The passage from Cape May to Block was slow. Thirty Three hours to travel some 230 miles. Along the way our radar and AIS once again helped us navigate through the herd of fishing boats encountered along the way. At night without a reference and the ability to visualize the boats in front of you, their working lights tend to confuse us. Is he coming toward us or going away? Is that one over there going to cross us? What about the one heading directly for us? Then we came across a cruise ship and a tug pulling a barge. The radar helps by showing us how far away they are and the AIS tells us who they are and their speed. So I can call them on the VHF and let them know our intentions. I can just imagine their surprise when they get a call from a sail boat out in the middle of nowhere. Anyway these encounters help pass the night and add a little intellectual challenge to an otherwise very slow sail.

As has happened before once we arrived in port this time Block Island a storm passed by bringing torrential rains, lightening and this time 25 knot plus winds. Alice and I were tired from the long sail so I suggested we pick up a mooring for a night or two to let the storm pass with less worry of dragging our anchor or having another boat drag down onto us. Good move Bob,!! I sure many of you may have experienced 25 to 30 knots of wind on a hook and know from experience that the boat sails back and forth sometimes quite rapidly putting tremendous stress on the mooring or anchor. Sometimes when anchored the swinging is enough to break the anchor loose and then...... Fortunately we've only dragged our anchor once way back in the Spanish Virgins. But that's a story long told.

It turned out by chance that our stay coincided with the Storm Tri-Sail's Block Island Race Week. What a great break for us. 135 boats from small cruisers to the super fast Swan 42's and TP 52's. I looked over the entry list and noticed Kima a J105 owned by Nelson Weiderman a friend who I had teamed with during my stint as President of the National J105 Class. Alice and I went puttering around the harbor in our dinghy looking for Kima and found Nelson working on his rudder and... he needed another person for his crew. Talk about luck, with permission from Alice I signed on to do two or three days. Wow, another item off my Bucket List and I just stumbled into it. The winds we very light, we got in three races before I had to bow out and sail LB to Wickford RI where we will park her for four days while we travel to Vermont for our family reunion.

So Alice and I are back where we started our sailing. Narragansett Bay, Wickford Yacht Club and when we return we'll have some very special guests aboard. Diane and her two boys, Jake and Dylan, so talk about being in heaven, this is what it's all about.