Moving on

We arrived in Newport last Tuesday and will leave here tomorrow. It has rained almost every day we have been here but mostly in the evening. We are not sure of our destination. It will be Cuttyhunk or Martha's Vineyard. The weather is showing 2 really nice days then 2 days of possible rain. We will make sure we are in a protected harbor for Wed. and Thurs.
Our time in Newport was spent between relaxing on the boat, watching boat traffic, touring the harbor in the dingy, dodging raindrops,  and spending time ashore visiting Sarah's house to watch Olympics on her TV. At least their dog, Petey, kept us company as every one else was working.

Yesterday we had a lovely day ashore withe our friend Ian McMahon, Betsy, Brendan, and his friend. They are en route to Nantucket for a week. We will connect with then again on Thursday or Friday as they make their way back to Mystic.

Ian and Betsy at the Black Pearl

Moved to downtown Newport

We left the dock at NEB by 9:30AM and travelled a quick 8 miles to downtown Newport. After circling the inner harbor to look at all the boats great and small we went around Goat Island towards the Newport Bridge and picked up a mooring ball. Our friends, the Gleeson's, are gone for a month and graciously allowed us to tie up as a guest. We can stay for a week. We are close to downtown Newport without having the busy traffic and noise. It is also close to Sarah's house where we stored our car. If you check on the Kinvara map we have marked her location. It could be worse. We are looking at the Newport bridge and can watch the outer harbor. Right now there is a north wind from squalls and the fetch is creating lots of movement but it actually is refreshing to move again after being so sheltered at the dock.

Last 2 weeks at New England Boatworks

After returning from Florida with our car we had a wonderful week of cooler weather. So we put ourselves to work on the boat to complete some necessary work. Jane started working on cleaning and waxing the smooth deck top and then worked on cleaning and waxing the non skid deck top...all 43 feet of it. That took 3 days of elbow grease. Thank goodness for the clouds!!  Peter started in the forward head to fix our leaky and very noisy manual pump toilet. It requires taking the pump assembly off and changing out some parts before reassemble and greasing it. We are happy to report that it now works perfectly. It's a shitty job but someone has to do it!  Next Peter tackled the 4 winches, He took each one apart to wash with mineral oil, sudsy water, then re lubricate. Each winch had so many parts which needed to be put back into place. It reminded us of being in Georgetown, Exumas when the wind generator came apart and had to be fixed. Boating is just fixing things in exotic places!

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We left on Saturday morning to visit friends in Quincey, Carmel and Martin. We had an Irish breakfast brunch and stayed the afternoon talking and talking...and talking. It's great to catch up on everything again. We left late afternoon to spend the weekend with Jane's brother, Jim. He lives in Shirley, MA and we had not seen him since September. We had a lovely time eating out Sat. and Sun. night and visiting Rockport, MA. This is one of our favorite places we travelled by boat. We stopped there 3 times!

Motif #1
Called this because it's been painted
so many times.

US Coast Guard training sailboat

On the way back to Rhode Island Jane stopped by the cemetery in Framingham to visit her parents grave and her grandparents. Always a sad moment in time.  Once back in Newport we headed to Sarah's house to celebrate Jane's 63 birthday. We went to Goat Island to an outdoor bar, Pineapples, at the Hyatt. Then back to Sarah's house where Natalie met us and we had dinner there. Sarah made an "island pork" roast in the slow cooker. Yummy. It was so nice to have my 2 girls with me again.

Our last week at the marina brought Florida weather....hot and humid. We spent our time doing errands in the air conditioned car and going back and forth to Sarah's house. finally on Thursday we packed a lunch and drove to Cape Cod for a visit to a few marinas. That made the day a little more bearable. By the time we got back to the boat, apx. 4:30, there was a severe thunder storm at our doorstep. We made it back aboard just before the deluge. Jane was standing on the companionway steps watching when we heard an explosion. Jane saw lightening hit a mast with sparks flying. the boat was on land so it's mast head wad in a higher location. This is the second time we have seen severe lightening very close since being back in RI.

This weekend we saw many boat friends before we leave the dock...hoping to see them again before we return to Florida!  So today is Tuesday, July 24 and our month is up at the marina. We will push off the dock later and start cruising around for the next month.

First Week in Newport

Our week began without a car so we took our time to get the boat cleaned and organized after 5 weeks of traveling. Our first business was laundry on Monday. That took most of the morning. Jane tackled some cleaning and waxing of the deck and taking the ICW brown stain off the hull. Now we look a bit more respectable!!  Tuesday our friends Joe and Jackie came to meet us. We had a great day visiting and driving around Newport. Lunch was in The Lobster Bar where Sarah's boyfriend is the manager. The lobster rolls were yummy. Wednesday was more cleaning until Sarah showed up and took us to her new house rental in Newport so Peter could see it. We got our doggie "fix" playing with her dog Petey. Thursday we again went to Sarah's house to celebrate Peter's 63 birthday and Eric's 35 birthday. We had steaks on the grill with all the fixings. Then strawberry shortcake for dessert and gifts. Peter and I stayed overnight and Sarah brought us back in the morning before work. Friday we stayed at the marina and met up with some friends we knew when we were here before. On Saturday Sarah picked us up again to go to the farmers market then back to her house. Peter cut the grass in the back while Sarah and Jane went shopping to the Christmas Tree Shop (a real New England favorite). Since Sarah was working we kept her car and went into Newport. Luck had us finding free parking right in the middle of town! After walking around the shops we went to the ferry dock to try and find an old friend of Peter, Brian Moore.  We had lost touch with him many years ago but on the chance he still lived in Newport Peter called the only listing for Brian in the phone book. Peter found from his wife Mary that Brian is now a captain of the Newport Jamestown ferry. At the ferry dock we spoke to the harbormaster who knew Brian very well so he was able to get us onto Brian's ferry and surprise him!  After a short ride to Ft Adams (where the America's Cup series was) we departed the ferry with a promise to see Brian and his wife again. We walked right into the America's Cup village and watched a few of the very exciting races offshore. Tomorrow will be our full day at the races with the girls so we did not stay too long. We returned to the boat for the night with Sarah's car.

Sarah's little Newport house

Our marina pool

America's Cup World Series Trials

Sunday, July 1, 2012
Our day started off early with breakfast at a diner with Sarah. We were expecting Natalie down but she was running late so we got take out for her and Eric. We left the house at 10AM to get to Ft Adams early. There was no delay in the traffic and we easily made it to the parking lot by 10:30 and started our hike into Ft Adams to get a spot to watch the races. We were loaded down with bags, chairs, and towels. It was going to be a hot day in the sun. We found a great spot on the rocks just in front of the finish line. We would be able to see all but the most southern leg of the races.  It did not take long before the rocks became very crowded but we knew we were in a good spot because we were just above the high tide line. Sarah, Natalie, and Jane took off to look around the America's Cup village shops and food booths. Of course they stopped at the Moet champagne booth at 11:30 and had a "refreshment" before returning to the rocks. Our friend Ian Mac Mahon arrived in Newport to anchor (after midnight!) so he joined us on the rocks with his sister Fiona, son Brendan, and girlfriend Betsy. We had quite a crew cheering for the 2 USA boats. It was hot but we had a constant ocean breeze to keep us comfortable.

Natalie and Sarah

Start of the exciting race

Overall winner...Team USA Oracle

After some very exciting races we decided to head out in the crowd to go back to Sarah's house for a cookout.  Our walk back to the car was a very long route so Sarah and Natalie walked on ahead to get the car and pick us up on the way out. Peter and Jane stopped near the park entrance to wait for the girls to drive our way. Unfortunately a storm decided to break loose right on top of us. It poured rain with thunder and lightening all around us. We were soaked by the time we got to the car! There were so many people leaving the races that it took us about 2 hours to get to the car and get ourselves back to Sarah's house. After hamburgers and potato salad for dinner Natalie drove us back to the boat. We were exhausted but it was a great day. We now have to pack for our quick trip back to Florida to collect our car.

A visit with the Daleys

Saturday July 7

The best part of cruising is meeting new friends who you just click with and enjoy their company. The worst part of cruising is eventually you have to part ways and say goodbye. We have been so fortunate along our travels to meet some friends who we have kept in touch with and meet up with again. This winter when we were in the Abacos we met Bill and Linda Daley from Ashland, Ma. They were on their first trip to the Bahamas aboard s/v Ceili. We had a great time together for the last 3 weeks of our visit and even travelled back to the US together. They returned to their home port of East Greenwich, RI in May. Yesterday we drove to their marina to meet up again. What a great time. We spent the entire afternoon reliving our time in the Bahamas, our highs and lows of the return trip north, boating in general, kids, etc. etc. etc.  When we leave the dock at our current marina we hope to rendezvous around the area for some more fun cruising, beach barbecues, dingy races, and a sunset goombay smash.  Peter and Bill will have to have another conch blowing contest at sunset!  We miss Gail and Hans and Linda and Craig who were part of our Abaco crew.

Peter and Bill

Jane and Linda

A "Flying" Trip to Florida

July 2-July 5

On Monday July 2 we left Rhode Island to fly back to Florida. Jane got free flights with her Visa card so we flew from Providence airport to Baltimore then on to Orlando. As always we enjoy Southwest and got good seats.  Our friends Fred and Verena picked us up at the airport at 10PM then home by 11PM. It was midnight before we got to bed. In the morning we went into Celebration for breakfast at our favorite diner then Peter got his haircut....finally!! It was a long 6 weeks without a haircut.
When we returned home we went to visit our neighbors Jack and Claire for a bit then we all returned to our house for a swim in the pool. We really miss our pool on the hot summer days. Dinner was with Fred and Verena who also invited our other friends over for dessert. Everyone showed up with birthday cards for both of us. What a nice surprise. It was a really short visit to Florida but we so appreciate every one's friendship and being "fed" while there! 
Wednesday, July 4th found us driving to Sanford, Florida in our Escape to board the auto train. Amtrak runs this train daily between Sanford, FL and Lorton, VA. We checked in at 2PM and were able to board the train by 2:30. Our cabin was called a "roomette". It consists of two facing seats with a fold up table and a top bunk which fold down into a bed. It was great to ride in as seats while the train was moving but at night it was a little small when both beds were made up. We had a porter who made the beds while we were at dinner. Now the best part of the trip, included in the ticket price, is a wine, cheese and snack in the afternoon, dinner and dessert in the dining car, and continental breakfast in the morning. The train left Florida at 4PM and we arrived in Lorton, VA on July 5th at 8:30AM.
Our car was unloaded by 9:30AM and we arrived back in  Newport, RI by 6PM. This saved us a 14 hour driving day through the southern states and made the entire trip feel much shorter. It was a nice experience and we would do it again.

our sleeper car

The dining car

The first car being unloaded