What a great holiday weekend!

We set off on Thursday evening - a Thursday that had brought horrendous thunderstorms all day and the weather report was predicting the probability of thunderstorms at 100%... We left at about 7:00pm from Mattapoisett, looking to get part way to Newport - the obvious stopover being Cuttyhunk - the last island of the Elizabeth Island chain between mainland MA and Martha's Vineyard.

The air was damp, but apart from a few drops late on, we missed the rain. We also missed the wind - and so motored for the most part towards Cuttyhunk. Halfway there, the fog came in. We ended up with very little visibility as both night and fog were against us. The miracles of Radar and chart plotters that map onto the radar save the day and we gingerly motored into the outside of Cuttyhunk and anchored quite close to some bright lights of a boat - which during the anchoring process I suddenly became concerned might actually be a house! (If so I was waaay too close to land!) Again, technology told us we were safe - so we anchored in 18 feet at 10:30 and went straight to bed.

We woke early and took advantage and weighed anchor at 5:30am - still in zero visibility (never saw the other boat)... I headed for the exit of Cuttyhunk's outer area as Laurie brought in the anchor - but suddenly she hit a snag and re-deployed 250' of chain! (Shit, that stuff comes out quickly!) We came to an abrupt stop and then started weighing anchor again! With all the noise of the chain going out we apparently woke up other boats we couldn't see - so the area became a cacophony of fog horns! (Sorry, didn't mean to wake you all!)

Unfortunately, still no wind and we motored nearly the entire way to Bristol - finally setting the chute opposite Prudence Island for the last couple of miles into Bristol harbor. Unfortunately, the wind died so we even had to stow that before getting there. A quick tour of the crowded harbor found Mike and Jane's beautiful Bristol 44 "Jamin" - but they were out and about and didn't answer a hail on the VHFm so we went to the foot of the harbor and set our anchor. Mike called just as we finished - he had apparently studied the anchoring form from afar - so a little later we dingied over and enjoyed a couple of bottles of white - with cheese and crackers of course. Things are good. The weather is great - other than no wind - and the harbor is full of coming and going yachts of all description.

Back on our boat, Neal and girlfriend Cathy showed up in a power boat driven by friend Wayne and his wife Joan. So we jumped aboard for a harbor tour before the July 4th (actually 3rd) fireworks. Enjoyed listening to a piper serenade the harbor from the anchorage outside the Herreshoff Museum - I think he was pleased to have an audience!

The fireworks were a little disappointing - not enough bangs - too many new fangled clever fireworks... but the company was great and the booze flowed constantly! Lord knows how Wayne managed to navigate back to Prudence Island from whence they all came.


July 4th: We went ashore at Bristol and saw the amazing crowds awaiting the parade (oldest in America) and wandered down to the Herreshoff Museum to meet Peter Sterrett, curator there, who had just arrived back from Bermuda on a broken Alden 44 the previous evening - with lots of stories to tell... We managed to dodge the parade - but watched it for half an hour from behind a Guinness at Aiden's pub 

Afterwards we weighed anchor and sailed, via Potters Cove to Sandy Beach at Prudence Island and picked up Wayne's old mooring. The rest of that evening is a drunken blur - great seafood, great company, lots of booze, a tour of the island, fantastic professional fireworks from afar (across the channel at Portsmouth) followed by better fireworks of a completely non-professional genre - that were just fantastic - while sitting in front of one of many beach fires that the islanders set for the 4th. In view of the alcohol consumption, we decided to stay on land that evening!


The following day we invited everyone aboard for a sail around prudence. Wayne and Joan kept us all in order and had Toodle-oo! flying - OK she doesn't handle like their J20, but she was doing admirably and we circumnavigated Prudence in record time! You can't take 8 people around Prudence in a little J Boat!

Another drunken evening followed - but this time we decided to stay on the boat so that we could get an early start for the return to Mattapoisett - a 10 hour trip... Just about to go to bed and we get bombarded by kisses - of the Hershey variety - from three dubious looking pirates aboard a miniscule row boat! Thanks boys! We fended them off and sent them on their way.


Monday dawned beautiful - but calm. We motored from 5:30am until about 1:30pm. Finally a little wind came up and we set the chute and gybed our way up Buzzards Bay, arriving at about 3:30...

A fantastic weekend - meeting new friends and relaxing on the boat. Finally the weather has come around and feels more like summer. Will it stay?