Wild ride to Newport on Saturday with winds anywhere from 12kts right up to 30+ as we went the inside route through Mount Hope Bay and down Narragansett Bay.

We had to wait until the tide dropped to allow us through the Sakonnet bridge, but made use of that time fixing the water maker filters which are now solidly bolted to the inside wall of the transom. We left at about 1:30pm and once into Mount Hope Bay found ourselves being royally beaten up with the wind and 3 – 5ft choppy waves as we beat into it all. We flew a double reefed main and the inner jib and routinely had water over the bow. Abby was with us and showed a natural talent at the helm - and was quite disappointed when we wimped out and started motor sailing from the bottom of Prudence to Newport - in order to get there before dark and before it got too cold.

We anchored off Ida Lewis amongst some unusually scraggy boats! Laurie prepared a wonderful dinner of Pork Tenderloin.

Sunday was a much different story – since we could now run with the wind. It was a beautiful sunny day, though quite cool and still windy. With Abby at the helm we raced out of Newport with double reefed main and full jib, doing 8.5kts! Caught and passed a big J boat that was only flying a reefed main – and caught a 49ft Beneteau that was motoring! The wind behaved really nicely – turning as we turned into Mount Hope Bay, allowing us to keep the wind on the port quarter right up until we turned at the head of Mount Hope and headed south into the Sakonnet.

This was probably the last weekend of sailing for us this season – time to get the boat ready for winter. She’ll be staying in Pirate Cove this winter – on the hard since the house seems highly unlikely to sell in this lousy economy.