August 8 -- Dering Harbor to Point Judith Pond, RI

At 45 nautical miles, this will likely be the longest passage of our six weeks. We dropped the mooring at 8 am. and set  our anchor 7 hours and 40 minutes later.  The wind was too far behind us and too weak for us to make the sort of speed we wanted for such a long passage. So we motored most of the way, assisted by sail most of the way and sailed without the engine for only about an hour at six knots, when the wind came up near our port beam. We did not need great speed and in fact averaged 5.58 knots including the slow spots at both ends. We saw some fishing boats on AIS and later visually. We were going faster than they were while their nets were out but once hauled in they sped up and passed us.

This boat overtook us on our starboard side, then got directly in front of us and slowed down!

What the heck?!?! I called him by name "CABO", which you can read on his stern, on channels 13 and 16 -- with no response. I just slowed, turned and avoided him like one would a drunk driver.
Point Judith was the site of the worst sailing experience of my life, in a Noreaster, in August 2010. Today I finally confronted and overcame my phobia about it. "It was a dark and stormy night...,"   Well some other time I will tell that story which involved a case in Admiralty court -- which I helped ILENE win, by the way!
Some poet called Point Judith "The Cape Horn of the East" because like all Capes and Points, fierce weather can occur there. Off the Point, our government built a large seawall enclosing an area protected from the waves called Point Judith Harbor of Refuge.

There are two entrances, one from the east and the other from the west. We entered through the western entrance  (the green line starting in the lower left marks our track) and proceeded four miles up the channel. We passed Galilee and Jerusalem at the channel entrance and then Snug Harbor, the scene of my 2010 horrors. We went to a very pleasant anchorage in the area called Point Judith Pond. We are on a line between the southern ends of Gardner and Beach Islands. where the green line ends. It was a bit windier than the last time (the only other time) we were in the Pond. That was with the Club Cruise in about 2000. That time boat-to-boat dinghy travel was pleasant. Tonight it was too rough for that so we did not go over to introduce ourselves to our neighbors, as is my habit. We were the first to arrive and about seven others had entered the area by nightfall.














On our way in this ferry wanted to get out.

We also passed the docked fishing fleet

Here is Galilee, which looks sort of like Government Cut in Miami, except on a much smaller scale.

It was another calm and peaceful cool night. A few of our remaining neighbors in the morning after others had left, with Snug Harbor southward in the background.