Newport to Oyster Bay

This will probably be the last post before we get home, since we're now in Oyster Bay, Long Island, just east of New York City.  There's a good weather window coming up in a couple of days with north winds to carry us quickly down the New Jersey coast to Cape May - NOT a favorite part of this trip. That coastline is often just plain nasty, especially in SW winds.  It's an overnight trip from NYC to Cape May, which we'll likely do in one shot rather than stopping anywhere.  No really good options to stop overnight - we've seen enough of the Barnagat Bay Inlet and Atlantic City to last the rest of our cruising days.

Anyway, where were we? From Bristol we sailed to Newport, RI and anchored for a couple of days. While there we joined 4 good friends that we'd met while cruising the Bahamas. Roger and Chrisy's newly renovated house in Jamestown was the spectacular setting for a wonderful dinner party, during which we caught up on a whole year's worth of news from Chrisy, Roger, Greg and Sharon. Sharon and Greg live aboard their Island Packet and are also sailing in New England this summer - we'd first joined them in Martha's Vineyard a few weeks ago and hope to see them again this fall in Annapolis as they head south. Unfortunately I took no photos. Major bummer.

We walked a lot in Newport - such a walkable town! The main drag is packed with tourists at this time of year, but the residential streets are quiet and lovely. Wherever you look, the architecture is stunning. Jim took a whole bunch of photos of doorways - here is one with a pretty wreath of seashells and grasses.

We visited a new (to us) car museum in Newport which has an amazing collection of vehicles, all of which belong to a half dozen car aficionados in the Newport area. These 6 people own about 120 cars, all  in impeccable shape. Here's one... 

When we tried to haul anchor in Newport,  we discovered that we couldn't get the anchor up. We were anchored well away from the well-marked cable area, so we called Tow Boat US (with whom we have towing insurance). They couldn't guarantee they'd be able to free us and we're thought they might cut the anchor free if they felt they had to. We didn't want to sacrifice an anchor,  so we called a local dive company instead. Elite Divers arrived promptly and found that our anchor was hooked onto another anchor and some chain left lying on the bottom. A few minutes and $150 later, we were free with our anchor and chain intact. 

We then sailed back to nearby Wickford and left the boat on a mooring ball for few days while we drove north to Maine in a rental car to our friend Kenny's house. Kenny was hosting a "lobsta" party at which we got to spend time with even more friends we made on our cruise to Florida and the Bahamas. Here's Kenny hauling in the lobster crate, and then carrying it from the beach to the house.  As you can see in the party photos, it was a lot cooler in Maine than the record heat wave temperatures we've had elsewhere for what seems like several weeks now. Even in southern New England, it's been 80-90 degrees day after day.  

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This is Rebecca. A vegetarian bravely barbecuing chicken for a few folks who'd had enough lobster this season.

Have you ever seen such HUGE lobsters? Mine was so big I couldn't finish it.  Ended up making an awesome lobster roll the next morning for breakfast!

Here's Bill, glass in hand of course!

It was a great party - I wish I had photos of more of the friends there - sorry y'all who got left out :-(

After driving back to Wickford, we used the car to stock up on groceries and wine, run other errands and then retrieve the boat. We then sailed to Block Island. It was pretty crowded there - a change from the mostly empty harbors we've seen this year. One evening this motley crew paddled past us on their way to shore.

Block Island's Great Salt Pond is a good couple of miles from town, but we walked in one day for ice-cream. it was so hot we almost melted. This hammock under a tree in someone's backyard looked awfully inviting.

Here is the Coast Guard station and lighthouse you pass when entering and leaving Great Salt Pond.

From Block we sailed to Fisher Island at the east end of Long Island Sound. Spend a quiet and peaceful day and evening as the only boat anchored in the harbor.  Then carried on to Port Jefferson on Long Island where we anchored for a couple of days just inside the marshy beach area. Not much to see there. No photos. I did some watercolors while we waited for enough wind to sail further west. That wind didn't materialize so we ended up motoring to Oyster Bay, Where we are now, anchored just outside the mooring field.  Below is a view from our boat of Billy Joel's little summer cottage.

This hot, still weather spawns enormous and gorgeous clouds. Last night this was the sunset we watched from the boat.

 We plan to meet up today with friends from our sailing club, SOS, who are sailing in the area - Leah, Laura and Betsy. We'll have dinner together tonight and then maybe tomorrow Jim and I will sail on to Port Washington - our jumping off point to continue through Manhattan and points south.

If I have more photos or news once home, I'll add a post.....