 |
This was taken from Potter Cove looking
north at the Mount Hope Bridge, 2 days after full |
One August day friends Kevin and Debbie drove to Newport to join us for lunch. Our walk afterward led us to a visit at the oldest church in Newport,
Trinity Episcopal, with 300 years of continuous service. Completed in 1726, the current structure is an example of Georgian architecture designed by Richard Munday. Notable for its tall wooden steeple and unique three-tiered pulpit, the church reflects the architectural style of its time.
 |
The Pulpit
|
The walls of the church are full of plaques commemorating wealthy donors, founding parishioners, and famous clergy. Many names are surprisingly well-known in the history of New England and the country. The seating is also interesting - donations do buy happiness on this earth, if not beyond!
 |
| Leaving Newport, passing Castle Hill Lighthouse |
Our second trip to the Vineyard this Summer was in late August. This trip was planned in January and all went well as we dropped the hook in Vineyard Sound 42 miles and seven hours after leaving Newport., a quick trip!
We've anchored many times in Vineyard Haven, and picked up moorings many times, as well. We know the outer harbor and the vagaries of wind, ferry traffic and motor boat traffic well. It's wide open to the North, so we know not to be here in a brisk north wind. But, this day there was a very mild NE wind forecast, so we felt we'd be comfortable enough this time. We were a few days ahead of our mooring reservation in Edgartown and wanted to enjoy Vineyard Haven a bit.
MISTAKE! Overnight, the wind strengthened and we were hobby horsing like crazy in 20 knots gusting to 30. In the morning, Greg called the harbormaster to see about a possible mooring inside the breakwater - no. He called Vineyard Haven Mooring - no. Then, he called the bridge tender to find out if we could get into the Lagoon Pond.
"The Pond" was a mystery to us. We had never been inside, but knew of others who had, and we were worried there was limited water depth and limited swing space to allow safe anchoring.
The bridge tender explained that they were scheduled to open at 10:15am - but they had an electrical problem and were waiting for a repair guy. They took our phone number, promising to call when the bridge was repaired and preparing to open.
Finally at 11:30 Greg got a call from the bridge tender, they would open in 15 minutes. So, we scrambled to get the anchor up in 30 knot winds and five foot seas! Yikes!
Sparing you all the gory details, suffice it to say - it was crazy. The snubber had snapped and was gone, piled up on deck! Half-way into this operation the windlass breaker was thrown, disabling the motor we use to raise the anchor. Greg ran below and re-set it, and it worked, thank goodness! From then on Greg only pulled the anchor in while the bow was dropping into the waves to reduce the pulll on the machine, while Sharon had to rev to nearly cruising speed to get the boat to crawl ahead toward the submerged anchor. We were lucky that nothing broke and everyone stayed on board!
We moved to the bridge entrance and found protection against a sea wall, then motored through a very narrow opening to the mysterious Lagoon Pond.
What a huge gift! The wind dropped to a calm breeze. The water was flat. Instead of a tiny, shallow anchorage we found a body of water two miles long and a half mile wide. What???
The proverbial night and day! We cannot express the magnitude of our relief! We set the anchor firm and rested awhile. Then we took the dingy to a dock near town and took a very chill walk. Definitely a sailing day to remember!
After a restful couple of days we moved on to Edgartown. Still windy and choppy, we survived and were happy to find our mooring in the south end of beautiful Edgartown Harbor where we would hang for a couple of weeks.
What ensued was boat projects, bus rides to Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven and Aquinnah. Dinners at a couple of our favorite spots, lots of walks, and generally enjoying hanging out.
 |
| Some views from Edgartown Harbor |
 |
| Aquinnah and Gay Head Light |
The view from the beach of those gorgeous sand cliffs
 |
| You can see Nomans Land off to the right |
 |
| Back in Edgartown |
 |
| Typical evening.... |
Soon, it was time to return to the Narragansett Bay. Greg has been using ChatGPT for a variety of tasks and finds it extremely helpful. While not always correct, and needing a good bit of coaching, it is still hugely helpful in a number of ways. This time he used it to help create a passage plan for our return voyage. It took many hours and re-writes, pulling in tides, currents, wind speed and direction forecasts, and daylight hours. All in all, it was very useful for our purposes. We had a few days to choose to leave, and the one we picked, using all the tech we had, turned out to be excellent.
We raised the main in the harbor at 6:30am and motor-sailed for the five miles to the outer harbor buoy before turning west directly into the wind. This was the anti-part of the trip, except we had a two-knot current with us. Once we made West Chop we turned southwest, raised the big Genoa, and rode an 18 knot wind and three- knot current out of Vineyard Sound until we made the Buzzed's Bay Entrance Buoy. It was a fabulous sail seeing up to 8 - 9 knots over ground.
The rest of the trip back allowed us a beautiful day as the wind abated, but we sailed, then motor sailed and enjoyed the ride.
As we approached Narragansett Bay the wind was from the north, but only 5 - 7 knots, our boat speed (by now motoring). So, there was absolutely no breeze onboard. We began to see more and more flies of various kinds settling on anything they could. Disgusting! Soon there were dozens! We spent an hour like this, doing a 360 twice to experience enough breeze to blow off the buggers. Finally, turning west into the bay, with the wind on our beam they were gone.
We had plenty of time to Google this weird phenomena and found that the unusually strong North wind had blown all the flies out of the marshes north and spread them over the ocean; and they came to infest us on Dream Catcher. UGH! It was awful!
Back in Newport late on Labor Day, we grabbed a mooring in the inner harbor and welcomed our dear friend, Renee, for a couple days. We all hung out on the boat, walked through some beautiful neighborhoods, and enjoyed a nice restaurant dinner together at
Giusto. One morning we went out for a sail on a perfect day - up the bay down-wind, and tacked back for a few hours into a delightful breeze. We became a well-honed crew, tacking quickly, filling the sails and gaining speed without losing much. One of the best sails of the season with one of our besties!
 |
| Sharon and Renee |
 |
Walking the docks at Newport Shipyard,
crazy big boats! |
We finally had to fill up as we were getting near the end of the season. Lucky for us, we got the member price! Our fill is on the left - but check out the guy before us on the right!
It was soon time to head into the marina to prepare the boat for Winter. But we had one day left and used it to enjoy Bristol, RI and the sunshine. Our morning walk was delightful and included lunch at Leo's Ristorante - an authentic Italian restaurant that has been in business since 1948. It was so good! Original menus were on the wall - dinner was 25 cents, wine the same!
 |
| St Michael's Episcopal Church erected 1860 |
 |
| A great spot for lunch |
 |
| One last view of the sky over open water! |
In the morning we headed into New England Boatworks and started the daunting process of breaking things down for winter. This time, it meant completely emptying all of our personal possessions, as we end our 21st season of enjoying Dream Catcher. The boat is listed with a broker. We've decided we want to spend more time traveling the world in different ways. When you own a boat and it's your summer home, you feel the need to really use it as much as possible. And we have! Sure, there are many more places to explore by boat, and we will, just not on this one. It is truly bittersweet. But oh, the fun we have had!
Here is how she looks today. If you know anyone interested in a really beautiful, well-maintained Island Packet 40, tell them to give us a call!
 |
| She has kept us safe and given us endlessly wonderful memories! |
We will miss her!
Late in the day
