Our stop in Newport, RI was short, but sweet. Denny and I had a nice walk in town and he took me to dinner where there was live music. A guy playing the guitar singing all the songs you love to hear. It was a very enjoyable evening.

We left in the morning and sailed to Block Island. Here we got the boat ready for the 220 mile journey to Chesapeake City (photo above). Our first 24 hours we went 160 miles, down wind. We had a reefed main and a reefed jib going 8-9 knots. Our wind instruments aren't working so we really didn't know how much the wind was blowing, but we heard from s/v Georgia that it was a consistent 20-25 knots, gusting to 30. The autopilot stopped working so we hooked up the hydrovane. The hydrovane usually works great, but it weaves going down wind. Sometimes when it rounds up it can't get it back so you have to steer to help it out. This means you have to be very watchful all the time which is tiring. The first 24 hours we didn't get much sleep, just a couple hours here and there. In strong winds, there is always a chance of something breaking and sure enough our boom break broke. Denny seems to think it will be an easy fix. We also heard from s/v Georgia they had some autopilot problems, but it never failed them, it was just working hard due to the high winds. Hence we are in the market for a new hydraulic oversized autopilot. Good thing we are working the Annapolis Boat Show to pay for these new parts.

Moving south means warmer weather and today it's hot outside (upper 80's). You got to love it!

Life is good on Kokomo.

Becky