Tuesday in Newport – Sightseeing and more boat projects
27 October 2009
• Newport, RI
by Mike and Barb
The BBQ last night in the Canadian Ghetto here at the docks was a lot of fun. Barb was the hostess for eight people including the two of us. I played my small part at the BBQ but really, all the hard work was done below decks in the galleys and that was the Admirals. Besides the food, Anne-Louise brought over her laptop and showed us their weather websites which I am going to bookmark on our computer too. The interesting thing was that her site showed that the day before yesterday began a seven day ideal window to travel to Bermuda that we were going to miss waiting for the NARC Rally. Here's crossing our fingers that there'll be another soon after 1 Nov.
We have our appointment at the vet's for the animals on the 28th at 10h30 in the morning. It could turn out to be a trial run to see how long the process takes for if there is too much of a weather delay, we may have to do another.
It's interesting to watch the boats coming through the Yachting Centre. As they arrive you can't help but wonder where they are from and if they are going to be in the rally too. So far there are only four boats here at the docks that we know are going but this morning at 06h00 as we were peering out the CVS at the nav station another large ketch nosed her way into the dock in the dark and the wondering began again.
Barb and I began the morning after taking Peri for his morning poop-u-lation with a more in depth exploration of the waterfront starting with the Seaman's Church. This is located in what looks like a converted three story warehouse that has a cafe and lounge on the ground floor with free wifi, showers and a laundry in the basement, a chapel (see photo gallery) and a library on the second floor and rooms to rent on the third. The cafe provides very reasonable and plentiful breakfasts and lunches and the chapel and library on the second floor has to be visited and seen in person to be truly appreciated. We also discovered that this evening there will be a speaker and slide show of his dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. I think that we'll be attending that, so we can fuel our fantasies of sailing in those waters in Nelleke someday.
We also discovered a fish monger's where we'll probably buy something for dinner, if not tonight then some night this week. We bought the charts for the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as well as the Virgin Islands, both paper and electronic. They didn't have Bermuda in stock but have assured us that they'll have it in the store before Friday so we'll pick that up by then. And as well we are on the prowl for a 28" zipper that we can use to fix my RHSP 2004 vest.
The crew from Peer's Fancy were kind enough to take our propane tank with them when they went to fill theirs so we can multi-task. They found a place that fills by the gallon so the cost for us was only $26 vice the $36 that we normally get dinged back home. We threw in $7 for our share of the cab and it was still a great deal, especially as we were able to get some additional work done aboard. We have the fishing rod holder attached on the cabin top and the barrel bolts installed to prevent the freezer from sliding out of its cave.
We have also answered a question for ourselves. We had been wondering where everyone put their boats in the winter as there doesn't seem to be too much extra space on the hard to do so. Then we noticed that many of the parking lots here have a place for travel lifts to haul boats and the penny dropped. During the winter with the decrease in tourism there is much less call for parking spots so some of them may be converted to paved boat yards. Pretty ingenious I think.
In all a pretty productive day, in spite of the cold and drizzle.
From Barb:
As Mike said we did knock off a few jobs today. I hauled out the sewing machine from its home on the forward side of what we have taken to calling the pantry - the area behind the u-shaped settee in the main cabin. One of the Moonlight Maidens (not naming any names) had a slip on the way into their cockpit and split the dodger. They stitched it enough to keep it from getting any worse and asked me to make the repair a bit more permanent. A few lengths of sail tape and some machine stitching made a not-pretty-but-ok-for-now repair. Since this is the second time in 4 days that I have had cause to use the machine we decided that it was time to put it in a more convenient spot. To get it out I was having to empty out 1/2 of the pantry - now the machine is more accessible and I put the items we would not be "shopping" for frequently where the machine was. Duh - why didn't we think of that in the first place???
I really enjoyed the get together last night. Each boat brought their own protein for the BBQ, I prepared the vegs, Heather made a wonderful spinach salad with nuts and hard boiled eggs in it, and the Peers Fancy folks brought a lovely red wine and a tasty dessert from Panera - a huge round pastry wirh dollops of cherries, apples, and cheese. If any of you visit here you must make sure to stop by Panera on the main drag of the waterfront. Great pastry, cookies, breads and more and more and more. Later on two Ghiardelli cohocolate bars appeared from the Peers Fancy backpack - yummmmmmmm.
Comments