A cold front kept us cooped up for a few days in CT. Turns out we prefer sailing in nicer conditions as opposed to rainy ones. But behind the low pressure system of rain was this little cat 4 storm, Joaquin, gaining strength and hitting the Bahamas and moving forward/ northerly, easterly, westerly….. really to anyones guess. This had us looking at safe havens to park the boat… just in case it came flying our way. Our good family friend John Stoffel and wife Bo told us to stop shuffling our feet and get on over to Mamaroneck Harbor Orienta Yacht Club stat. So we did.

We were able to fill up on water, food, and propane. Propane can be a pesky trip so we were really grateful. Mike was fighting a cold and I was limping after running 6 miles

and re-injuring the ball of my foot. I *think* I’ve finally learned I’m not meant to run long distances. So sickly Mike & wobbly Kirsten found a Starbucks to burrow into for the day and used all the free wifi and all the electricity to recharge all the devices. Again, we were grateful.
 

Here we are (below) cheering to all the good sailing trips and all the bad ones that ended up alright. Us with the good-ole Eldridge.

our amazing hosts visiting Gaia

Orienta Yacht Club, autumn colors starting to show

You know the phrase ‘there are two kinds of sailors. Those who have gone aground and those who will.’ …. I had always disliked this phrase. Because I was above this phrase… I had never been aground and I had no intention of doing so; to infer otherwise was nonsense to me. After admitting this to the reader, I’d like to tell you a change in regard to the above statement. I have been aground and now welcome all those who have not yet been aground to jump over the line and join the party. BUT in my defense, I was following captain mikes direction despite my own recollection of the terrain being too shallow for Gaia  to wander into. There was little concern because we made a soft sand landing on a rising tide. We were able to reverse out of the situation. (Thank you NEW propeller for the extra boost). So just behind the red nun where there’s a faint circular whirl of water….. yeah, that’s where we hit Mamaroneck but at least we filled up on all provisions & had excellent company!

Kirsten

Or something  to that effect…. and we only managed to snap these shots with our new hotshot camera. It was a super blood moon lunar eclipse and they only happen 5 times a century.

West of our anchorage     

Me sitting outside with my blanket & hot cocoa Listening to Dark Side of the Moon.

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).

Block Island Saturday/Sunday

Julia 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.

Again it was bittersweet to see more friends come and go.

man with red hat parks boat on rocks

Day 4!

Two days ago we pulled into Newport Harbor after a comfortable but a little slow 40nm day from Onset to Newport.   Our friend Justin got a good chunk of The Martian read on the bow
beneath the spinnaker as we glided at 4-5kts westward into Rhode Island and
past the enormous mansions.

The wind for the passage was out of the north east but it was fairly light, peaking at around 14kts mid-morning but then diminishing to 8-12kts for most of the day before dying in the evening.  Since we were going west the wind was coming from behind us and was too light for our normal sails to fill properly and propel the boat.  These are spinnaker conditions!

Gaia has an old asymmetrical spinnaker from a prior owner – I have no idea of it’s history, but it’s at least 10 years old.  But it hasn’t been used much, and aside from some color bleeding & rust stains, it works pretty well.  It has a sock which is a big fabric tube that slides down over top of the sail when it’s not in use, this lets us easily hoist the sail to the top of the mast before it fills with air.  Once the sail is deployed, the sock gets bunched up at the top of the mast.  When we’re ready to collapse the sail, we can pull the sock down to collapse the sail and make it easy to recover.

I love flying the spinnaker – it means it’s a peaceful calm day and spinnaker runs are some of the most enjoyable sailing in my opinion.  I haven’t used the spinnaker much on Gaia in all the years I’ve owned her, but now that we have a new feathering propeller, the boat is vastly more capable of making meaningful progress in light wind (more on this topic in a later post).

Yesterday we spent the day in Newport Harbor, then took a RIPTA (Rhode Island’s bus system) bus to Providence (for $2 each way!) to see a favorite band, Lord Huron.  It was an excellent show and we didn’t get back to the boat until around 2am.

Lord Huron in Providence, RI

Today we’ve got an easy sail to Block Island, only about 25nm.

Finally!  finally finally finally!  We’re off the dock, it’s been a long slog of boat project on top of project.  Kirsten & I quit our jobs right before our wedding in early July and for much of the time since then it sure hasn’t felt like we’ve been unemployed.  But all the hard work is finally behind us and we’ve shoved off the dock.

Our first goal is to make it to Newport, RI in three days to catch a bus to Providence, RI to see a favorite band perform – Lord Huron.

Leaving Boston this morning was bittersweet, but made easier by a wonderful send-off party a few days ago and a good friend Justin joining us for the first couple days.

Our first day of weather and the immediate forecast is perfect, moderate north-easterlies & sunny warm skies.  Today we covered about 45nm, from Boston to the Cape Cod Canal, then through the canal to Onset.

Justin becoming a pro at our GPS

All went well on our first day, we got into Onset shortly before sunset as planned and were greeted by a beautiful and auspicious first sunset.