Mike
11/07/2009, Newport, RI

I am really beginning to rue the day that I decided to hang around in Halifax to arrive in Newport in time for the NARC. The event, if everything went well, which we hope did for all the other participants, certainly leaves you in a pretty pickle if you were like us and had to return to the start for repairs. I am really beginning to feel that we are beginning to be chased by winter. The temperature is very much like we would expect it to be in the fall at home but here it is definitely what they see as the prelude to the snowy season. The electric heaters are running more or less constantly when we are plugged into shore power and the propane ones when we are not. I guess we can only take solace in the fact that there has already been snow at home as reported by our daughter in Saint John and friends in Halifax. Our son in Drumheller, near Calgary, has been shovelling for a couple of weeks.

We are starting to look at the calendar and making plans to get down the coast as quickly as possible. Clearly that means that if the weather permits we will have to be making some day and a half to two day hops but we don't want to get caught in the same sort of thing that we did on the Southwest Harbour to Charleston leg last year with a really crappy sea and blustery winds. I have a course laid in for Newport to Cape May, bypassing NYC in total. If we get a weather ,dy Hook or Cape May, and if we wait longer we'll be here until Saturday at least due to a storm front coming though on Wednesday and hanging on until at least the end of Thursday. Then, even if the weather is good, as Barb says we will not be leaving on Friday the 13th! Unless there is a dramatic change in the weather it looks as though we'll be here until the weekend. Drat! Oh well, at least that'll give Screech a chance to catch up with us.

The boat seems very empty with Ron's departure and Barb and I have both been struck with the fact that for us, part of the cruising fun is interaction with fellow cruisers, whether they be aboard Nelleke or aboard their own boats sailing company with us. It is now pretty lonely at the Newport Yachting Centre with everyone other than the professional crews of two larger boats gone or up on the hard and one boat from Finland who will be gone tomorrow. We are certainly looking forward to a reunion, albeit brief, with Mary Lou and Jay aboard Screech for the trip from here to Cape May, at least. Perhaps it will have become warm enough there to compensate for the fact that we'll be cruising solo again at the rear of the snowbird flock heading south. I envy our friends that are already down there and have promised ourselves to never wait this long again. We could leave much earlier and spend some quality time gunkholing our way south rather than racing the Frost Belt. As far as being the lone boat, I guess I would never make a solo circumnavigator. My hat is off to those hearty souls that do that.

The Newport Yachting Centre has been very gracious about letting us stay here even though they are anxious to get the docks out and are, in fact, dismantling the electricity and water around us as we lie here. They have us all right up tight against the head of the docks so we can continue to get power and water even though the rest of the docks are a shell. They don't have to do this and I regard it as quite a kindness but I expect that even this will end at least by Tuesday so we have taken the precaution of making sure that we have another place to go to if we have to move. The Newport Yacht Club (vice the Newport Yachting Centre) has agreed to let us stay there for a couple of nights so we do have a fall back. I sure hope that RNSYS has reciprocal privileges with them so we can get their members dockside price, otherwise it will be a lot more than we are paying here.

We have been watching the blogs for our friends on Moonlight Maid, anxious to see that they made it there safely but as of 20h00 last night they had not posted anything. Since they had delayed their crossing of the stream, there might be a later arrival time such as late last night and if so they are likely too bagged to have found a wifi site to post their news. In turn, I hope they have been told our situation so that they won't worry about us.

Projects for today include: splicing the Amstel lead into the heavy weather headsail, fixing the wiring for the port running light, splicing the mainsheet into the one part of the block system that I already have (this thing is a lot more robust that the previous one and has a working load of a ton and a breaking load of two and a half), and a walk up to the hardware store to get some additional barrel bolts and install them on some cupboard doors and such that kept springing open in the seas over the last couple of days. I made an extended walking trip to West Marine, a consignment store and one of the nearby hardware stores to get the required bits and pieces, including a nice piece of ash that had been a dingy tiller at one point but which I will use to reinforce the fuel tank station board that I installed before the start of the NARC and which has partially cracked.

Barb has been busy cleaning up the boat while she access to 110V for the vacuum and has been re-gluing down the picturesque hemp rope boarder to the floor boards.

AS it is and given that it is obvious that we'll be here for several more days yet, we decided to put off 'till tomorrow this afternoon's job list and take the walking tour about town. We like to do this in most of the places that we stop. Some of them are conducted and some are self paced. Today's was of the self paced variety. This is an amazing and historical city. Apparently at the time of the industrial revolution they made a conscious decision to forgo the pleasures of factories and smoke stacks and became one of the first communities that focused on tourism as their revenue source. Given their proximity to Boston and New York, they were extremely successful as is evidenced by the number of mansions.

Aw, CRAP! We are now hearing about Hurricane Ida coming up the Florida Coast. That might be what is going to cause the bad weather the middle of next week. Let's fervently hope that it really and truely dies out before it gets here. Let's also hope that our friends that are further south don't have any problems with it.

09-10 Cruise

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Barb
11/06/2009, Newport, RI

Well, the boat seems really empty with Ron on his way back home to, egad, snow. We heard from our Halifax friend, Faye, that she was facing the cleaning up of 3 inches of snow.

I discovered another wet spot on the boat - never before happened - the cardboard packaging of the plastic storage bags, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and garbage bags that are stored under the galley sink on the bottom shelf were sodden with fresh water. The only thing I can figure is that I must have spilled water down the front of the cabinet while making tea or soup while bouncing around. Just something more to clean up and nothing that can be done to prevent it really - not worth fussing about it when we have other more improtant jobs to finish before moving on.

I was collecting towels and pillowcases for the laundry after Ron left and noticed that we had a failure in the back of the tool cabinet we built this summer. One of the heavy tool kits rammed into the back of the cupboard that is next to the upper berth and pushed the top part of the back off - sure glad Ron did not get hurt. It will get it reinforced before we leave as well and I was reminded that I never did get around to staining and varnising the back of the cupboard either.

We took ourselves to a movie at the old Opera House here in Newport late this afternoon. We saw "The Men Who Stare at Goats" - here is what the movie web site says "In a comedic look at real life events that are almost too bizarre to believe, a reporter discovers a top-secret wing of the U.S. military when he accompanies an enigmatic Special Forces operator on a mind-boggling mission." With George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey how could we go wrong - it WAS bizarre to say the least and hilarious in spots. I will say no more in case you decide to see it for yourselves. We were surprised that it cost only $11.25 for the both of us to get in - pretty inexpensive.

There is another sure sign that we should be high-tailing it out of town - on the grounds of the Newport Yachting Center where we are docked they are erecting an outdoor skating rink - think they are trying to tell us something?

I will be finishing up reading Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island" before turning in tonight - it is an entirely creepy and eerie read that was enhanced for me by the trailers that we saw for the current movie of the story starring Leonard DiCaprio. Ron was reading it on the initial part of his visit and I snatched it up pretty much as soon as he finished it - to be recommended.

09-10 Cruise

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Mike
11/06/2009, Newport, RI

To echo, and add to Barb's comments from yesterday we have made some decisions about future cruising as a couple. I had always hoped that by gradually acclimatizing her to life aboard that I would be able to get Barb used to offshore passage making and we could make trips like the one that we have just attempted. The corollary to that and advice that I have always given to people just starting out and trying to convince their spouse of the joys of cruising, is to make sure that every time you do something for the first time, that the experience is as idyllic and as much fun as possible and clearly this was not. I'm afraid that I have lost ground in convincing her to be a blue water sailor. At the same time, I have had a serious reality check. Barb has problems with her knees and to ask her to try to move around on a boat that is pitching and tossing in unfavourable seas is simply not the act of someone who professes to love her. Truth be told, I have to realize that I'm not 24 anymore either. Therefore to regain lost ground and remind her of how much fun this is, we will be limiting our offshore passages to 2 days maximum and then only when the weather is about 100% in our favour. If not we will either stay where we are or take the ICW (shudder) to make southing.

Our friends Mary Lou and Jay are now saying that they may be here towards the end of next week, so we will meet them here and then head out for NYC. If possible I'd like to do it down the south shore of Long Island Sound on an overnight trip to get to Sandy Hook, NJ where we would wait for a suitable window to head for Cape May. That's where we would likely part company with them for a while as they will head up the Delaware to the C&D Canal and thence down the Chesapeake to the Potomac and Washington DC. We, on the other hand, will be waiting to jump down to Norfolk and mile 1 of the ICW to clear Cape Hatteras. Hopefully by that point we will be in warmer weather. I remember waiting out the insurance deadline in Oriental until the 13th and the weather wasn't too bad. A couple of coastal hops or ICW trudges will get us to Fernandina Beach, again hopefully by the end of the month. Last year this was one of our favourite spots to stop over, so if that is as far as we get before Christmas, we will be comfortable with that. On the other hand, if we can, we could get down to Vero Beach and join the Velcro crowd there waiting for a passage across to the Bahamas. The dream date would be to celebrate Christmas in the islands, but we won't be pushing it.

We have been able to source replacement blocks for the mainsheet and they are a lot more robust than the old ones, new too, so I am quite satisfied about that. The kind folk in the neighbouring boat has the use of a car and they were kind enough to drive me over to save me a cab fare or a long walk or bus ride. They will be leaving for Bermuda this afternoon and from the looks of it they will be the ones with the best trip except they will be doing a lot of motoring as there will be almost no wind. I have also got the Amstel for the heavy weather jib and I'll be splicing that in tomorrow.

The sails are back with all the repairs done - less than 24 hours from when we turned them over to the sailmaker. The price for the repairs was not too exorbitant so we are not unpleased with that. Now we are just waiting for the wind to die down so that we can bend them back on.

On the down side we have just finished putting Ron on the bus for the airport. He is a great friend and has been an invaluable source of company, friendship and crewing for the trip. I only really regret that we weren't able to get him to Bermuda as was the plan. It was even more frustrating in that his wife was also scheduled to fly over to join us and I know that she was looking forward to the trip too. I can't shake the feeling that we have let them down. I realize that it would have been much worse if someone had been hurt or worse, but still...... We will definitely link up with them when we get to the Bahamas. Hopefully by then we will have had the opportunity to build up a tan.

09-10 Cruise

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