August 19 - 21 -- Passage To And Two Laydays In Edgewood/Pawtuxet

Providence was the only big city on our itinerary,  the furthest from home, 125 nautical miles by crow flight and 222 under ILENE's keel. It was also the northernmost point of this cruise which is the shortest cruise in time and distrance since 2010-11. And the ports in RI being near each other, and with lay days in most ports, there is far less sailing than ever before. But I am handling it quite well, thank you; indeed enjoying it.
My tide table said that slack water in East Providence was at 11:20 AM, but either it or my reading of it was erroneous. I'm always up early, reading or writing and at 7:15 Lene came up and said "It's slack now!" I looked and she was right. We got underway at 7:20. Slack time does not last very long, though the water at each side of it moves slowly. In any event, I cast off all lines, and the boat sat stationary until I pushed its stern off from the dock while jumping on with Lene backing us out. Easy!
The Liberty Passion

 has an interesting stern toward starboard which includes a long driveway that articulates our and is suspended permitting trucks to drive aboard.

The perceived problem with our destination, the Edgewood YC, is that the chart shows it is located in very shallow water with a channel from the main channel to get in.
We had been told not to worry by the YC staff, but I wanted to delay our arrival until nine a.m. when the launch

operator would be on duty and could help us if we needed help. So we covered the four miles from E. Providence very slowly, at two knots, with the engine just above idle speed and I held my breath when we turned to starboard, leaving the 40 - 50 foot deep dredged white channel, needed for ships like Liberty Passion, to head NE for the Club's mooring field. (near bottom of the chart, red line)
The charts, both paper and electronic, show that at low water there is only five feet at our mooring, (N 41; 46.60  W 071; 23.08), such that the lowest ten inches of our keel would be stuck in the mud -- or rocks. But we were fine here for three days (six low tides) and we even motored  to the Club's dock to fill ILENE's water tanks at high tide one day, without a depth problem. I do not think it is dredging that created the greater depth.
Edgewood and nearby Pawtuxet are both legally recognized subdivisions of the larger area of Cranston, Rhode Island. We walked in to Pawtuxet, about a mile downstream, actually we walked back, because when Lene asked a lady for directions, she gave us a ride.
(I get angry at Lene when she asks for directions because I know the way and she does not trust me; and she gets angry at me when I snap at her over this. Something for us to work on after 22 years together. Actually, I should just learn to remain silent when she repeatedly asks people unnecessary questions.)
The clubhouse was recently rebuilt following a hurricane. One of its three floors is the Ted Turner Sailing Center of Brown University: used by its sailing team. Another nearby yacht club just north of here has gone out of business. The area is ripe for a rebound in sailing. They race Tuesday and

Wednesday nights, different classes but Wednesday, in very small boats, was cancelled due to high wind and threatened storms. The Club is clean and well run. ILENE is the boat to the right.
Pautuxet is very old, calls itself  "The Oldest Little Village in Rhode Island" and claims to have been founded in 1654. It is small and quant. The Pawtuxet River flowing into the Providence River.

A cute gift shop called "Noon" says it was the first Customs House in the nation. I will try to verify this some day. We had a light lunch at a very interesting tea shoppe called Schastea with a menu of both savory and sweet flatbreads, pizzas, paninis and crepes, all with interesting ingredients, and a tea menu with fifty teas. My flatbread featured among other ingredients, Chimichurri sauce so I had the Yerba mate tea for a dual Argentinian effect.
The Pautuxet flowing into the Providence River.
We cleaned the boat. including a lot of guano that birds like this one, about to depart, had deposited on the bow pulpit and furler drum.

I also used Hydrogen peroxide to get rid of organic matter, fish guts?, that earlier birds had left on the starboard side deck. I cooked a dinner, without a recipe or the correct Asian ingredients, featuring stir fried baby eggplants and peppers.








This ugly roiling storm threatened us during our launch ride back to ILENE's mooring but passed north of us. Later, our first and third nights big lightning storms did hit with all the features of them Mother Nature possesses, but we were snug aboard.














The middle night was as pacific as this sunset attests:

The homes here are old, Victorian, and lovely. We had dinner at the Edgewood Cafe, in Edgewood, only four tenths of a mile from the Club -- a very unprepossessing but friendly BYOB joint with very excellent reasonably priced food. On the way we saw these historic sidewalk plaques, similar to those I had first seen walking in Wakefield, mementos of the era in which Americans admired what our nation could do.

We hadn't planned to stay a third night but were delayed at the start by fog and later by forecasts of severe thunderstorms with hail etc. We remained aboard all day.











But the birds were back in reinforced numbers

and the bimini and dink need to be scrubbed, having been only partly rinsed off by the rain. This place is too "birdy'.
Next stop: Bristol.