Yes, from Newport, which we left at 9, we had planned to go to Stonington CT, a lot closer to Newport than Niantic. But the tide turned fair just about when we were off Stonington, at about 2, so we kept going for another three hours to Niantic, where we had never been, always a plus for me, and dropped anchor, a calm night being predicted, at the edge of the YC's mooring field, at 5.
We raised sails in Newport Harbor and during the seven miles to Point Judith, heading 230 degrees magnetic, with the engine at 2000, tide and wind to starboard, we were going between 7 and 7.8 knots.
We rounded Point Judith at 10:45 and it brought up a lot of sad and scary memories in me of a prior encounter with Point Judith, before this blog began, a sea story which I will tell you about soon, though parts of it are written up in the decision of the arbitration panel of the admiralty reports.
From the Point the course was 270 for the 18.5 miles to Watch Hill Passage, along the western half of the south coast of Rhode Island.
Before we left on this cruise I was talking with an actress friend of Lene's at a party in Hoboken who said she grew up in Charleston RI. "Never heard of it," I said. Well it's along that coast. That coast is sandy barrier beaches compared to the eastern part of the Atlantic coast of RI, which is rocky ledges giving way to harbors. "No boats in Charleson", I said. Well actually, I took a close look at the charts and at the coastline with binoculars and saw two tiny inlets, navigable by very shallow draft vessels, into Ninigret and Quonochontaug Ponds. There are no buoys marking the way in, no soundings indicating the depth inside and no references in cruising guides to either pond. In other words, they don't exist as far as cruisers or the Coast Guard are concerned. But if the folks who love them would consent and a developer with lots of money would dredge, they could become the next Lake Tashmoos or Cuttyhunks of this world.
Early in the passage along this coast there was no wind so I furled the Genoa and close hauled the main, to provide stability only, and we motored at 6.5, dropping down to 6. But 45 minutes later, at 11:30, the wind came back, off our port quarter so sails came out again to assist, which brought the boat back to 6.5. It was another clear sunny day, with a bit of haze but we saw Block Island all the way to Watch Hill passage. At 12:30, the boat speed came up to 6.7 knots so we turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way, except for the last mile and a half. We started sailing at only 5.3 knots with wind on our port beam. With full sails, we were making half our apparent wind speed. When the wind got up to 12 apparent, we got up to 6.
We came through the passage at 7.1 knots at 1:50 p.m., though the tidal current was not supposed to get favorable until 2 p.m. In Fishers Island Sound and elsewhere today there wore small wind holes. Microbursts are narrow area, short duration, destructive winds, unlike hurricanes because of their small size and lack of a circular pattern. These wind holes were the negative matter of microbursts. We saw wind on the water's surface everywhere except for the area, perhaps 200 yards across, where we were, where there was none. We sort of had to coast through them. We passed Latimer Reef Light to starboard and a race at the Fishers Islsnd YC to port before passing between the Dumplings, passing Bartlett Reef to starboard and then heading NNWto the Niantic Bay YC. Those last four miles were exceedingly slow, the tide was bad and the wind light behind us. So we furled and motored the last mile and a half.
Our sole need to go ashore was to refill our three one gallon bottles of drinking and cooking water. Before I had left for the YC on this mission, a couple in a dink came by and suggested we go in to town to see a movie. This entailed a dink ride of about one mile to the railroad and road bascule bridges and another half mile to Marker Seven Marina. The railroad's embankment cuts off the sea from the inner harbor, creating a sheltered spot. But the problem is that strong tidal currents run under the bridges through the narrow gap. It is suggested that sailors make this passage only at slack water.
No problem by dink, even on the return trip an the dark. We saw Indignation, based on a Phillip Roth
novel. Well acted and a bit strange.
A very peaceful night.
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