We just completed Block Island to South River in 48 hours (9am anchor up to 9am anchor down). It seems to be a year for doing the tricky bits at night (because of timing currents). Previously we did the cape cod canal and buzzards bay at night and this passage the C&D canal and then down the bay at night. AIS certainly does make this much easier (one side note - it looks like my new led masthead light produces some radio noise near AIS frequencies and blanks out some of the weaker/more distant AIS signals. The LOPO led deck running lights don't seem to have any AIS effect).

This little bird hitched a ride the whole way. He would fly away for about a minute but always return with a bug in his mouth and then he would settle into a corner on deck and munch the bug. He ate all but the wings and the decks are now covered with abandoned wings.