/3/09 - The lonely hooting of a foghorn greeted me when I woke at 5am. The world outside is still gray but it is thinning. I put the finishing touches on my 4th article this morning. Now I need to add photos; then comes the big job - selling them. Almost time to put pride in hand and start submitting them; where'd I hang my thick hide? I helped Miles caulk his port port... hopefully stopping a leak that has been bugging them. Now we need to test it; where did the rain go? We were trying to estimate the number of boats here. The town has 90 rental moorings and there is about a like number of private. Dock capacity is listed as 250 but they likely had 500 rafted together. The anchorage was full to the point of bumping. All together maybe a thousand. It got a little exciting on AA around 4pm. A powerboat was dragging down onto a power yacht. The owner disregarded warnings he was dragging, and later that he was too close. When he finally decided to re-anchor he wound the power yacht's anchor chain around his propeller... now two boats were drifting down on me. TowBoatUS, SeaTow and the harbor master responded. The harbor master suggested that I move in case they couldn't hold the boats in place. I told him I'd love to but the other two boats were over my anchor. TowBoatUS and the power yacht skipper did a great job. They held position for the 2 hours it took to clear the mess. Leslie made dinner for the gang - Long Island chili. Very different from WI chili... I enjoyed it. After dinner we took our dinghies into the little salt ponds we explored yesterday to watch the fireworks. Fantastic, front row seats, surround sound and only our 3 boats there. Great fireworks! 7/4/09 - It's the 4th - boom, bang, flash, pop. A beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky and just enough wind to keep everyone lined up on their anchors. Never one to let a nice day sneak by I started by applying a coat of epoxy to the teak rungs of our swim ladder. We went into town to watch the BI 4th parade. It was a cute local parade, fun to watch. After the parade we had lunch at the Narragansett overlooking a lake covered with fiberglass. Ruth called advising me she'd arrive in Boston about 5pm Tuesday. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! She's rented a car in Newport so I can drive to Boston to pick her up. Sure has seemed like more than two weeks. A lot of emotional stress in that short time. Back at the boat I worked further on the steps while I nursed a heart event. Occasionally my heart goes into overtime 100/69 with a pulse of 163. Usually takes a couple of hours for it to settle back to normal. Weird. This time I got readings every hour to send to my doctor. We all gathered on Ariel for dinner. Miles and Laureen grilled and baked baby back ribs. Laureen put a great meal together around that. A very pleasant way to spend an evening. I got back to AA way after my bedtime. 7/5/09 - Woke up to cool blue skies and an 8-10 knot wind out of the west. doesn't get much nicer. After breakfast I applied the second coat of epoxy to the ladder steps. Next come 3 coats of varnish... looking good. Went into town after lunch with the crews of Summersault and Ariel to see Michael of on his ferry home. The boats had cleared out a little if you looked carefully. Not enough to make a difference though. Town was busy, but not crowded - it was a nice afternoon. Back on AA I was disappointed to find that the little varnish I had remaining had gelled in the can. Bummer, steps will have to wait until I get to Newport later tomorrow. 7/6/09 - Beautiful morning, but no wind. How did Mom Nature know we were going to Newport today? The crossing was flat and quick. AA was on a mooring by noon. I found the varnish I needed in a harbor side store so I was able to get a coat on the steps. On my way back I tracked down the 165' M/V Just J's, the boat Maeve's son Patrick signed onto. Couldn't find anyone around... didn't try too hard as I thought it might not be appreciated. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent chasing down information for a paper sale that I hope to complete. Time always is the final judge. Miles stopped by... he's a happy camper today. His radar came back, he reinstalled it and it works. Three for three - you can't argue with that. The photos "squeezing out" and "Patrick signed" were shot from my phone. It's crazy, it records, takes video with audio, takes photos, keeps memos, plays games, keeps a phone log, maintains a database... everything but make solid phone connections. Sometimes I find myself staring at it in my hand and wondering what I intended to do with it ;-> 7/7/09 - Woke to the woeful moaning of fog horns... a light fog covered the harbor, very slowly dissipating as I made coffee... then decided it liked Newport and decided to hang around. Gave Patrick a call and decided to get together at night. By luck they have 2 days off. I gave the steps a last coat of varnish, then went and picked up the rental car. While I was enroute to Boston Ruth called from Chicago to tell me her flight would be an hour late. I stopped to buy parrot food and kill an hour. I easily found the airport and parked. Ruth arrived a couple of hours later. It was good to see her again. She looked great! By now it was raining. We got lost leaving town, missed the 93 turnoff because of the way it was labeled - 93 south, we wanted south... apparently it was 93 north and south. Local knowledge. We had to cancel our visit with Patrick as rain, getting lost and heavy slow traffic had us running way late. It was pouring in Newport when we arrived - water was running four to six inches deep on the streets. I stopped and bought a box of lawn & leaf bags, making us ponchos. The water taxi was a 30 minute wait, fortunately under a roof that only leaked a little. The wind came up just in time to create a drenching ride to the boat. The minute Ruth got on board she stripped - turned on the heater and crawled into her flannel PJs. Had me going for a minute. 7/8/09 - Sunny when I woke up, then the clouds moved in. We returned the rental car, only got lost once. I swear their streets were laid out by a paver following a goat. I took Ruth by Just J's to show her the boat Patrick was crewing on. He was outside working and stopped to say hi. He's looking tall, tan and lean.. says he's running now. We sailed and motored to Dutch Island; one of Ruth's favorite beach glassing sites. Enroute we towed in a couple of cuties that had gotten caught by the outgoing tide and were trying to swim their sailfish in to shore - they were loosing so Ruth tossed them a line and we pulled them into current free water. Ruth had fun glassing, picked up a good haul. She got back to the boat with her booty just before our first T-storm. The rain drops were so large they hit the water like hail. We were in our own little world of about 200 yards, nothing else was visible - except for the flashes of lightning. Then it cleared up for about a hour before the next light rain began. 7/9/09 - Woke to a rocking boat, nice and gentle - the wind had built to about 20 knots last night. After working all morning on paper biz Ruth spent a few hours in the afternoon searching her favorite beach. The heavy rain of the night before had revealed a whole new crop of glass. The beach time is good for her, she now has time to grieve Pat. We've both been watching for an eagle but figure there's plenty to be done in WI. Ruth's beach is on Dutch Island, a small outcropping in the west branch of Narragansett Bay listed by one reference as 84 acres and another as 101. It served as a fort from 1864 to about 1920. It served as a gun battery in the Civil War. In the years that followed increasingly larger gun batteries were installed. Some were referred to as disappearing guns - guess they worked, can't see them now. During WWII the island was also used as a German prisoner of war camp. The ruins are intriguing but likely dangerous - a lot of dark tunnels. Most of the area has returned to forest. 7/10/09 - Happy birthday brother! It sure is a beauty. Clear sky, lots of sun... a little crisp, like fall. Ruth and I mounted the new wind vane at the top of the mast. I forgot to leave my cell phone in the cabin and the boson's chair activated it calling Brad Abbott 25 times. He called back to find out what was up... ouch. Anyway, we now have wind speed and direction again. While I read, Ruth attacked the beach again coming up with only a little glass. I think she needs to let this one rejuvenate for another year. 7/11/09 - Another cool sunny fall morning... brrr. Read online that websites are a source of CO2 and are projected to become a major source as more folks use power to surf the web. Fortunately producing our site is green - we're solar powered. One small step... Ariel is still in Newport loving being in the center of a historic sailing port. When we took the rain laden water taxi to AA the night Ruth returned we shared the wait and taxi with the owner of Heritage, a beautiful natural wood grain finish historic 12 meter race boat. Some of you may remember her from her days on Lake Michigan. The current owner is cognizant of her place in history and keeps her in A-1 condition - race ready. In fact, he races her regularly. We headed to the island Cuddy Hunk, Ariel joined us... what a beautiful sail. We had 10 - 12 knot winds and trucked along at 6 -7 knots. At Cuddy Hunk we did a little grocery shopping, 1/6th of a lb of broccoli was $2.79, small bag of chips $4.79 - everything comes by boat in small quantities. Dinner was on Ariel, we brought veggies and a pork tenderloin. Laureen prepared the veggies, salad and desert. It was good to have the 4 of us together again. The events of the past few weeks finally caught up with Ruth as we talked after dinner. It was time for her to truly morn Pat. 7/12/09 - Interesting night, strong winds and rain most of it. We stayed anchored in place as did the boats around us. At dawn it was still windy but hazy. Around 10:30 we headed to Hadley Harbor by Woods Hole. This was a new destination for us. Enroute we were surprised at the USCG transmissions we were picking up. Stations from Boston, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Long Island and Southern New England. It sure made for a lot of radio chatter. We found it crowded so we anchored near a spot Ruth & I have used before. Naturally after we anchored many of the boats left as their home ports are only 10 - 15 miles away. We decided to stay put where we were. Miles & Laureen had gone dinghy exploring and returned with a photo of the sailing vessel Another Adventure... yes, there is another Another Adventure. A little later the another AA stopped by to talk to us... local boat but originally New Zealanders. 7/13/09 - Beautiful morning with light winds. We tried to sail to Onset and ended up motor sailing... arriving at noon. Ruth and I took a nap - I'm fighting something; while Miles & Laureen went into town for lunch. We went in about 2:30, learning that the market we shop had changed hands and was stocked like an island market in the Bahamas. Guess we provision in Plymouth or Scituate. Just after lunch the wind came up, by the time we got back from shopping it was gusting to 20 - 23 knots. We realized AA was slowly dragging so we hoisted anchor and moved downwind of two vessels that were flanking us. The bottom was like a thick batch of wet cement. Naturally the wind died and another boat anchored where we'd been. Okay, I'd rather be safe if we get t-storms tonight. Got a nice e-mail today... sold another magazine article. I have three more ready to submit so I'd better get to it. 7/14/09 - We had a quiet night and woke to a beautiful calm morning. We needed wait until 9am for the current to change to eastbound through the Cape Cod canal. We motored through the canal (no sailing by law), sailed half way to Plymouth and motored the rest; all in all a nice ride. By 2pm we were at the fuel dock for diesel and water. We took a Plymouth Yacht Club mooring for the night. There's no place to anchor near town... the city transient rentals are a good 1/4 mile out from town. Ruth had some prospective business so we stayed on the boat so she could phone and compute. I focused on trying to relax. I'll be e-mailing my doctor about whether this might be a reaction to medication. Whatever it is, I don't like it. Make it quit! 7/15/09 - What can I say, it's beautiful outside again. That said we've had enough rain to grow moss on the deck (not really, but it sure seems that way). Ruth & I headed into town to find a local greasy spoon for a real breakfast. We found the Water Street Cafe, no grease - but a great breakfast and a spoon for my coffee. We decided to stay on a mooring in Plymouth for a second night to time our arrival in Scituate better... also to give me time to work on some articles while Ruth pushed paper. Late in the afternoon the Plymouth Yacht Club harbormaster called to advise us that we'd have to move to another mooring. The owners of the one we were on had returned early. No sweat, we moved to one next to the one we were on. When the owners of the first mooring arrived we recognized Aloha from our Buzzard's Bay travels. |
Google searches We've added a new feature to our site, searches by Google. At the top of the page is a custom internet search that looks for boating, sailing and cruising information related to a subject you'd like to learn more about. At the bottom of the page is a search box that looks specifically at our site for reference to the subject you choose. Both searches open a search results page on our site complete with the navigation bar you are use to. We hope you find these tools useful. Worth a listen Let the music begin... To view the photos below, click on them, use Back to return to this page.
A classic in the morning fog
Thar's over 100 boats out there - somewhere
Exploring at block Island
It's a family parade
A Golden Oldie
A few of the...
14 shots it took...
to pan the boats ...
anchored in Great Salt Pond
Squeezing out of Block Island
Patrick signed on this one
Miles caught this Block Island sunset - very nice!
Another Another Adventure
Ariel anchored in outer Hadley Harbor near Woods Hole, MA
Yawl moored at mouth of inner harbor |
Use this Google Custom Search for finding subjects on our site:
View our 2009 Logs