Hello Family and Friends,

It has been such a long time since we’ve written a journal entry and we thought it was about time. We decided that this summer we would sail the boat to New England and try to make it to Maine. We’ve been to Maine by car, but only got as far as the Isle of Shoals by boat. It’s been quite an exciting trip so far and we haven’t even reached Maine yet.

We had a slow start leaving Florida in June and we had several boat problems that had to be resolved. The problems are somewhat solved and we found ourselves ready to leave the Chesapeake on June 30 th. The idea was to sail offshore up to Block Island. The weather didn’t cooperate so we decided to still head north and had a whirlwind trip of 2 days up the Chesapeake and another day down the Delaware River arriving in Cape May, NJ on July 2 nd. On July 3 rd we set sail for Montauk, NY and arrived on the 4 th in the morning hours. It was a delightful offshore trip with a beautiful moon and lots of fireworks off the Long Island coast. We tucked into Montauk ahead of some bad weather and sat out another weather day. With an iffy forecast on the 6 th we had planned to get all the way to just before the Cape Cod canal. Winds were light, seas were large, visibility was about 1 mile. We knew Block Island was off to our starboard side but couldn’t see it at all. Just then 2 things happened: heavy fog rolled in and the bolt connecting our gooseneck to the mast snapped. We tied the boom away from the mast and altered our course into Block Island.

It’s been a long, long time since we’ve sailed in the fog. Visibility was less than ¼ mile. We could see boats on the radar and they would appear out of the fog. A minute later they would disappear into the fog. Your sense of direction is so out of whack that we found it was better to steer using the autopilot. Approaching the Block Island entrance was interesting. So many boats going in and out. We knew things had changed in the 30 years since we’ve been in this harbor. There were hundreds of moorings and hundreds of boats. We read up on the procedures and went looking for the granny smith apple colored mooring balls. We found one right away, but as we approached it we saw an “occupied” float. The boat in front of the mooring told us to wait a minute. Apparently there was going to be a little juggling of moorings and we could have his in a few minutes. The juggling was interesting and we had to race to the free mooring as 2 other boats tried to descend upon it. Wow! What luck!

We got things settled and knew what we had to do to fix the gooseneck. Then in true cruising spirit, we went out for lunch. We’re in New England now, so some New England clam chowder, lobster salad and swordfish were the order of the day. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream also hit the spot. So now we could almost relax. Right? Wrong! In the afternoon a squall hit the island. The winds blew over 40 knots. Several anchored boats started dragging and it was pandemonium on VHF channel 16. We were told later that this was a typical summer afternoon in Block Island.

We spent the next day getting in touch with our New England friends and biking the island. It was so gorgeous. Nice weather with sunny skies and a cool breeze. The honeysuckles were in bloom and the air smelled so sweet. It’s so easy to see the attraction of this place. It was an unexpected stop but this is why we cruise. The boat, Lunasea, who’s mooring we procured got a clamming license for the day. They got so many clams that they gave about 50 beautiful cherrystone clams to us. I immediately called my Mom to find out what to do with them. Both Chris and I ate some raw but it was so tough getting them open. We were so bad at it that we decided to steam them open. This worked wonderfully and we had an outstanding clam dinner.

Today we’re still trying to head up to Maine. I could tell you what our destination was this morning but we might be somewhere else tonight. Light winds behind us, we have the spinnaker set and we’re making about 4-5 knots. We feel so lucky to be sailing.

Fair winds and following seas. Pam and Chris aboard Wildcat