June 16 -- Essex CT to Block Island, RI

The tide turned bad at the Race today at 9:30 this morning, dictating an early start, right after coffee and before the blueberry/peanut butter infused oatmeal that Lene cooked under way. The water surface was like glass at 7 am when we cast off. A good thing because it made the many huge logs floating on the surface easily visible and dodgeable. The reason for the logs was all the recent rain which also made the river flow fast. Current plus motor meant speeds of about ten knots down river, compared to only about five knots when the current had to be subtracted from the engine’s power on our way up river the day before. Turning to the east, it was a straight shot for Block Island through The Race, just south of Valiant Rock.  I put up the main but it was mainly to stabilize the boat as there was no appreciable wind. About 11 am the wind came up for the last hour and a half of delightful sailing, including through the channel and deeply into the Great Salt Pond, though under main alone.

Here we lowered our dinghy for the first time on this cruise and good news: the engine started right up. The most striking thing about BI was how empty it was. We passed lots of boats leaving the Island and none headed our way. Normally the Pond is chock a block with boats and people. In a post last summer I described the ridiculous dance we have to go through to get a Town mooring with more people wanting them than availability. Today, mid-June, well into “the season”, there was lots of room, as these photos of the pond from The Oar restaurant attest.

The people who depend on a short summer season to make their living must be hurting. It was a cold spring and it was cold today, a Sunday, but the island did not have its usual bustle. Here is the ferry dock, usually crammed.

Here is the main street, with hardly any vehicular or pedestrian traffic, on a weekend afternoon.

For my friends at the Harlem Yacht Club who are fans of The Oar, decorated with thousands of oars and paddles, that have been painted by the crews of visiting boats and mounted on all the walls: be prepared for a shock. Yes, they still decorate with painted oars, but all the oars were removed this past winter, and remounted, but not in the same places.

You will have to search the entire joint to find the Harlem oar.

Lots of good restaurants and shops but other than a sweat shirt for Ilene, groceries, a coffee, a postcard and the $46 mooring fee, we did not help the local economy. Sorry.

Rain predicted for tonight and it is blowing hard now.