Long Island Sound

We stayed at City Island (part of the Bronx) for two nights to recover from our

trip from Norfolk. We picked up a mooring that belongs to a couple we met in NC.  City Island is a great place to visit.  The island is comprised of one main road with restaurants and small businesses.   

Our next stop was a motor sail to Port Jefferson where we picked up a mooring.  We visited with June and Mike from Idunno the boat we traveled with throughout the Exumas.  We had a great visit and planned to catch up with each other for our trip back down to the Bahamas in the fall.

Our next stop was in Old Lyme on the Connecticut River where we left the boat on a mooring for 10 days while we went home to Vermont for a visit.

Upon our return to boat we headed for Block Island where we planned to pick up a mooring.  The trip through the race was close to slack so the current was not an issue.  However we did need to watch out for the submarine.

We arrived at Block Island the Tuesday before the Fourth of July weekend (the fourth was on the following Tuesday), and we got one of the last moorings as many of the boaters were planning to stay for the entire holiday weekend.  Block Island is a wonderful place.  We walked across the island to the main town for sightseeing and shopping.  We left for Bristol, RI on Friday early in the morning where we planned to spend the Fourth.  Our mooring was not vacant for more than a minute before it was snatched up by a trolling boat.

We were having a great sail from Block Island to Narragansett Bay until we hit the FOG bank.  Between Block Island and Port Judith we entered the heavy fog.  We are so glad that we have radar.  We could see the other boats on the radar and when we got close we would blow our horn.  The power boats we could hear their engines and as they got close we could hear them slow down and then all of a sudden we could see the boats about 100 yards away.  On the radio we heard one boat calling a securite with his boat location every few minutes - he did not have radar.  Fortunately before we reached Narragansett Bay the fog lifted and our 18 mile trip to Bristol was uneventful.  In Bristol we stayed at the Bristol Yacht Club as guests of our friends Rhonda and Janet from the mighty vessel Promise who we met in the Abacoes and sailed with back to the states as far as Charleston. 

Rhode Island

We had a wonderful time in Bristol.  The Bristol Fourth is great and our hosts were fabulous.  Our first night we had a lobster dinner at Janet and Rhonda’s house.  Rhonda lent us her car so that we could do provisioning and any other errands.  

The Bristol parade is touted as the oldest continuous parade in the country – it certainly is in the running as the largest also.  We had four hours of fire trucks, politicians, dance groups, marching bands (some from as far away as Wisconsin), Mummers, horses, etc.  The parade also had the dancing policeman from Newport.  I understand that he was a traffic officer who dances as part of his job of directing traffic.  Very entertaining.  The weekend also included a marching band contest.  About eight marching bands from across the country competed for best band.  The routines that the bands preformed were very elaborate with choreographed marching.  Each band had about 100 members that included the musicians and dancers. 

The culmination of the holiday was the fireworks.  We all gathered on the boats at the yacht club where we had front row seats for the fireworks.  These were the best fireworks we have ever seen.  The show was well planned with some types of displays that we have never seen before.  The finale included many different bursts that were all the same color.  Very spectacular.  We were very lucky to have Janet and Rhonda invite us to their club.  We understand that many of the guest boats made their reservation at the yacht club as early as the previous February.

Our departure from Bristol was delayed one day to repair a generator wire.  That evening John got to race with Janet and her friend Will on Will’s boat.

Before leaving Narragansett Sound we stopped in Newport where we anchored to the south of the harbor.  We took the water taxi into town for afternoon. 

Massachusetts

The next day we motor sailed to Cuttyhunk where we picked up a mooring in the inner harbor.  The mooring are very close – we must have had 10 feet bow to stern to the next boat.  The island is very remote, and very picturesque with mostly summer homes and a small grocery store and a few small retail stores.  

Our next stop was Onset harbor which is on the western side of the C&D canal. Where we entered the C&D canal at the end of Buzzard’s Bay the wind and current were opposite and the waves suddenly became steep 6 foot high and close together. Fortunately that did not last long.  Onset is a nice stop over while you wait for weather.  Onset has a grocery store for provisioning and a pizza restaurant.

We timed our departure from Onset to travel with the current through the C&D Canal.  With the two knot current we made 7-8 knots through the canal.  Our next stop was Provincetown where we picked up a mooring.  Provincetown is always fun for people watching.

Maine

From Provincetown we crossed directly to the Isle of Shoals on the Maine New Hampshire border.  The crossing was uneventful except several whale sightings.

The Isle of Shoals is a group of small islands mostly uninhabited.  We picked up a mooring that was placed by the Portsmouth Yacht Club.  The main island has a religious retreat where they welcome boaters to their evening meal.  So for $15 dollars we had dinner at the “boaters” table in the corner of the main dinning room.

The following day we headed north flirting will fog all the way.  Fortunately the fog was not heavy.  We anchored that night at Cliff Island in Casco Bay.  Anchored near us were fellow Vermonter on Summer Slopes from Killington.

The next day we headed toward Penobscot Bay again flirting with the fog.  As we headed for Tenets Harbor the fog closed in, and we could not see anything.  We lined up at the center of the harbor entrance using the GPS and found the bell buoy located at the entrance.  As we entered the harbor the fog lifted, and we could see where we were going which was great as the harbor was filled with boats and what seemed like a million lobster pot buoys and every conceivable color. We had to anchor near the mouth of the harbor in about 30 feet of water not including the 10 foot tide.

The following day we anchored in Rockland Harbor which we used as our home base for the next six weeks that we were in Maine. 

Side Trips from Rockland (No matter where we sailed we saw schooners everywhere.)

Pulpit Harbor is a well protected harbor with a large rock outcropping guarding the entrance hence the name.  We spent two nights here.  There is a grocery store within reasonable walking distance.

SSCA Gam (Seven Seas Cruising Association meeting) in Isleboro included a pot luck dinner and speakers on weather and anchoring.  Of course the night before the meeting we had a dinghy raft up sharing food.

We spent three days at Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island where we had a wonderful visit with Jack and Ruthie at their camp.  The first night we had lobster at the camp. We went sightseeing on the island including a ride to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  We went to Reel Pizza for dinner and a movie (the pizza is served in the movie theater). On the last day of our visit we went to the park’s famous restaurant for popovers and tea (tea is the tradition but we had café latte).

While in northeast harbor we met the couple who purchased our old boat, our 31 foot Island Packet. What a small world!

Back in Rockland, Nile and Linda came for a visit.  We traveled to Warren Island state park where we picked up a mooring (free) and explored the island.   We returned the next day so we could go to the Rockland boat show.  We had no fog this weekend much to Nile’s disappointment.

While in Rockland Harbor we anchor near Sam and Carolyn of Melaka II from whom we purchased Island Time. It’s truly a small world in boating.  

Belfast is a very nice town with limited groceries, small shops and restaurants.

Labor Day weekend we had a visit from our granddaughter, daughter and her boyfriend.  We took a sail up to Camden where we picked up a mooring.  We took a water taxi into town.  Things were hoping in town as the schooner fest was happening and many of the local schooners were in the harbor.  We had a great lobster dinner before returning to the boat.  Back in Rockland we had a birthday party for my granddaughter, Sophie, who was two.   

After Labor Day weekend the boating activity stopped.  The anchorages were empty, the docks are empty.  Must be time to head south.