June 29-July 5

Weather did not improve after Peter's birthday. We spent Monday cleaning, doing laundry, and grocery shopping to get ready for our trip to Block Island for the 4th of July. Unfortunately we had to have our Lexus fixed on Tuesday (bright sunny day) after hitting a pot hole and damaged the tire. So Wednesday we left the marina at 7:30 to sail to Block Isl. One hour later we had to duck into Newport for a few hours to avoid a thunder & lightening storm. By 10:00 we were headed out Narraganset Bay again only to be turned back with another storm. So we picked up a mooring in Newport for the night. Thank goodness....because we experienced the worst storm ever. By the time it was over later that afternoon, southern Rhode Island had received 6" of rain and there were lightening strikes. Thursday was not much better. We exited Newport Harbor to thunder & lightening again so decided to come back to the marina. We did have a really nice dinner with friends and hit the bed early. Friday morning we left at 6:30AM for Block Island again. The only blip in the weather window was patchy fog. We had rather dense fog outside Narraganset Bay going around Point Judith then it cleared up until we reached Block Island. Within 1/2 mile of the entrance channel there was zero visibility fog. We had to rely on our radar and fog horn to "see" boats around us. Once inside the pond at Block the fog cleared. There were no moorings available so we held our breath and anchored in 25Knot winds. Our boat held us the entire weekend. A dock neighbor also came in so he rafted with our boat and our anchor held us both throughout the weekend. After cocktails together we grilled our food and ate dinner. The fireworks display was awesome on a crystal clear night with an (almost) full moon. The pond was packed with boats but everyone was in such high spirits because it REALLY was the beginning of summer. This was the first sunny weekend since the beginning of May. We left at 9:30AM Sunday to return to the marina. What a fabulous sail. Pure blue, sunny skies and winds of 13-18Knots. It was just perfect. We could almost envision being in the Bahamas!!