The passage here from the Third Beach Anchorage was easy and fun, the only frustration was a fifteen minute period with no wind, forcing us to motor. The wind was from the north so at our back heading out of the Sakonnet, a starboard reach heading west in the Atlantic and then a beat heading north up into Narragansett Bay into the harbor, though we only had to tack once on that leg. We passed well inside Cormorant Rock.
Our speed varied a lot with the different points of sail and different wind strengths.
We sailed past where we had previously walked: the "Cliff Walk" at the sea side, across the back yards of the "Cottages" of the rich and famous, including the grandest: The Breakers, built by the Vanderbilts.
One always sees beautiful boats sailing in these waters and the schooner Adirondack II, carrying a load of tourists, fit that bill.
We took a mooring from Neill of Newport Mooring Service for $45 per night. It is in the SE corner of the harbor, near the Ida Lewis Yacht Club and hence near the area where anchoring is permitted. But our mooring is quite strong and I remember my first sail here in about 1990 on old "Just Cause". She dragged and was rescued and put on a mooring by the Harbor Master. So I'm not objecting to paying for the mooring.
More beautiful boats in the harbor. Sophia's hull's exterior is completely of gleaming varnished mahogany and you have to admire her graceful curves.
And there are a lot of these mega power ego-ships like Honey from Florida.
We had a great light dinner at Salvation Cafe, on Broadway, recommended to us by Lene's thespian friend, Mededith, who had worked there for several years. Scales & Shells is still going strong on Thames Street, but we don't have to eat there every time.
I spent most of our time here touring places we have never seen before. Actually, I had seen them but never appreciated them for the treasures they are. All are along Bellevue Avenue, the fashionable street in town of the 1870's and its extension, Trouro Street.
William Varieka Fine Arts, is a few doors from the Tennis Hall of Fame and the auto museum. I have been to Newport's Art Museum several times, but this place has art that is just as good or better with free admission. It is way too pricey for us, like a Rubens for $325K, but can admire without desire. With two of the paintings I was able to be of use to the proprietor in telling him what was in the picture.
This one is a landscape looking south from the highland just west of Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Mr Varieka took notes as I pointed out the names of the islands and bodies of water.
And in this picture notice the center, a church in the middle of the street. It is about eight by ten feet in size and named to the effect Troops Marching down Broadway. Here is a detail of the church:
Yes, it is Grace Church at the NE corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, where Broadway takes a slight turn, across from our home on the south side of Tenth Street. Small world. He also had paintings of four other cities we have sailed to. I got a kick out of this visit.
A few blocks north is the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, The first public library, built as a library in 1747 with a collection of 750 used books imported from London by Mr. Redwood. I browsed its shelves and this exhibit of Goelet Cups, designed by Tiffany and donated by Mr. Goelet to the winners of the New York Yacht Club's annual races. Many of the winners went on to win the America's Cup. This one, about two feet long, was won by the schooner Grayling in 1886.
They were selling discarded books and I got a leather bound original 1872 edition of J. Fennimore Cooper's novel The Sea Lions, for a buck!
I had visited the Truro Synagogue several times but had never run across this cemetery before.
Next was the Newport Historical Society, not to be confused with the museum it operates several blocks away which we visited last time. They had an exhibit about a local clockmaker who it turns out, though they did not mention it, was a contemporary of the much more accomplished John Harrison, the inventor of the first chronometer useful for determining longitude at sea. For more info see Dana Sobel's "Longitude".
Finally, a place that I had not overlooked before, because it was not opened until seven weeks ago: a lovely used book store with an excellent curation of books, Commonwealth Books, an offshoot of a company with the same name in Boston.
And speaking of large boats, on our way out we passed the Caribbean Princess, tended by her tenders, with the Newport Bridge in the background.
Newport still has a lot more to offer.
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