Block Island, RI

Block Island, RI.... what can I say!!!! To be 20 years younger 😘😘😘😘. We got there around 2:30 pm and the radio was alive with boaters requesting a mooring ball for the night. The balls can not be booked in advance so you really take a chance on being able to get one. The field consists of town balls and private balls that are owned by someone that the harbourmaster can rent out for 1 night only. You have to be off the private ball by 10:00 am and if the owner decides not to come the next night that ball goes into the general requests for balls the next day at 2:00 pm. So we get there and there is a long line of boats circling waiting to be assigned a ball. The harbourmaster berates some boaters for demonstrating poor etiquette. Once all of the town moorings are gone we are feeling like we are not going to get anything and anchoring is not what we want to do there as everyone is anchored way to close; probably 2:1 scope! So we wait. Once we call into the harbourmaster requesting a mooring he tells us it is our turn and we will get a private mooring for the night. We are elated so I go up on deck to get my lines ready when some a..hole zooms past us almost knocking me off the boat with his wake. Anyway we are not sure what the harbourmaster saw but we got the ball!

So we get situated and look at the 1000 or more boats there. The docks are full with huge powerboats. The mooring field is full of boats of all kinds and many are rafted together on one mooring ball. And the procession of boats continue!!! They keep coming and coming. Only now the harbourmaster master is not assigning anyone and people are rafting up themselves. It is absolutely crazy and exciting. There are even small cruise ships coming for the day!

Poor Duke wants to go to shore so we go in to see what is on the go. Well everything is on the go😘😘😘. People are everywhere. They are in the water, on their boats, at the restaurants, in the walkways, on top of each other, EVERYWHERE!!! It is so much fun but too much for this old lady so we go back to the boat.

The sunset was absolutely beautiful there but apparently there is a ritual that at sunset everyone has fireworks, and blows conch horns and god knows what else. At sunrise there is also a ritual of people calling out in the morning. What a place to experience.

We had planned on staying another night but we needed to be off the ball by 10:00am and then wait until 2:00 pm to see if we would get a ball for that night. So off we go!!