Gone Sailing for a Year

We sailed to Block Island from Newport. Not much to report aside from the usual unusual Mike & Kirsten-ism; my over-exaggeration of waves and Mikes sudden awareness that If Gaia is gaining on another vessel…. we can race them (and he goes from a wine and cheese cruising mentality of ‘we get there when we get there’ to barking commands ‘Trim the gennie! Edge up the traveler windward! We got em!’).
There were 4 foot seas and rounding the Northern tip of Block Island was, as always, a welcoming view. There’s a shallow spit of land that curves out like an arm from the Block Island bluffs that are even more beautiful from the top. We anchored in the salt pond, which has a VERY narrow cut of water that funnels into the harbor. It was my third time letting out the anchor, which can be, as I learned, a delicate process of lowering at the right moment and letting the boat rest to get your bearings. Mike tied different colored string on the anchor rode every 10 feet so you can see how much rode you have sitting out. This is a GREAT idea and I highly recommend it to anyone anchoring…. But do note that over time the first 80 feet becomes coated in mud and the old neon colors before are brown. So when Mike asked me how much rode we had out half way through… I dunnno…( I guess I need to practice counting or something).

BI Sat/ Sun
ulia and Amy ventured out to the great BI of RI! Our friends still remember us! And they brought beer!!! Saturday morning meeting Julia & Amy was the first time Mike & I came ashore. I had forgotten how timeless and close everything was for walking distance. A 15 minute walk and we met them from the ferry ride over. Our first order of business was to get some serious boat napping & relaxing in, afterall, they did take the first ferry in to BI. We then had ourselves a classic BI beachday. Frisbee, beer, meandering, beach. The day ended in a wet dinghy adventure to cocktails at the infamous ‘Oar’ and somehow… about 4 hours later… we emerged for another dingy adventure across the great pond.
Sunday we made it our mission to find the maze. The maze is for lack of words, really neat. It’s an intricately woven network of grassy paths that lead you to the BI bluffs, a few ponds, beaches, and always seems to end and begin in private property to some extent. P.S.I have never gone into the maze and not found myself lost at some point. The larger the group, the better the confusion. With a happy go lucky crew of Amy, Julia, Mike, and myself…. This was by far the closest we have ever come to not getting lost. We did, however, manage to miss their expected ferry back home… but nbd. We were all in BI.Lue lisää