We leave Martha's Vineyard at 0930 to make the tide. We have a long, 42 mile, 7 hour trip to Newport, Rhode Island. Also, since the autopilot is being repaired, we have to steer the entire time! The wind is great and we are able to sail much of the way. We are "racing" another boat from the Buzzard's Bay tower to the entrance to Newport Harbor. They take a more inland path than we do and are forced to tack out to make the harbor entrance. This tactical error costs them the race, and we cross the finish line at the green can several minutes before they do. Of course, since we never communicated with the other boat that we were racing them, they may not be aware of the entire race experience.

Two America's Cup 12-meter boats, Weatherly and Heritage, greet us as we enter the harbor. There is also a replica of the first America's Cup boat, America. Two other boats, Adirondack, and the out of control SightSailing, are out for their evening charters.

Adirondack II

We anchor in the same spot that we had the last month. We put the motor on the dinghy and cruise around the harbor, looking at all the cool boats. The rest of the evening we just hang out and have dinner.

We go ashore for an early run. Back at the boat, we shower off, using our new jump-in-the-water method. We jump in the water, get out, soap up, and jump back in. Then we rinse off using the solar-heated, fresh water, in our sun-shower. This saves us tons of water. It just didn't work in Maine of course because the water was too cold. We go ashore again and have lunch at Sabina Doyle's. We update our web page at the Seaman's Chapel. The last time we were here, we didn't have all the necessary information to take advantage of the great facility that the Chapel provides. You can use their computer and telephone line, but you have to have the local number for your ISP and your own login and password. This time we are prepared and everything goes smoothly.

After leaving the Seamen's Chapel, we are walking aimlessly around the pier and we see the replica of America at the dock. Despite the extravagant cost, we decide to sign up for the cruise at 5:00. We are barely able to contain our excitement. We stop for a snack of clams on the half shell at Quahogs. Then we dash back to the boat to get our camera and jackets, all the while praying that the threatening weather doesn't actually break in to rain. After setting a speed record for the 2 mile walk between our dinghy dock and America's berth, we arrive a little too early to board, so we take several pictures and generally try to keep calm. Finally, we are allowed to board and America backs out of the slip. Everyone on board helps raise the gaff-rigged sails. The peak is the back part of the gaff and the throat is the part close to the mast. We raise the throat on the sails, while other passengers raise the peak. The wind is perfect and we go fast - 13 knots. In twenty-seven knots of wind, the ride is level. Snacks, crudités and fruit, are set out on tables and they don't slide at all. The crew is very attentive and they serve us champagne to celebrate our sail raising. Like the Irish people we are, we wander slowly back to beer. There is also a small cannon, which the captain fires on other ships that come near. We fire on Adirondack, Madeline, and Rum Runner. Click here to see the pictures of America.

In the first race for the Hundred-Guinea Cup, America surprised everyone and kicked the butt of the entire English fleet. When America was spotted rounding the Isle of Wight., someone reported to Queen Victoria that America was in first. She asked who was in second. The now famous response that we love was, "Your Majesty, there is no second."

In the morning, we perform some of our simple chores. We transfer 10 gallons of water from our jugs to our tanks. I continue to work on a nagging diesel leak. We run the engine and recharge our batteries after using 115 amp hours in a day and a half at anchor. This is the most we have ever used and the best practice is to only use half, which for us is 100 amp hours. We leave at 1PM when the tide is best. We head up the Narragansett Bay to Bristol, which is about 13 miles. Along the way, we pass Rose Island LightHouse. It is the lighthouse where my son worked as a summer intern. Also, my mother and Jennifer and I stayed there overnight.

We motor the whole way to get the batteries back to full charge. When we get to Bristol, we anchor outside of the local mooring field. We do not go ashore and we merely have dinner aboard and have a good night.

Before we leave Bristol we run all over the town. As we run, we see the Herreshoff Museum and decide to return to it later. We zoom across the bay in the dinghy to visit the museum. The most famous Herreshoff is Nat Herreshoff, who has been called the Wizard of Bristol. In his yard they designed and built the largest America's Cup boat ever, Reliant. In total he built four America's Cup defenders for the New York Yacht Club. He also built the fastest steam ships of the day. The first boat to use torpedoes was designed and built there as well as the famous PT boats. The tour guide tells us that the Herreshoffs were responsible for 9 innovations in the history of sailboat design. Amazingly, the tour is so fascinating that we end up not knowing the full list. The following is our best guesses though.

• They designed and built the first catamaran, which is in the museum.
• They designed and built the first sailboat with a fin keel.
• They added a lead bulb to the fin keel.
• They experimented with the wishbone boom.
• They were the first to use metal screws in the planking of their boats, which greatly reduced the width of the boat ribs.
• They experimented with various methods for retaining the shape of a sail, including the bias-cut of sail cloth.
• They built hollow masts, much like the staves of a barrel, which greatly reduced weight aloft.
• They moved the bow stem back so that it blended into the keel.

I found the Herreshoff Museum as fascinating as Mystic. Even though it is smaller, it is focused on one family that contributed immensely to the history of sailboat design.

When we get back from the museum, we scoot 10 miles west across Narragansett Bay to East Greenwich. To get there we need to snake around a handful of small islands, but the trip is short and enjoyable. We have reserved a slip at Norton's Marina. Unfortunately, when we get there, they are not ready for us and it takes us a good hour before we are finally settled into our slip.

Then begins one of the highlights of our trip: grandchildren. My son Art and his wife Marie bring Patrick and Jacqueline to visit us on the boat. While they are here, Arthur and Jennifer raise me up the mast in a boson's chair. I finally get to change the anchor light bulb, a chore that I have been trying to finish for months. We go out to dinner at Bugaboo Creek, a Canadian steak house. They have a talking Moose and a talking Bison that tell history of Bugaboo Creek. We spend the night at Art and Marie's and watch The Mexican with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts..

During the day, we take care of the grandchildren. This is a task that we can barely control. We go food shopping and Patrick drags one or the other of us all over the store. How do people do this all the time? We take the food supplies back to boat and while the children nap, I do the laundry and get some diesel fuel in our jugs. After the kids wake up, we go for a swim in Art and Marie's pool. We have dinner at their house and then slog back to the boat exhausted and ready for sleeping.

We do have wonderful memories of Patrick asking the most amazing questions:

Patrick: Pop Pop, why do you have those swirls on your fingers?

Pop Pop: Those are fingerprints Patrick. Everyone has them, even you.

Patrick: No I don't.

Pop Pop: Yes you do!

Patrick: No I don't!

. . . Ad Infinitum

Patrick: Grandma Jen, how did God make our lips bumps?

Grandma Jen: Aaaahhhh!

Pop Pop: Look at the water, Patrick, Its higher than yesterday.

Patrick: Grandma Jen, do they use pumps to make the water higher?

Grandma Jen: Ugghh? The moon makes the water rise, Patrick.

Patrick: (silence, which itself is a miracle.)

Before we leave Bristol, we reinstall the autopilot drive. This is a great relief because the autopilot allows us to put in more miles in a day. We are motoring to Point Judith. Suddenly it becomes so foggy that we cannot see the Jamestown Bridge that was there just a moment ago. We turn on the radar but we only see that the entire bridge is 1/4 mile ahead. We cannot tell where the pilings are where we want to pass through the middle of the bridge. We slow down and inch our way through with a lump in our throats. We go through at just 2 knots and honestly, I don't know if we went through the middle or one of the side passages. We made it though. The fog continues to plague us until we get out of Narragansett Bay. As we round the lighthouse at Point Judith, the fog finally breaks and we see surfers riding waves. Our position is unique since the surfers are surfing away from us. We pull into the Harbor of Refuge, a huge V-shaped breakwater, and set our anchor. We enjoy a swim in our now expected warm water and have dinner aboard.

We sail across the Long Island Sound at the Race and head into the Fishtail at the end of Long Island. We go around Gardner Island and pass inside of Plum Island. We head for the south fork of the Fishtail. We pass a huge windmill set right on the beach of Gardner Island. We enter a narrow passage that leads to the wide and deep Three Mile Harbor, which not surprisingly is located 3 miles from the exclusive South Hampton. It is windy but we head for a high point on the west shore to protect us from the wind. It is quiet there and we spend a quiet night.

We leave Three Mile Harbor and pass through Plum Gut. The tide is pretty crazy here. Running hard with us one moment, not running at all the next, and then turning into our face. We again cross the Long Island Sound and head for the Connecticut River. The entrance is tricky with two separate lighthouses. As we enter we pass the wreckage of a single engine plane that we had heard crashed yesterday. As we head upstream, we see that our next marker, a green can, is being pulled up and removed by the Coast Guard.

The trip up river is seven and a half miles and there is not too much trouble. There are the few huge cabin cruisers that raise a wake that ruins the water for everyone. We pass through a low railroad bridge that thankfully is open. It has an interesting scoreboard-type display that shows how many minutes it is until the next bridge opening. It shows 0 minutes, which we have a little trouble interpreting. Since it was open for as long as we could see the display, we were more interested in the time of the next closing.

We continue up river pass Essex. On our right we find the entrance to Hamburg Cove. The entrance is narrow and shallow. Our depth meter indicates 7 feet at one point. We do get in safely and try to find a place to anchor. We are disappointed that mooring balls fill the entire cove. We take one that says "Rental - $20".

We take our dinghy the mile and a half up a small creek to the local marina. We go ashore and do some light food shopping (beer, hamburger rolls, NY Times) in an old-style general store that has been open since 1892. Later we go ashore for a 33-minute run. We meet some people who lived in Long Branch at one time. Back on the boat we have… what else … hamburgers. They were great. 

We leave in the morning at the end of high tide. We want water to get out of the cove and still ride down the river with the tide helping us. It is 8:30 on a weekday morning and, not surprisingly, the railroad bridge closes to allow a commuter train to pass. The display sign says that the next opening is in 15 minutes. That is not enough time to justify dropping the anchor getting it set, and then hauling it out again, so we turn upstream into the tide. I spend the time trying to adjust the engine speed to exactly counterbalance the current. We hold pretty solidly in place for the entire 15 minutes.

We leave the river and then west down the sound to New Haven Connecticut. New Haven is a major city. It has several stone breakwaters and traffic lanes for marine traffic. We enter river and head to Morris Cove on the eastern shore of the harbor. There is plenty of room to anchor so we hide from the wind behind a grand bluff of vertical stone.

We get in our dinghy and explore the cove. There are a few catering halls but no place for us to eat ashore. Near us there is a park with a long stone wall bracing the water. There are two insets where there are steps leading up. We bring our dinghy into one of the insets. The tide is very low so the land is about 10 feet above us. The inset is only 7 feet wide and the lower steps are uncovered, slimy and huge. Each step is about 2 feet high. With our dinghy bouncing on the barnacle encrusted steps we jump ashore. Warily we climb up. We look left and right and, to dispel our discomfort, we turn immediately around and climb back down to the boat. We motor back and spend the rest of the evening aboard.

In the morning, we dinghy back into the insets that we investigated last night, tie up, and go for a run. We head out to Lighthouse Park. It is a great park with lots of running trails, picnic benches, a fabulous carousal, and excellent public facilities.

We return to the boat and plot a course down and, once again, across, Long Island Sound. We do one very long, 35 mile leg to Oyster Bay, Long Island. Along the way, I get out my fishing pole and troll as we sail along. I hook a fish but fail to land it. Later I get another bite and this time I manage to bring it aboard.

This is no small task. First of all there are all sorts of contraptions in the way on a sailboat, so every move I make with the rod usually ends up hitting something. Second, we are sailing. We cannot stop. We have to board the fish while still sailing under the autopilot at 6 knots. Jennifer lowers the pilot seat and goes on the back platform. She is jumping up and down with excitement. When the fish gets near, it wriggles and does not want to go into the net. Finally it is aboard and we give its gills a farewell drink of Absolut Vodka.

It is a small striper that I cut up and marinate in tomatoes and garlic. In the evening I make a delicious fish soup as our opening course. Yumm!!

We have to wait for the tides. We should not get to the Throgs Neck Bridge until 4PM, which means that we should leave Oyster Bay at noon. We do some replenishing chores. We move twelve gallons of water from our jugs into our tanks. We do the same for ten gallons of diesel fuel. We have started using a siphon to move the liquids. For each liquid we have a siphon hose with a metal fitting. The fitting has a marble in it. To get liquid moving you simply put the fitting into the bottom of the jug and then jiggle the hose up and down. Each down movement brings in more liquid and each up movement causes the marble to move down and prevent the loss liquid in the hose. Eventually the water rises into the hose and spills over the top. Once it starts rolling, the siphoning effect takes care of the rest. Voila! Refilled tanks.

Then we took our jugs into the dinghy and went to a marina. We refilled our two five gallon diesel jugs and our gas can for the dinghy engine. For the first time, we bring a water jug to the fuel dock with us and obtain another 6 gallons of water. This is important to us because it means saving money by staying out of marinas longer.

We return to the boat and tie down all of the jugs. We go for a great swim. It has been delightful ever since we have passed through the Cape Cod Canal. Before we leave we go to the pumpout floating dock provided by the town. I motor up to this floating dock and Jennifer jumps onto it. We tie up. Jennifer hands me the suction hose, which I insert into the smelly pumping outlet. Jennifer pumps the boat dry manually. While we are finish another boat ties up on the opposite side of the float. The wind is in our face, so I decide to back down on our aft spring line to move Finn's nose away from the pumpout dock. Did I say dock? It is a float. Remember! My backing down doesn't move Finn's nose away from the dock, it moves Finn, the entire dock, and our toilet-desperate colleagues with us. Oh Well! We cast off and leave Oyster Bay.

There is very little wind so we motor out of Oyster Bay along with thousands of weekend sailors. These boats apparently do not have a tide to catch, so they are sailing at one knot or so, and it is tricky to stay out of their way. Once in the Sound, the current picks us up and we start going too fast! We back off to 2,000 RPMs on the engine, which makes it quiet enough to listen to the regular radio. The wind picks up, but we are now too close to the Throg's Neck Bridge and we don't want to sail through the East River.

We get to the bridge a little ahead of schedule and we have about one knot of current in our face. There are still many pesky weekend boaters out that seem to get real pleasure in kicking up large wakes that knock us around. A police boat and a corrections boat from Rikers Island pass us. We hear one of the big commercial ships say, "I can't wait until summer is over." Apparently the weekend boaters are bothering them as well.

We are anchoring behind the Statue of Liberty. On the way in we see a boat on the rocks. The captain apparently figured out a way to make his boat fly above the high water line! We find a place with PLENTY of water to anchor. We set the hook and sit back to watch the show.

People in the park have lost a volleyball over the fence and into the water. They are trying to snag it with the volleyball net and pull it up. We start getting the dinghy ready to go help them, when suddenly one of the guys jumps into the water. Now, we add an additional life jacket and the dinghy boarding step to the stuff we're getting ready. Somehow he climbs the slime wall and makes it back to land.

Later, SeaTow brings a rapidly sinking boat past us. There are two tow boats, one towing the sinking boat, and one with the people on it. The one with the people on it goes to the nearby ramp while the other one stands by. As it stands by, the stern of the sinking boat goes straight down, with the bow pointing straight up. The tow boat must be very strong, because it merely pulls forward and gets 3/4 of the ill-fated boat out of the water again. Eventually the sinking boat is moved to the ramp, back onto dry ground.

We carefully feel our way out from our anchorage and round past the Statue of Liberty with full morning sunshine lighting her front. We get into our slip pretty easily.

There are eight 65-foot sailboats in the marina from a round-the-world rally, which started in London. Apparently they take on passengers that are not experienced in off-shore sailing. Each leg is an informal race. There are about 15 passengers per boat. This is their final leg where they will sail from NY to London. The boats are named after British sailing cities: London, Liverpool, Leeds, Jersey (our personal favorite), Plymouth, Portsmouth, Glasgow, and Bristol.

We tried to name eight sailing cities in America, and did not do too well. The obvious ones are Newport, Annapolis and San Diego. We throw in New York next because of the New York Yacht Club. The next tier is obviously lower and might include Seattle and somewhere in Florida like Miami, West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale. Then we really have to start digging. Somewhere on the Great Lakes like Mackinaw? Bristol, Rhode Island, because of the Herreshoff's? Other places in California? Beaufort or Orient, North Carolina? Galveston, Texas? Charlotte Amalie, St, Thomas? What do you think? Perhaps we had better sail around some more to discover the best sailing cities!

Drying out after a particularly wet leg.

We spend the day doing miserable chores, especially sorting through stacks of mail.