August 27 -- To The Kickamuit River Anchorage

We set out for the Kickamuit River from Potter Cove at three p.m. for the ten mile sail, trying to arrive near slack at high water at five p.m. -- and the plan worked. We used the main and small jib. with gentle wind and only ten miles to go. This was our second passage on which we did not raise the dink. The first part was eastward and the rising tide pushed us north so that we had to go close hauled to get south enough to clear the shallow water south of Hog Island. Then we turned to port and came on a broad reach to the north with the same rising tide helping us along.

We got to wing on wing passing under the Mount Hope Bridge. It attaches Aquidneck Island (which has Newport on its southern west coast) to the mainland near Bristol.
Charts can be scary. This one, showing "Bristol Narrows", at the mouth of the Kickamuit, looks impossibly narrow, with the buoys so close together as to be impossible. The dime shows the scale.

But our chart plotter permits an enlarged view, which makes it rather simple when there is no strong current running in or out. The pink lines are our track, in and out, Green "1"is  off the entrance in the south  and Green "7" after three reds. The chart plotter shows us passing on the wrong side of some buoys but that is because the buoys move a bit on their mooring chains; we use the visual -- the  actual -- and keep inside the channel rather than the charted view shown by the chart plotter.

Here is a view looking out. 

The water does get very shallow nearby as evidenced by this fisherman standing in the water. Lene took the helm on the way out and was rather proud of herself, which makes me proud and happy too.

The River, flowing from the north, forms a large, lake-like harbor before exiting through The Narrows. Sort of like the Harbor of New York City, on a much smaller scale. The deep water is about 1/3 mile wide and twice as long as seen on the chart above. The portions of the shoreline that are not marshy are lined with summer homes. We took a dink ride around most of the "lake," but at 10 a.m. on a weekday, we say only four people and two dogs. A very quiet place. As near as I could tell there are no commercial enterprises, boating related or otherwise, near the coastline, but it is very close, by land, to Bristol.

We spent a quiet evening on 50 feet of snubbed chain in 15 feet of water neared the eastern shore. Here is a beautiful mirror sunrise:

A good place to get away from it all, or to weather a hurricane. The one active now, we pray, will not be coming near Rhode Island.