September 9 and 10 -- Jamestown, RI to City Island, NY- Home safe

Our night on a mooring at Conanicut Marina on Jamestown  Island was not peaceful. Somehow the wind, tidal curents and waves came from different directions and the mooring ball was banging on the hull,  which is not good for the hull or for sleep. One rode was stretched around the bow so I first detached it from the starboard cleat and reattached it with the other rode on the port cleat. Bang, bang, bang. Next trick, start the engine and pull away in reverse a bit. Bang, bang bang. Attach it to the port midship cleat. Same result. Finally I took both rodes, one at a time, and attached them to the port stern cleat. Now the boat it hooked on by its tail and the waves, small ones, slap up under the stern. But since we sleep in the forward pullman berth, this was a minor problem compared with the banging.
We got underway at 8:30 am for what ended up as a 26 HOUR trip home. Leaving Narragansett bay we passed Beavertail Light,

at the southern tip of Jamestown island.






We also passed this antique beauty, steaming for Newport, probably to attend the Boat Show.

Next was Point Judith Light at the SE edge of the Bay. I had a terrible experience in Point Judith in September 2010 -- resulted in litigation. Someday when the boat is all put away, remind me to tell you that story.

To this point the wind had been very fluky and light so while the full sails were up, they did little good. Then we headed west for NY and tried to get to and through The Race and into Long Island Sound before the tide turned adverse. With the favorable tide and engine and sails we made in at about 2 pm, on time, at near slack. Once through we experienced zero wind and light but freshening adverse current and did not get very far until 4:30 pm when the wind came up. During the calm, a large sea turtle lifted its head out of the water to take a good look at us. Starting at 4:30 we sailed, without motor, under full sails until just before dark. By that time, jack lines had been rigged and life preservers with tethers worn when topsides. Lene said this was not needed, being in the Sound rather than the open ocean, but Captain's Orders! Then we swapped the Genoa for the small jib, there was plenty of wind, a bit less later, and safety first especially when I'm asleep. Lene took the watch from 8:30 to 12:30 am while I catnapped. Actually I catnapped with the cats in the starboard settee in the saloon; or rather, they catnapped with me. The lee cloth was not needed because we were on a port reach the whole way from Point Judith to Greenwich CT. I took over for Ilene the rest of the way. Our first waypoint was off Eaton's Neck by Huntington LI, but we could not sail quite that close to the wind. We passed no boats in the dark, which is rare, until about 4 am.
While Long Island Sound runs essentially east-west, sailors know that its western end curves and runs NE-SW. So from Greenwich to City Island, with adverse tide again, we took four pairs of tacks to get home, passing Execution Rocks, our home landmark

and arriving on the mooring at 10:30 am.
Then a lot of work, putting things away (more to do on that score) while Lene took public transportation to our apartment to get our car, which remained loaded with suitcases and cat carrier. Upon her return we packed and we got off the boat by 4:30 pm and slept in our own bed at home last night.

This concludes the chronology of our three month cruise to Maine, described in this 65th post of this cruise. But please stay tuned for further watery related posts, (including summary observations about the cruise) in the coming months and throughout the winter.