Fall River, Tiverton and more

We have been dividing our time between Fall River, Massachusetts, Tiverton, Rhode Island and Jade. When we are not visiting with Al's family we have been working on the boat. We hate to dispel the romantic notion of life on a boat but there is some work involved. Don't worry we aren't expecting any sympathy!

After 6 months on board we found it was time for some routine cleaning and maintenance. Frances spent a day polishing the stainless steel. The interior needed a thorough cleaning plus a check in all the lockers for leaks and mildew. It's a good thing we checked because some shoes were moldy. They will be stored in plastic bags from now on. Al cut out two stern rail bases that were leaking and replaced them. Jade is 30 years old so almost every original part is being replaced bit by bit.

Al's family has really been fun and it's great to have this much time to spend with them. Al's father is constantly on the go and sometimes we can barely keep up with him.

An interesting thing we did in Fall River was attend a Feast at a Portuguese Catholic church. There have always been a large number of Portuguese people in Fall River and Al is 1/2 Portuguese. The church had a Mass and then processed with a statue of Jesus through the streets. Then it was time for a festival with food and entertainment. Everyone was speaking Portuguese so we felt like we were overseas! We loved the marinated pork sandwiches and Fava beans in a sauce. For dessert they made Malassadas - a fried dough with sugar. Wonderful! Especially when hot and fresh.

When we are not in Fall River we are in Tiverton, Rhode Island. It's a small coastal town with rolling hills, stone walls, farm land and shingled houses. In Tiverton we have been visiting our regular haunts, like Frances' favorite coffee shop, and hanging out with the family.

It is now time to move on though. On Wednesday we are going back to Newport to watch the beginning of a Transatlantic race. We are excited to see the Maltese Falcon start the race, the largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world. Then on Friday we will go to Bristol, Rhode Island for the Fourth of July festivities which will last through the weekend. Happy 4th of July!

Newport

Newport is treating us well. There are still some cold rainy days and we have had the heater on most nights. We have room on board if anyone from Florida wants a break from the heat! On the nice days it is gorgeous here. All the shops and homes have their Spring flowers planted to celebrate the good weather.

We have been visiting with Al's family, sightseeing and working on the boat. Al's daughter Christine and her husband Chris visited us

and left behind all kinds of food and drinks.

We spent a nice day with Al's dad and he helped us take the outboard motor to the shop. He also and brought us our favorite Portuguese bread.

We plan to be in this area all summer, traveling

around to places like Martha's Vineyard, Boston, Bristol, Providence and whatever looks good at the time. We'll be keeping up the blog and the pictures as we go.

Sailing from Block Island to Newport

Yesterday we sailed from Block Island to Newport. This blog is about a sailing day, the part of our trip that takes place between the destinations.

First thing in the morning we always check the weather. The course to the day's destination has already been studied and plotted. When we are ready to go the anchor must come up. The anchor and chain weigh about 300 pounds so an electric windlass does the hard work.

Using the engine we leave the harbor going through a channel marked by buoys. Block Island is in the background behind this red # 8 buoy.

The GPS is set for Newport but we also use paper charts, harbor guides and tide/current guides. We make hourly entries of latitude, longitude, boat speed, wind speed etc in a log book and do routine checks of the bilge and engine.

After getting out into open water it's time to raise the sails. The main sail, stay sail and jib are raised one at a time. We adjust the sails and see how fast we are going. Well, we are only going 4 or 5 knots/hour (about the same as MPH). Newport is 25 miles away so it will take us 5 hours to get there. Not a problem because we have all day. It will be a nice easy sail, no high winds or waves.
While sailing we make sure we stay on course, watch for other boats, and watch for lobster pots which can get caught on the underside of our boat. Al is great at trimming the sails to keep us moving, actually Al is great at a lot of things!
It must have been good luck to write about this day because yesterday we caught our first fish! A bluefish, using a plug on a trolling line. Frances felt sorry for the fish, but managed to eat it for dinner anyway.

Newport is an amazing place for sailing. We saw every type, make, size and age of sailboat in the bay on our way in. There are no tankers, tug boats or large ferries to dodge. There is a long history of sailing in Newport and it is a summer destination for some of the largest and most beautiful sailing yachts in the world. This race boat sailed right behind us, apparently practicing.
After ogling all these boats for a while we dropped our sails and got ready to anchor. We found a good spot among the literally hundreds of boats moored in the harbor. Then we neatened things up and spent the evening relaxing in the cockpit, cooking dinner, chatting with other cruisers and watching the sunset.

The trip yesterday from Block Island to Newport was a short sail in good weather to a fantastic destination. So much for giving an example of all the hard work and challenging situations we endure between stops!