THE GOOD
We had a great time in Newport, especially so since we met up with old friends Trish from Sandusky Sailing Club days (and met her husband Ron) and Steve from North Cape Yacht Club (and met his 2-year old daughter Margot and wife Lisa - pregnant with daughter #2). We had arrived on Wednesday afternoon, 9/11/19 and picked up a mooring at Conanicut Marina in Jamestown, across Narangansett Bay from Newport. Thursday was very rough and windy in the mooring field so we stayed on the boat all day and worked on wiring for our solar panels. It was so rough that we felt a little bad about calling the launch service to go into shore, but we had planned on meeting up with Steve and his wife and daughter for drinks and a bite to eat. We had a good visit and enjoyed “Stuffies” at the Naragansett Cafe, the locals bar.
On Friday, we finished wiring and hooking up our solar panels in the morning and then took the ferry to Newport for the boat show. We spent the rest of the day at the boat show, including the brokerage boats at the Newport Ship Yard. We toured a Hinckley Talaria 55 which was absolutely fabulous; an Oyster 655; a Brooklin Boatyard built 75’ racing boat Wild Horses; and Palawan, a 75’ Little Harbor that was originally owned by Thomas Watson, Jr, the 2nd IBM president and son of IBM founder.
On Sunday, we took the Newport-Jamestown ferry to Fort Adams where Trish picked us up. She took us on a driving tour of Newport, then stopped by their house to pick up Ron so that we could all get fish & chips (delicious) for dinner. Trish took me grocery shopping by car while the guys had a beer. It was a great visit and I especially appreciated the help with groceries.
9/16/19
We left Conanicut Marina after filling fuel and water tanks. About two hours into the trip to Gardiners Bay on Long Island, we saw a very large school of dolphins. There were probably 50 to 60 dolphins swimming in a group and several came over and swam by the boat. Several times, two or three jumped in unison right next to us and at one point, four or five jumped at once. They stayed near us for several minutes and then swam off. It was quite exciting!
It was mostly a motor-sail with the main up as the wind was light and dead behind us. Towards evening, we had a beautiful sail into Gardiners Bay with a very orange, pink, cloudless sunset. About an hour after sunset, a bright red moon rose, fading to orange and then yellow as it rose higher in the sky. We anchored off Orient Beach on Long Island at about 9:30.
9/17/19
We raised our anchor at around 8:00 and headed out to Long Island Sound with a nice breeze and sunny weather. We had a great reach up the sound, doing 10 knots easily with the full main and #3 jib. The wind built to 20 knots apparent, so Bryan put two reefs in the main, which later had to be shook out as the wind died. We passed Shoreham Nuclear Plant on the way to Port Jefferson so we looked it up on the internet. It turns out the plant never generated electricity and was shut down in the late 1980’s by Mario Cuomo and negative public opinion after 5% power testing was completed. What a shame! We also read that the low pressure turbine rotors were in use at Davis-Besse.
THE BAD
The sail from Newport to Gardiners Bay was a motor-sail with the mainsail because of light winds. As we approached the entrance to Gardiners Bay at the northeast end of Long Island, we dropped the mainsail to enter with the engine since it looked like it would be a little tricky getting through the entrance. Shortly after lowering the main, Bryan smelled something smoky and saw what he thought was smoke coming from below. We quickly shut down the engine, turned back towards Rhode Island and unrolled the jib. It turns out that the fresh water cooling pump had died and the coolant had run out of the system. Our cabin was full of steam and coolant vapor - very stinky. We (Bryan) pulled the main back up and we decided to continue into Gardiners Bay and anchor for the night. It turned out to be a very beautiful sail into Gardiners Bay with awesome sunset and moonrise. We picked out a location in Gardiners Bay that we thought would be protected, Ben’s Point near Orient Beach, and headed that way. We had the anchor down at about 9:30, in the dark AND under sail with **broken** engine. We got settled down with a rum drink and a bite to eat.
THE UGLY
As the evening wore on, the winds picked up out of the WRONG direction, making it very rough on the anchor. We were using the Safe Anchor app and twice during the night it looked like we may be dragging anchor so Bryan let out more chain each time. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep, especially Bryan. When we woke up in the morning, we saw that we had anchored right in the middle of some lobster pots! Oh no!! At least we had sailed up to the anchorage since the engine was dead; otherwise, we may have tangled with one of the lobster pots. We sailed off the anchor and had to tack out of the channel from Gardiners Bay to Long Island Sound.
And, THE BAD-ASS - We sailed up the channel to the mooring field!
We had a very nice reach west across Long Island Sound. Based on our review of the chart, it looked like we might be able to get parts and a diesel mechanic to repair the engine in Port Jefferson, so we planned to pick up a mooring there. As we approached the harbor entrance, we called for our mooring ball assignment and explained to the water taxi that we had limited use of our engine. Fortunately, the wind was in a good direction to sail up the channel. Bryan did a great job getting us past other boats, a fishing charter boat and a large ferryboat, sailing up the narrow channel. The next morning, we talked to a diesel mechanic and he was able to get parts and replace the water pump, which had a broken shaft. He also took a look at the generator, which had also failed about a week ago. He figured out that the automatic shutdown switch (on the event of overheating) had failed.
We ended up staying in Port Jefferson for 4 nights so that the engine could be repaired. It was a busy little harbor with a ferry service between Port Jefferson and Bridgeport, CN. The ferry operates 365 days a year and has two levels for carrying cars. We really enjoyed the town. I got caught up on laundry, we ate at a couple of good restaurants, and visited the French bakery several times. Yummy!
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