Happy 4th of July! It’s been a while since we posted, so here’s what’s been going on.  This is a bit of a long post…

We finally made it out of the boatyard on June 22 for the rest of the summer.  Frank Hall Boatyard was great and they made us feel almost like okd friends, and in fact we made some new friends there.  Even though we didn’t get every last thing done that we wanted to do on the boat, we did get the things that I considered safety or boat integrity related done, and at a certain point, you just have to go and do the other things on the way.  The previous owners of WildHorse, who we became friends with, heard about our departure via the grapevine and came down to the boat to wish us well and gave us a nice bottle of WildHorse pinot noir, whch is at least partially why the boat has it’s name to begin with.

Our friends Guy and Céline from Vallleyfield, QC and Dave from Burlington jioined us for the beginning of our extended cruise.

Next day at high tide we left the Pawcatuck river, passing the dreaded Sandy Point shoal, again without any problem.  We went sailing in Fishers Island Sound for a couple of hours, and agan the boat performed very well.  We then mototed up the narrow and twisty (but no shallow spots) Mystic River and took a slip at the Mystic Boatyard.

The town of Mystic, CT is very quaint New Englandy, and kind of touristy but not terribly so. It is famous of course from the movie Mystic Pizza, which apparently isn’t that good and there are better pizza places in town, but also has a long maritime history of whaling.

Naurical secondhand Junque Shoppe. Closed, which was probably a good thing.

Yesterday we all went to the famous Mystic Seaport Museum where they are also having the Wooden Boat Show this weekend.  Even though rain was forecast, it turned out to be a lovely partially cloudy day.  The museum is fascinating.  They still practice the old crafts and trades there, and love to talk about it.  There are also many beautiful boats and an original whaling ship.

The crew, Dave, Lucie, Céline & Guy at Mystic Seaport

Whaling ship Benjamin F. Packard

Blacksmith Shop

The next day, Céline and Guy left, and Lucie, Dave, and I left for Fisher’s Island. We sailed a bit in the sound again, trying out various sail combinations, then anchored in West Harbor.  About 60% of the island is private, but we were able to walk around the regurlar town part. Some people say that the people there are unfriendly to visitors, but for us they couldn’t have been more nice, talkative, and friendly.  There is a little local museum which was closed, but the museum director happened to be there waiting for an electrician and let us in and gave us a mini tour. It was another beutiful two days there. We even went for our first ocean swim of the summer!

WildHorse at anchor at Fisher’s Island

The next morning was very foggy, but was predicted to lift during the later morning. We took off and sailed in light winds along the southwest coast of Rhode Island.  I couldn’t tell you if it is pretty or not, since the fog never lifted the whole way, so we were sailing in a grey globe.  At least we did get some practice using the new radar.

That evening, we anchored in Dutch Island Harbor, in southern Narragansett Bay.  It was pretty rolly, since it seems that the ocean swell wraps around the point and comes in from the side.  That night we had fairly intense thunderstorms with gusts of wind up to 30kn and heavy rain, but our new Vulcan anchor was bombproof.  It was reassuring to have it tested like that and to pass with flying colors.

That morning was breezy and clear, and we hauled the anchor and had a fast downwind sail up to the northern part of Narragansett Bay. After some trouble finding a place to moor (all full), we ended up taking a slip at Safe Harbor Marina Greenwich Bay, for Dave to get ashore and head back to Burlington.

That was a real marina with a pool, laundry, and all the amenities, quite different from the working boatyards that we had been in before.  I spent a 6 nights there catching up on various boat tasks while Lucie rode back to Burlington with Dave to pick up our new folding bikes.  She came back with them the day before yesterday. We have them aboard now and they are sweet!

Yesterday, we left the marina and motored a short distance to Goddard Memorial State Park. We were concerned about finding a place to anchor over the 4th of July, but it looks like we didin’t need to worry since last night we were the only boat here.  The forecast is for heavy rain and thunderstorms today, so that probably helped.  Turns out that it only rained a little and no thunderstorms overnight.  We could see about 5 different fireworks shows from here and spent a quiet night on the hook.

After here, we are planning to head back out of the bay and go to Martha’s Vineyard and some of the other islands.

That catches us up to the current time!  More to come as things develop.