August 8-10

We spent a couple of nights in Block Island. As we tied up to the dock on Monday afternoon, we had a brand new experience. Because there was a fishing tournament going on, dock space was at a premium. Well, actually, it was over-booked. But they have an interesting tradition there—simply tie the extra boats to the outside of boats along the dock. This process is referred to as “rafting up,” something boaters often do to be close to their friends or to share a dock with someone in need. However, I’ve never heard of involuntarily being forced to raft up at a dock and then having to pay full price for the benefit of having people tromp through your boat all day and into the night. And full price there was $215 per night! Arrgh!

This probably colored our feelings about Block Island. We went for a nice walk over the hills and out to the beach the first evening. On Tuesday, I went on a run through down West Side road past many pretty vistas and nice estates. Later, we rented a Smart car (a tiny no-frills two-seater) for four hours for the price of renting a much bigger car on the mainland for four days. (I hate being taken advantage of! Arrgh again!)

We had a nice lunch downtown at a restaurant overlooking the beach, then drove down to the old Southeast lighthouse which has quite a history: Built in the 1870s, it had to be moved in 1993 because the coastline is eroding by 3 to 7 ft. per year. The lighthouse is not that tall since it stands on a cliff about 200 ft. above sea level, but the move included the large attached house, built to house three lightkeepers and their families. The complex is now 300 ft. from the edge of the cliff.

A little ways form the light house, we took a long stairway down to the beach. As we started our descent down the gorge with its lush vegetation all around, I was reminded of Kokee State Park in Kawai, Hawaii. Once we got to the bottom and looked back at the cliffs, the problem became obvious: The cliffs were made of clay! No wonder there is so much erosion.

Wednesday morning, we were up at 5:30, but not underway until 6:15. Our departure was complicated by having to un-raft! We wanted to get the earliest possible start to avoid the dreaded swift current at “The Race.” To be continued…

P.S. The picture is of Block Island’s Southeast Lighthouse.