We left Newport this morning under cloudy skies around 8:30 headed for Block Island. The wind coming out of Newport was right in our face at about 13 knots. With good wind and not so far to go, we took the option of pure sailing.
We tacked back and forth with the staysail, then opted to swap it for the genoa, which meant more speed and longer tacks since the Genoa needs to be furled to tack it, that helped us make better progress against the current. The wind slowed to 11 as the sun appeared and our progress on a tight tack held between 5.4 and 5.8. The wind graciously picked back up to 14 just as it was time for us to stow sails and enter New Harbor/Great Salt Pond.
It being Labor Day Monday, there was a solid line of mainly power boats departing the narrow entrance as we came in, it was like turning left on a busy street to get over to the anchorage on the north side of the harbor. The anchorage was crowded, but we found room easy enough and anchored in 28 feet of water and about 16 knots of wind. Lesley dug the anchor in with almost 2000 RPMs of reverse power to avoid dragging.... I hope my fix on the windlass was good, we’ll need it to get the anchor out! The wind and chop on the water helped us decide to stay on the boat for the remainder of the day, and avoid a wet half a mile ride in the dinghy. We celebrated our 100th night and the 2,005 nautical mile of the trip with a steak dinner and good wine.