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JeffM
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« on: July 23, 2006, 08:35:01 PM » |
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A forecast north wind provided an excuse to do something I only dreamed about when I was a teenage Sunfish skipper on upper Narragansett Bay, RI: to sail across the 8 nautical miles of open water between Point Judith and Block Island. A 5-10kt north wind would enable me to make Block Island on one tack, shortening the trip and simplifying navigation. The following days would see the more usual southerly 5-10kt winds, making the return trip just as easy. I and my two younger boys, 9-yr-old Trevor and 6-yr-old Stephen would make a nice size crew for overnighting aboard.
I raced to get the boat provisioned and ready, working into the wee hours on Wednesday (departure day). Then we left at 6:30am for the 2+ hours of trailering to Narragansett to a rare ocean launch ramp I’d scouted two days before. (Ramps outside the Bay tend to be inside barrier beaches or salt ponds, opening onto the ocean via breachways with wicked tidal currents. I have no motor.)
We pushed off before 10am near dead low tide. The forecast winds were late in coming, leaving us ghosting along for several hours in the hot sun. After all my plotting of compass courses and contingency plans, I was relieved to see Block Island faint in the distance while Point Judith was still abeam. As we left Point Judith Light behind, the winds gradually increased to about 5kt, and we sailed along on a beam reach as the cliffs of Clay Head came more clearly into view. The ocean swells were pleasantly long and low, but prompted a bit of queasiness as I tried to concentrate on making sandwiches for lunch while Trevor had the helm.
My plan was to make for artificial Old Harbor on the island’s east side, hoping I could find room in the limited anchorage there. My back-up plan was to get around the island to the entrance to Great Salt Pond in time to ride the incoming tide through the narrow entrance and into New Harbor. But with the tide high at 3pm, the light winds set us back too far for New Harbor to be an option. Fortunately, there was a little space left in Old Harbor for a boat that could safely dry out. We anchored before 5pm in 2-3 feet of water just a hundred feet or so from the beach. The boys were disappointed that we would not be going ashore at once, but there was dinner to be attended to, and berths to be made up, and all the little arrangements that make life possible for three people on a 20 foot open boat.
I fired up the Coleman, we ate our hotdogs and mac ‘n cheese, made up our beds, and, after a call home to reassure my wife, settled in to sleep.
The morning was uneventful; we walked the touristy downtown and popped in and out of shops as the boys wanted, while I planned an afternoon visit to New Harbor to do some boat-admiring. Plans changed when my wife—our own personal Mission Control—called to warn us that tropical storm Beryl might be headed our way. That night could bring winds of 20kt gusting to 30, and inches of rain. I assured her that the stone jetties of the Old Harbor kept the water inside nearly as still as a millpond, while my big anchor was up to the wind. The rain would be miserable, since all I had for a roof was a tarp and too few places to tie it. But we would survive. If we dragged anchor, the boat would probably suffer little damage unless we were unlucky enough to hit the jetty. If worse came to worse, we were so close to the beach that we could almost wade ashore.
The rain started shortly after we aborted a visit to New Harbor. I left the boys on the beach and went aboard to get the tarp up. The rain became a downpour and soaked us all. But the roof held, kept most of the rain out of the boat, and, after dinner in a nice, dry pizzeria, we went aboard and stayed almost dry. The flapping tarp made sleep difficult, but the high winds never materialized—which not only enabled us to keep our roof, but also meant we wouldn’t face the potential for 6-8ft seas on the return trip.
We got under way on Friday morning in time to ride the falling tide out of Old Harbor, and sailed back in a 5-10kt southerly wind with the mizzen in the reefing step. Winds were expected to be 10-15kt, and I was in no mood for taking chances. It was a better, faster trip than the one outbound, and waves were little higher than two days before. The only wrinkle was that poorer visibility made it necessary to trust our compasses. But I was not much worried, since the east coast is a much bigger target than a little island! Stephen turned out to be a quicker study at steering a compass course than his older brother. We rowed upwind to the ramp in the tossing sea caused by the swell, and landed before 3pm on Friday afternoon, one milestone accomplished, and many stories to tell.
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