We left Onset for Newport via an overnight in Cuttyhunk.
We wanted to re-provision at the Stop and Shop, get one last meal at the
Thai restaurant (yet another Bobby story), and visit the nice folks at
Bristol Marine. We anchored within 100 feet of our last anchorage and
their were not many boats here. We were told that the Harbormaster was
enforcing the two week anchor limit which apparently has freed up the
once crowded anchorage.
We did make the trip to Bristol
to get our 'meatloaf mountain' at Aidan's pub and visit to Bristol
Marine. We even got a ride back to Bristol downtown on Mike's launch.
Good trip and good memories. We may use Bristol as a jumping off point
for our next trip to Nova Scotia. We will see.
We were in Newport for the Labor Day weekend. There was
not too much going on except a few wooden boat rallys and the
fireworks. We were surprised that it was so laid back. The town was
crowded and crazy but the harbor was not.
Today we leave Newport for Block Island or
Fishers Island, depending on the weather. We are a bit concerned that
the Block to Cape May trip will put us in Cape May in the middle of the
night. The foggy conditions are delaying are departure which is not
helping matters much.
While piloting down the Narragansett, we reviewed our
plan; head for Block Island then an overnight to Cape May. The only
worry was that we would not get to Cape May in the daylight and we would
then arrive with a foul current. The latest forecast has moderate SW
winds for part of the trip which is not good. So our plan changed
and we will do Long Island.
Our route is very similar to the path we took
in late Spring. We entered the Sound as we passed Watch Hill to
starboard. Winds were light but on the nose. We are heading for the
anchorage at Fishers Island for the night. Wind is expected to be out
of the SW turning to NW so Fishers Island is the place to be.
Next day saw a long motor from Fishers to Port
Jefferson. The wind was out of the NW around 12 kts. Depending on our
heading and set of the current, we could at times motorsail. Choppy seas
most of the day. We entered Port Jefferson harbor at sunset and
anchored in the eastern anchorage near a tug.
Next day we headed for Port Washington
with light winds but a foul current much of the day. Lots of fishing
boats around and a few of the dreaded floats. We got lazy at times and
almost ran over a few of the floats. We arrived at Port Washington
around 1600 where several of the free yellow balls were available.
Weather will be bad for the next several days. Wanderer
II came into the harbor right before the weather got stinky. So we got
to play in town a bit. We went to the Stop and Shop, got doo-dads at
the curio shop and ate at Ayhan's. We also worked on a plan for our
trip to the Chesapeake. Plan A had an overnight past Cape May up the
Delaware and anchor down in the northern Chesapeake. Plan B had us
stopping somewhere.
You guessed it. Plan B! Forecast has the wind and
seas building to 15-20 kts and 5-7 ft. So we left Port Washington at
0830 to arrive at Hells Gate just as the current begins the ebb cycle.
Everything was great but the forecast at Cape May dictated that we would
have to stop. We could only make Sandy Hook as the other harbors were
too far to make in the daylight. We stopped and anchored on the western
side of the Hook.
We checked the forecast at it indicated that if we
could get to Barnegat inlet at sunrise, we would have a favorable
current and the wind should be less than 15 knots with tolerable seas. So
at 1700, we picked up our anchor and headed for Barnegat. Guess what?
Lumpy bumpy trip with a really scary inlet but everything work out as
planned.
;
