August 22 - 25 -- To And In Bristol

Two hours for the ten miles here from Edgewood, motoring without sails directly into light southerly winds most of the way. Lene had an appointment with a hair salon and we got there in time. Passed this light off Conimicut Point, by green can "15".

We shortened the trip by staying outside the channel for a good part of the way, on hypotenuses. The channel is about 50 feet deep and we don't need that much.

I think this was my fourth visit here and the first where we moored our boat on the west side of the harbor, near the town, at the Bristol Maritime Center, the crenelated castle. On all previous visits we took a mooring at the Yacht Club on the other side of the harbor, far from town. The Maritime Center provides nothing except the mooring itself, for $40 per night, But we used the nearby free dinghy dock,  rest rooms, showers ($1.00 for three minutes) and laundry machines ($5.00 per load). There was a big Herreshoff regatta so that the Maritime Center no longer had available moorings for out third and fourth nights -- so we anchored just outside their field in 20 feet of water (which we could have done the first two nights as well though a longer dinghy ride in the surf --see below-- would not have been fun). I worried a bit during our time on anchor that if the wind shifted to come from the south, we would be too close to the moorings but the forecast held throughout for winds from the north. And our last two nights it got cold, low 50's, so we closed hatches and ports, hung a bath towel ofer the closed screen cafe doors to the cabin and used an extra blanket.
This was our first Bristol visit since Redlefsens restaurant went out of business. The new restaurant in its place, Portside, was not bad, but let's just say it is no Redlefsens. We had two dinners, a lunch and a memorable breakfast in different places in town. The breakfast, in a hole in the wall Sunset Cafe, included delicious, spicy, crispy strips of fried  "choriso hash" and huge buttery home baked biscuits. We would have eaten there again on our last day but they were closed. We never spent as much time in Bristol before, including the summer when we we lucked into the enormous Fourth of July parade, going strong for almost 200 years, during which former Harlemites Hadley and Susan had graciously hosted us! This time we took more time and learned more about the area by foot and by bike.
The highlight, though, was a visit by Harlemites Rhoda and Lloyd

who drove up, stayed in a hotel and celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary with us. Their son, Jonathon, learned the name of a restaurant at which we dined together, Bar 31, and ordered a bottle of Prosecco and cheese cake for the celebration! We had invited any and all Harlemites to join us in Rhode Island -- by land or by sea.  We  toured the area by car, including the Yacht Club (which is operating out of a tent this year while the clubhouse is being repaired after a fire) and lovely Colt State Park, both located on Poppasquash Point which forms the west side of the harbor. Our friends also took us shopping. Plans to have wine etc. aboard before dinner the first night were thwarted by very strong winds from the south. We were lucky to make it in to the sheltered dinghy dock amidst the large waves the fetch kicked up only slightly wet from spray; by the time of our ride back ILENE after dinner the seas had laid down.
One day was devoted to museums. First and foremost, the Herreshoff, celebrating the family and its business of designing and building sail and power boats for yachtsmen and the military from 1863 to 1945, including seven consecutive winning Americas Cup boats (eight races) and an early catamaran. They have about fifteen nicely restored boats available in a large building, three of which can be explored if you take off your shoes, several steam engines, many hand carved models used as models, and rooms showing how curves were traced, masts built and sails made.

After lunch: Linden Place, built by Mr. DeWolff in 1810, who, like the occupier of the White House, absconded with his family leaving the people to whom he owed money for its building it in the lurch. Several additions and improvements were made during the years. The Place was acquired by DeWolff's son in law, Mr. Colt, in 1865. Four Presidents stayed there and Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter praising one owner for his speech supporting religious liberty. Ethel Barrymore married into the family and her time is celebrated by the Place now. Lots of art and furnishings. Mr. Colt  made most of his money in rubber. One owner built a separate ballroom on the grounds which is now actively used by the wedding-industrial complex - brick on right.

This is the back yard. Colt also built a beautiful marble school next door. And he donated the large park on Poppasquash Point which is named after him.
Finally we visited the small Bristol Art Museum, featuring drawings in colored pencil.





Another elegant house on Hope Street (Route 114), the main drag.

We had a day sail with Lloyd and Rhoda, shown in the faint thin pink line of our track in the next photo. It was 15.9 miles according to the computer and included a clockwise circumnavigation of Hog Island, which shelters the south side of Bristol Harbor and up into the Providence River to off Rocky Point in the NW. Our boat is shown in white on her anchor in the harbor, upper center.

 Our day sail coincided with the Herreshoff Regatta, in the SW corner, which we kept well clear of.








For a while we kept up with this 94 foot beauty, "Eros", while pointing higher than her but going slower, with only our main and small jib.

Lloyd is not as experienced a sailor as Rhoda but he had the helm quite a while, and enjoyed and learned from it.

Everyone had a pretty good time.

Our last night in Bristol occurred gradually. Our next stop is Potter Cove on Prudence Island but it was Sunday and the Cove was likely full of weekenders so the fog which delayed our departure was not a problem. But then the wind was strong enough to persuade Lene to ask me to delay another night. We did not leave the boat and I did a few chores including tightening the shrouds "one Turn" as advised by our rigger back at City Island. We also made progress in the taming our mini-lion, Cruiser, as evidenced by his relaxed pose.

And with only an hour's sail to our next destination, we did not have to raise anchor early the next day.  We rented bikes for four hours and rode ten of the fifteen miles of the bike trail up the east side of the Providence River. The trail was the trackbed of the former Providence to Bristol Railway, which was closed for passengers following the devastation of the 1938 hurricane and to freight in the 1970's. It is fully paved and well maintained. On our way we passed through the towns of Warren and Barrington on the banks of rivers with the same names. These towns have marine facilities, but not for ILENE, so bike was the only way we visited. Warren was where the University of Rhode Island, now called Brown, was first started.

We stopped for lunch at the Wharf Tavern in Warren -- high grades for modern ambiance and view, good enough for food.  Twenty miles seems ambitious but the bikes had motors and batteries capable of driving them at twenty mph. I thought it was cheating but we only cheated ourselves out of exercise for those parts of the ride when we used the electricity. Such bikes could be useful for folks who do not have cars. This is the Tavern's picture window, not a painting.