August 30 and 31 -- Cuttyhunk to Newport and Lay Day There, 26 Miles

First, let me note that this is the 600th posting to this Blog over the last eight years. The computer told me this.
We tried to sail but were about 25 degrees north of our direct course west and not going so fast even with full sails and the motor. After an hour of this Lene asked how long it would take if we motored along the direct route. So: in with the genoa and then steering on the route and the computer reported that our ETA was later, not sooner. Meanwhile, when Lene asked for me to reduce heeling while she cooked breakfast, I motored south of the direct course so that after breakfast, when we put out the big sail agian, we could beat toward the waypoint. Once rounding the mark to head north up into Narragansett Bay, the engine was no longer needed. But shortly thereafter the wind just about died.
 In any event the passage took about five hours. The harbormaster assigned us to a mooring on the eastern side of the harbor, rather than on the eastern side where we had always been before -- lots of room between boats but a longer dink ride than usual.
What is changed here is two additional new dinghy docks, One is at the northeast corner of the harbor and the other much further south than the one old dink dock in the heart of town, near the Seamans Church Institute. So the docks and no longer crowded. And the one at the south end is in a Sailors Visitor's Center (on the Anne Street Pier) which has rest rooms, showers ($1.75 for seven minutes of water), and  a large area with good free wifi. That Center is where the last three posts to this blog were prepared while Lene got her hair done and watched some of the US Open. We had planned to shower there but very dark and threatening skies, plus the forecast for rain chased us back to the boat to close the one open hatch and we showered in the cockpit instead. Too bad that it did not rain during the night. ILENE could use a rinse to shed her salty crust. We shopped both days, had a lunch at CRU, near the Tennis Center and saw BlackkKlansman, the new Spike Lee film. I checked the oil, the belts, the zinc in the refrigerator's condenser and the distilled water in the seven batteries. Everything seems to be OK.
Tomorrow we will reenter Long Island Sound, almost home.