We left New London, and moved out to Fisher Island, thinking it would not be as lumpy of an anchorage. Had a nice sail for the entire 10 miles, that was 7.63, but a bit into the wind, so had to tack, adding on mileage and time, but we did not care, as it was a beautiful sunny day.
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| New London Ledge light - light winds and flat seas |
Unfortunately, the East End of Fisher Island turns out to be the locals hot spot for weekend getaway, so had a lumpy anchorage with about 45 boats anchored, and some coming and going at all times. With most spots, the night was calm, so no worries after dark.
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| Typical New England scenery at Fisher Island (away from crowd of boats) |
We only spent one night at Fisher Island, and did not go ashore, and headed out to Newport, RI the next day. Planned on a nice 32 mile sail, with winds 10-15 projected. Had to wait until 10:00 to leave, as the east end of Long Island Sound narrows, and creates some strong currents with tide changes.
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| Latimer Reef light, leaving Fisher Island |
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| Watch Hill Lighthouse |
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| Watch Hill fancy homes on shore. Out of our price range. |
We ended up having a nice afternoon sail, once the winds built, all the way into Newport, RI. Newport is a sailing mecca, and also a area of some considerable wealth. Always interesting and somewhat humbling viewing the shore and massive old homes.
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| Coming into Newport Bay |
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| Coming into Newport Bay |
We went ashore for groceries in Newport, and had to stop at Gary's Handy lunch, as we ate here last time, and found out they had good burgers.
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| Nice diner, with good food, atmosphere and prices - a rare find in downtown Newport. |
Always fun to see the historic homes in Newport when ashore.
Newport Harbor is a busy place, the anchorage gets a little lumpy during the day with boat traffic, but at least here, it is very scenic, so you don't mind as much. There are more sail than power, but most power boats are large mega yachts - fun to see. Historic Americas cup boats go out sailing, as well as old square riggers - taking out tourists. Lots of kids out taking sailing lessons, sail close to us as well. Then normal sailors, going out for the day, or cruisers like us coming in and out. Makes for quite the busy place. You can sit outside and just watch the view all day for entertainment. We were here for Newport Race week, so got to see lots of racing sailboats with expensive sails, and crews dressed in coordinated colors going back and forth as well. Races were just out of sight, but did see part of them.
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| Busy anchorage at Newport. |
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| Busy with boat moving all day long. More sail than power here, which is neat. |
We also took the time to walk in and get our Covid booster here. That pretty much put us out of doing anything productive for the next day, and we were both lethargic, and arms were sore enough we did not want to do anything.
Our project in Newport was to work on our sling seat. You might remember we paid to get one made last time we were in Long Island Sound. We took in our sling seat, and asked the guy to make it identical, but 2 feet longer. What we received back was not 2' longer, and not identical, and the fabric did not match, and was a much looser weave. It was very cheap however - so we decided to live with it. Unfortunately with time the foam they used started to shed, and we have been constantly cleaning up small foam bits, which looks like a tan colored dust all over the cockpit. If a tighter weave fabric was used, the foam would not be falling out, or if they had used a higher quality foam.
We decided to make one ourselves, so Newport is where we decided to tackle that project. The new sling seat is 9 1/2 ft. long, and almost 4 ft. wide, so bit of a challenge to sew in our small area onboard.
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| Sewing takes over the cabin |
At one point we took the sewing machine (50 lbs) fabric and supplies into the dinghy dock area hear in Newport, which has a bathroom, showers, laundry, and large lounge area. We moved some tables in the lounge aside and spread the fabric out on the clean concrete floor to make four long 9.5' seams. Seems like a lot of work for 4 seams, but it was worth it.
Met some nice folks that stopped to chat while we were spread out sewing in the lounge, who were interested in getting a catamaran and long term cruising, so they came out to the boat later, to see out cat.
Sling seat not quite finished, hopefully today, and then our next planned stop will be Martha's Vineyard.
Fun to see your travels. Beautiful but looks busy. Hope it's cool there...hot as Hades here! K
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