Heading South August 2012 VII Thursday, August 23, 2012 Great Salt Pond, Block Island, RI Water temperature 68 F

The thirty five mile run from Cuttyhunk to Block Island was strictly a motor boat ride but the seas were almost flat, we had a half knot favorable current and very few lobster floats to dodge. I did dodge what I thought was a floating piece of wood about two feet square but when it was beside us it rapidly submerged. It was some kind of animal, maybe a turtle, who knows. It is always surprising when we are offshore and it seems like there is nothing around us but water and then something strange shows up. It's no wonder ancient mariners believed there were mermaids.

As we approached Block we could see some rough water in front of us. We were in glassy flat water and in front of us boats were being tossed around in a chop. It was a tide rip and boats were fishing in the churned up water. The demarcation from flat water to three foot high waves was a sharp line extending for miles. We turned so we would cross the line head on and except for the nose plunging into the waves one or two times, it was not too exciting. Our speed over ground jumped from 5 knots to 7 knots almost instantly. Our course was almost perpendicular to the current flow and we traveled over a mile before we were back into flat water.

We came into Great Salt Pond and headed for the place where we have anchored in the past. There were many more boats in the pond then we had seen in the past but we have never been here in August before. Our previous anchorage was in shallow water at the edge of the pond and there was plenty of room to anchor there again. We carefully set the hook and then kicked back to enjoy being at Block again. An early dinner onshore and a quiet, peaceful night at anchor rounded out the day.