Last week in Newport, Now in Baltimore

Our last week in Newport was a whirlwind of sight seeing with Frances' parents and getting ready to travel south. Fran's parents are experienced travelers so we were ready with plans and information. We did touring around Newport and saw the Breaker's mansion, Trinity church, the Seaman's institute, Fort Adams, Doris Duke's museum and the wharfs on the waterfront. We checked out the surrounding towns of Bristol, Jamestown, New Bedford, Fall River and Tiverton. We went to the Heresoff museum the Whaling museum and on a Lighthouse cruise. And of course, we stuffed ourselves with good food everywhere. It was so fun to show them the places we have been enjoying the past three months. Hopefully we will all be back next year to do it again.

Beavertail Point is one place we visited. It looks out over the Atlantic. This scene is typical of New England around Newport. The rocky coast with men fishing in the surf, a lobster boat in the middle ground and an international sailboat race going on in the background. A helicopter is flying above the race taking photos.

A fashion tip for men in Newport. For years Frances made fun of these red pants Al has. However, you see them them every day in Newport, pants and shorts. They are Breton Reds, mostly worn by sailors. They fade from red to pink but that does not stop any guy from wearing them.

Frances has had a promotion lately. But she thinks it is one of those jobs with a fancy title and no change in duties!

Carrying with us lot of good memories we left Newport Wednesday, September 21st. One of the best things about our summer was meeting Mike and Terry on This Side Up. They are going to catch up with us soon! Also Al will miss getting to see his family.

We sailed straight to the Delaware Bay in just over 48 hours. Two days later we sailed to Baltimore.

Always looking for history, we sailed past this marker of the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner in the Baltimore Harbor.

So we have started the next phase of our trip. We are getting ready to travel south to the Caribbean. In November we will head straight south from Virgina to the BVI's with a group of sailboats. It is a transition to spend the winter season in the tropics.

We still feel very fortunate to be on this trip. The experiences we are having make it completely worth the effort. We are so appreciative of our family and friends that are cheering us on. The trip is turning out to be a very enriching experience.

Frances and Al

From Maine to Provincetown to Newport

Our last few days in Maine were spent in Rockland. Like most harbors in Maine Rockland is a "working" harbor. Pleasure boats are  the minority. We were mixed in with lobster boats, large fishing boats and a Coast Guard station.

This red lobster boat was moored next to us. They left every morning before we even got up. Frances' conclusion after seeing so much lobstering is that the sea floor in Maine must be solid lobsters. 

We got this photo in Maine of a seal in the cove where we spent the hurricane, Seal Bay.

We left Rockland September 2nd and sailed to Provincetown, Mass. getting there at 10am on the 3rd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provincetown's claim to fame is that the Mayflower stopped there first before heading to Plymouth. They built a huge tower monument to recognize this event.

One of the main things to do in P-town is walk up and down the main street. It's a great place for people watching. They call it the Key West of New England.

The beach nearby is one of the best we have ever seen. It's immense with incredible dunes.

We are back in Newport now and hoping the weather is good next week for Fran's parent's visit.

 

Cruising in Maine

Despite the visit from hurricane Irene we have had a wonderful time in Maine. We weathered the storm in a cove called Seal Bay in Vinalhaven. There were 15 other boats there too so we got to know some new people and saw some folks we had previously met in the Bahamas. We had 40 to 50 knot winds with no waves so it was not a problem to ride out the storm on two anchors.
Other than the break to deal with the hurricane have been enjoying the beauty of Maine. The towns are small with incredibly friendly people but on a boat you can easily get to some remote and peaceful places with no town at all.
We have primarily visited Mount Desert Island and Rockland. We stayed in Southwest Harbor which is a very small town with a large number of lobster boats in the harbor. The town was fun to visit. We bought some jelly from a lady who sells it in front of her house on the road to town. We then anchored in Somesville Harbor. The photograph above is the anchorage in Somesville as the sun was setting. From Somesville we toured Desert Island by bus. The Acadia National Park is there, this is Al on the pink granite shoreline in the park.

We are now in Rockland, the largest town we have visited in Maine. The harbor is a mix of working fishing boats and pleasure boats. One of the highlights of our visit has been the Farnsworth museum with a large collection of Andrew Wyeth paintings.

We did get caught in the fog on our first day in Maine but the fog has mostly stayed away since then. This is a schooner in Bar Harbor with the fog rolling in. Right down the street it was sunny at this restaurant covered in lobster bouys.







We have been fortunate to have friends in this area who are also cruising this summer on their sailboat. Alan and Judy have shown us around the local waters and we have had a great time with them here. We are going to hate to say "good by" to them and to Maine.

We are leaving in the next day or two to sail straight back to Cape Cod and from there to Newport.

One last photo...a sunset over Southwest Harbor.

Newport to Maine

Believe it or not you can become very busy as a cruiser. Since our last post we have attended the Newport Folk festival and Jazz festival. The weather was perfect for the Folk festival. Hundreds of boats anchored close to the stages to listen to the music. Lets just say that the atmosphere on the water gets very festive as the day goes on. You can't help but have fun.
Al's brother Bruce turned 50 and his wife Angie threw him a great party. The homemade Portugese food was delicious as usual. Family members and friends were there including Al's daughter Christine and her husband Chris.

We spent an entire week doing boat projects at anchor in Newport. We completed numerous things but took only one photo that week of Frances fixing a sail on deck. Oh well, the work needed to be done but we had fun in the evenings having dinner with friends.
Newport continues to amaze us with classic boats, colonial history and lots of things to keep us entertained. Here are several 12 meters lined up at the dock getting ready for a race. The harbor is full of sailboats, all in beautiful of condition. In comparison Jade is on the small, cumberson and scruffy side. It's all relative!

We decided to go north to check out Maine since so many friends said we had to go there. Al's long time friend John Gosson joined us for a georgeous day of sailing from Newport to Onset. Then we went through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. We sailed overnight from Provincetown to the Bar Harbor area of Maine.

We are now in Maine. We're not in Florida any more! However, we did see a lobster boat named FLO-RIDA. The landscape, birds and sea life are completely different here. This is Al on the beach. After the tide goes down 13 feet this sea weed is exposed and you can pick out as many mussels as you want. They made for a good dinner yesterday. We have just begun to see Maine so there will more on the next blog.

We still miss our family and friends from Florida and love hearing from everybody. Thanks for keeping in touch and for all the positive feedback on the blog.

Frances and Al

Time with Family

The second week of July Fran's sister Helen joined us for a week. We did nothing but have fun the whole time.

First we toured Newport and then sailed, actually sailed, to Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard is a nice island with several little towns and striking views of the ocean. Helen took this photo of the Light house at Gay Head on the southeast corner of the island. One town, Oak Bluffs has a famous retreat center with charming cottages that started out as tents 100 years ago.

We then sailed to Cuttyhunk, a small island with only about 50 houses. It feels very remote and peaceful.
A lot of the beaches in New England are rocky. Everyone flocks to the sand beaches on nice days. This is Al on a rocky beach in Cuttyhunk.

After the nice visit with Helen, Frances went home and got spoiled by her parents for a week. She found out that she really misses thunderstorms, a regular bed and air conditioning. She realized also that it is a lot easier to drive a car than a boat. It was a wonderful visit with her friends and she loved spending time with her mom and dad. Al stayed in Tiverton and helped his Dad with some projects around the house. Next time Al will probably want to go home with Frances!

We are back in Newport again for the folk festival this weekend. We will be around this area another week and then go north for a while.

Bristol 4th of July and Newport

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Bristol, Rhode Island. They have had a 4th of July parade there every year for over 200 years. It's a big event for the entire area around Bristol. It's not just a parade either, the town starts celebrating days before the 4th. Bruce, Al's brother and his wife Angie never miss the parade because Angie is from Bristol. All the families have parties after the parade. We had some great Portuguese again food thanks to Angie's Aunt. The Herreshoff Museum held a series of events that we attended over the weekend too. It made the weekend really fun and we met some other cruisers there, too.

Before the 4th we did make it to Newport to see the Maltese Falcon start a transatlantic race. It was an amazing sight and we're glad we made a special trip to see it.

We have been back in Newport all week. One neat thing in the anchorage is that every day we have children sailing right past the boat learning how to sail. They are so brave to learn in such a busy harbor.

Fran's sister will be with us this next week so we will be leaving Narragansett Bay and going to Martha's Vineyard and other places. Then Fran will be going home to visit her parents the week of the 17th while Al goes back to Tiverton.

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!