As the title suggests, I now qualify to buy some of that affordable housing!

Not so brief outline of the weekend: - long 4 day weekend...
Friday went to Aidens for dinner and then on to the boat to be ready in the morning for sailing... It was HOT! It was also buggy... We gave up and went home instead to air-conditioning.

We returned in the morning and it was sultry. No wind, lots of humidity, we departed at 8:40am and motored down the bay and well out past Brenton Reef before the wind piped up to allow us to fly the kite.

We ended up making excellent time to Menemsha - yes, we decided against Shelter Island due to the direction of the "wind". Actually, the wind came up nicely and we were romping along in flat seas at between 7 and 8 kts.

We arrived in Menemsha after just 6 1/2 hours - good time - and mostly under sail.

We took a mooring ball alongside Faial, a Bristol 44 aft cockpit with John and John (and their wives) aboard. John one was from Faial - one of the Azorian islands... Interesting boat - apparently a one off design.

We enjoyed a wonderful clamboil aboard Toodle-oo! on Friday night.

Saturday dawned spectacular but we spent a good part of the day working - on our bimini. We transformed the main berth into a queen sized cutting table and Laurie set up the sewing machine in the salon and we set to. It's not complete, but by about 2:30 we had it together and mounted and it's stayed there ever since!

We took a dingy ride into the pond in the afternoon and enjoyed some white wine while sitting on the beach, both of us reading 'those books' - Laurie now onto book two...

Dinner was muscles followed by Sole - wonderful.

Sunday was another beautiful day - hotter, so I gained another wrinkle... I looked at the weather for Monday's return and I've never seen such a conclusive forecast - it was going to Thunder. Should we head back a day early? We listened to the marine forecast though and it didn't seem so bad - so we decided to stick around and enjoy our day... It was too hot to think of cycling up to Oak Bluffs so we sauntered around Menemsha and then took another dingy ride to another beach and sat and read some more.

At one point there had been boats on our mooring, but by the end of the day it was just us and Ben in his Pearson 26.

We went for a celebratory dinner at a muckety muck restuarant overlooking Menemsha - the Beach Plum Restaurant and Inn. Beautiful gardens and interesting cooking. Laurie is still a little amused about her "Farm Salad" described as greens, feta, strawberries, black pepper and balsamic vinaigrette - what arrived was two large lumps of feta, about 3 strawberries, 9 very small green leaves of some description and a drizzle of vinaigrette - that looked like the mess I leave whenever I put down my coffee cup! She reports the feta was excellent - as were the strawberries!
My muscles were done in a ginger arrangement that unfortunately hid the taste of the muscles.
Our mains were very nice and overall we had a very enjoyable and relaxing evening...

I polished off the remaining scotch in the boat on returning to Toodle-oo! - and apparently had a long discussion with Ben - he must've though me the total alchy - slurring up a fever I'm told!

Thunder was due to start around midnight - but it didn't show. So we got an early start, dropping the mooring at 7:40am after settling up with the harbormaster. The wind was blowing about 12kts and we were looking at a nice beam reach to Newport.

We made excellent time in somewhat boisterous conditions that had me heaving over the side (remnants of my alcoholic condition methinks) - and I estimated we'd be off Brenton Reef around 11:00am - but then things changed. The coast guard announced a severe storm warning and the winds were clearly building. We'd already put a first reef in and switched genoa for the jib. On hearing the forecast we put in the next reef and continued towards Newport. Not for long - it was getting nasty. Since we were right opposite, we decided to head into the Sakonnet so that we could run with the wind and it immediately paid off with a much easier ride and we flew along at 9 - 10kts.

The Sakonnet can tame anything and sure enough, a few miles up we had to turn on the engine as the wind had dropped to 5 kts.

Unfortunately, timing was not good - we arrived at the bridge at high tide - and it looked very high - so we grabbed a mooring from Pirate Cove and had some lunch. Menemsha to Pirate Cove in 5 ½ hours is pretty good going!

As soon as we passed through the bridge and into Mount Hope Bay, the wind came up again and we flew down the bay. However, as we arrived in Narragansett Bay, it all looked pretty ferocious again, so we decided to wimp out and motor the last bit home, taking the sails down in over 20kts true.

Fortunately, I managed to kick my brain into gear (at Laurie's suggestion) and called NEB for some help getting into the slip... With 18 - 20kts, it was going to be difficult to turn the boat in such tight quarters. Two youngsters showed up and it was good they were there - but even though they were, it didn't stop me making a complete pigs ear of it - and so entertaining for everyone as it took a full 10 minutes to get within throwing range of them! Still, we managed - albeit backwards!

It was a great weekend! Even the storm.

Check out photos in the Menemsha gallery...