10/27/2009, Newport, RI
The BBQ last night in the Canadian Ghetto here at the docks was a lot of fun. Barb was the hostess for eight people including the two of us. I played my small part at the BBQ but really, all the hard work was done below decks in the galleys and that was the Admirals. Besides the food, Anne-Louise brought over her laptop and showed us their weather websites which I am going to bookmark on our computer too. The interesting thing was that her site showed that the day before yesterday began a seven day ideal window to travel to Bermuda that we were going to miss waiting for the NARC Rally. Here's crossing our fingers that there'll be another soon after 1 Nov.
We have our appointment at the vet's for the animals on the 28th at 10h30 in the morning. It could turn out to be a trial run to see how long the process takes for if there is too much of a weather delay, we may have to do another.
It's interesting to watch the boats coming through the Yachting Centre. As they arrive you can't help but wonder where they are from and if they are going to be in the rally too. So far there are only four boats here at the docks that we know are going but this morning at 06h00 as we were peering out the CVS at the nav station another large ketch nosed her way into the dock in the dark and the wondering began again.
Barb and I began the morning after taking Peri for his morning poop-u-lation with a more in depth exploration of the waterfront starting with the Seaman's Church. This is located in what looks like a converted three story warehouse that has a cafe and lounge on the ground floor with free wifi, showers and a laundry in the basement, a chapel (see photo gallery) and a library on the second floor and rooms to rent on the third. The cafe provides very reasonable and plentiful breakfasts and lunches and the chapel and library on the second floor has to be visited and seen in person to be truly appreciated. We also discovered that this evening there will be a speaker and slide show of his dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. I think that we'll be attending that, so we can fuel our fantasies of sailing in those waters in Nelleke someday.
We also discovered a fish monger's where we'll probably buy something for dinner, if not tonight then some night this week. We bought the charts for the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as well as the Virgin Islands, both paper and electronic. They didn't have Bermuda in stock but have assured us that they'll have it in the store before Friday so we'll pick that up by then. And as well we are on the prowl for a 28" zipper that we can use to fix my RHSP 2004 vest.
The crew from Peer's Fancy were kind enough to take our propane tank with them when they went to fill theirs so we can multi-task. They found a place that fills by the gallon so the cost for us was only $26 vice the $36 that we normally get dinged back home. We threw in $7 for our share of the cab and it was still a great deal, especially as we were able to get some additional work done aboard. We have the fishing rod holder attached on the cabin top and the barrel bolts installed to prevent the freezer from sliding out of its cave.
We have also answered a question for ourselves. We had been wondering where everyone put their boats in the winter as there doesn't seem to be too much extra space on the hard to do so. Then we noticed that many of the parking lots here have a place for travel lifts to haul boats and the penny dropped. During the winter with the decrease in tourism there is much less call for parking spots so some of them may be converted to paved boat yards. Pretty ingenious I think.
In all a pretty productive day, in spite of the cold and drizzle.
From Barb:
As Mike said we did knock off a few jobs today. I hauled out the sewing machine from its home on the forward side of what we have taken to calling the pantry - the area behind the u-shaped settee in the main cabin. One of the Moonlight Maidens (not naming any names) had a slip on the way into their cockpit and split the dodger. They stitched it enough to keep it from getting any worse and asked me to make the repair a bit more permanent. A few lengths of sail tape and some machine stitching made a not-pretty-but-ok-for-now repair. Since this is the second time in 4 days that I have had cause to use the machine we decided that it was time to put it in a more convenient spot. To get it out I was having to empty out 1/2 of the pantry - now the machine is more accessible and I put the items we would not be "shopping" for frequently where the machine was. Duh - why didn't we think of that in the first place???
I really enjoyed the get together last night. Each boat brought their own protein for the BBQ, I prepared the vegs, Heather made a wonderful spinach salad with nuts and hard boiled eggs in it, and the Peers Fancy folks brought a lovely red wine and a tasty dessert from Panera - a huge round pastry wirh dollops of cherries, apples, and cheese. If any of you visit here you must make sure to stop by Panera on the main drag of the waterfront. Great pastry, cookies, breads and more and more and more. Later on two Ghiardelli cohocolate bars appeared from the Peers Fancy backpack - yummmmmmmm.
| 09-10 Cruise |
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It was a much more peaceful night at the dock and everyone had a much more peaceful sleep, and another beautiful day dawned with light winds and bright sunshine. Hurrah! By the end of the day we were ready for shorts and T-shirts again.
We took the first opportunity to walk down to the tourist info centre which is about a block and a half down the harbour road and got some info for Ron about shuttles from the airport. He has a couple of choices ranging from a $75 cab ride to $1.40 on the public bus system. If I can ever get an internet connection I'll be sending him the details.
I also walked down to the local West Marine dealer (a short 2 mile stroll) who has a bit of a techno-guru on staff to ask about the auto helm. It turns out that our system will only function on 12V so I guess that answers that question. Rats! On the plus side it is one fewer job to have to do.
Also, the pension drama continues as I have been asked yet again for another document that I have already sent to them. Oh well, at least there is someone up there actually doing something so I suppose that I can't complain too much.
One very interesting thing about Newport is that they really do up Halloween, far more than I have ever seen it done at home. There are at least six haunted houses set up for the occasion including Fort Adams at the entrance to the mooring field; almost every bar has some kind of Halloween Dance or bash; and the number of private or semi-private costume functions that are being advertised is simply incredible. Even the churches get into the act. Check out the photo on the blog, it's of the local Anglican/Episcopal church yard covered with pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows and monsters. No the usual fare for churchyards, eh? Barb and I are regretting not bringing down something to use as a costume, or at least one of the fancy masks that she made years ago.
Moonlight Maid and the Maidens arrived and were alongside by 15h00 so we are a flotilla of three Canadians. We celebrated with a pot luck BBQ - lamb and pork - loads of fun.
| 09-10 Cruise |
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10/25/2009, Newport, RI
Holey smucker-doodles, what a wind last night! I awoke as Nelleke was leaping and pulling at her dock lines so I got up to check them and make sure that they would hold. I stayed awake for about an hour watching to make sure we held but equally as importantly to make sure that everyone else at the dock held too. I'd like to say it was because I was concerned for their safety but the fact is I was more concerned that if one of them came loose, tied up on the bottom of a U-shaped dock we would have no place to go. I thought that if I had to I could fend them off as they went by or at least put fenders out where they were going to rub against us. No need though. I expect that their crew were aboard peering out their portholes thinking much the same things that I was. The day dawned with still about 15 kts of wind but cloudless sunny skies - a welcome change. It is supposed to stay this way for a couple of days which will give Moonlight Maid a chance to scoot down here from Marion.
While killing time and bad weather I had another look at Moonlight Maid's blog. They had a post after they came through Cape Cod Canal and like them I was struck by how nice it is to have a friend's boat to be sailing in company with, even if our schedules don't jibe exactly. Now that we're here in Newport we have stumbled across Peer's Fancy and Gail and Anne-Louise so there is another boat and friends and I expect that we'll make some more as the week progresses. Nelleke, Moonlight Maid and Peer's Fancy will probably be crewing the trailer of the rally as none of us are speed demons and the other boat or two that we have seen tied up to the docks that are also on the rally are newer, sleeker, and potentially much faster. It all depends upon how well they are crewed, I guess. At least there should be some folk in radio contact for most of the trip across to Bermuda.
In the morning we went to take in the Cliff Walk around the cliff face of the southern tip of Rhode Island. What can I say? Wow! We didn't do the entire walk; in fact we only did about 25% of it but - Wow! With the storm last night the surf was up and we stopped a couple of times to watch the surfers out in their wetsuits riding the waves. It looks like a whole load of fun; check out the Photo Gallery. The camera crapped out due to power failure early in the day but we were able to get some good shots to give you an idea of what the place looks like.
We came back to the boat to meet Gail and Anne-Louise who pointed out that we had lost yet another shackle pin on the headsail halyard, but fortunately for us both errant pins had fallen on the deck and I was able to find them easily. I suppose that if I was a shackle pin I wouldn't have wanted to fall into the cold, cold ocean either. Either that or I have horseshoes hanging out of various bodily orifices. They also told me that there is a local West Marine and that they are the Raymarine dealer and they have a staff member who is the local expert in Raymarine products. Maybe he'll have the answer about the linear drive.
In spite of the Sunday, day of rest thing, we have been getting various small things done about the boat. Barb has been slaving over a hot stove preparing beef stew, some for tonight's dinner and the rest for the freezer for the crossing, and the two of us have been working to re-install the splash cloths around the cockpit that Barb had off to reinforce the stitching. I on the other hand have been doing research to try to figure out how to get the remote auto helm control below decks and to see if I can get any additional information about 12 or 24V power for the linear drive. In between I made Barb a little happier by replacing the fresh water filter below decks.
From Barb
Well, it sure would be nice to have a bucket o' cash while here in Newport - lots of posh shops and galleries and restaurants. Probably a good thing that we are impoverished sailors as if we did buy something heaven's only knows where we would stow it! We really don't need a thing other than a replenishing of our food stores every once and a while and enough money to pay for the ongoing upkeep of the old girl - Nelleke, I mean, not me, heehee.
Mike mentioned that I have been making a huge vat of beef and vegetable stew to enjoy now and later on. It sure smells great in the galley and we will be able to eat quite a few meals from it once we freeze it in portion sizes.
A lot more of the stitching finally gave way on the old cockpit splash cloths so I spent quite a bit of time yesterday resewing the hems and patching a few of the weakened spots - I sure hope we can get another season out of them. I am kicking myself that when we bought the boat sewing machine years ago in Florida that I did not have the presence of mind to hold out for one that would zigzag as well as straight stitch - oh well. It really is a strong workhorse and has not rusted at all in the 10 years we have had it.
I am STILL restoring files to my laptop from the Carbonite on line backup service. I had way too much on the laptop, not backed up to CDs - once this painful restore process is over I will be dumping files to CD and deleting them from the laptop and going forward I will be dumping and deleting on a monthly basis. You would think after 30 years in IT that I would not have been so stoooopid about my own machine's data.
Tomorrow promises to be fine so I will give Nelleke a good deck washdown and then pay attention to the cabin floors and give them a good scrub with Murphy's Oil Soap -> sure beats working in an office any day :-) I was again relieved that with the torrential rains yeaterday we did not get one drop of water below decks, at the risk of jinxing things perhaps we can say that maybe we have found all of the leaks.
Here is a test for you. Who said "I have always liked going south. Somehow it seems like going downhill."?
| 09-10 Cruise |
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