24 hours to Block Island

We left Barnegat before 6 a.m. (ugh) on Saturday, needing to catch the current out of the channel.  AND to avoid the gazillion fishing boats that zoom through it.  There were literally hundreds of fishing or sail or pleasure boats in Barnegat Bay when we went the 8 miles from Linda and Jim's to our anchorage near the inlet on Thursday. Many are rental, with no clue of boating etiquette. Even at 6 a.m., there were these little fishing boats, drifting with the current, some in the damned middle of the channel, as we made out way out to the Atlantic. At least there were none of the big fishing charters, zooming at full speed, literally tossing us about and throwing waves of water over our bow.  RUDE.  My bias comes out,but there seems to be more of this behavior here than we see in the South... y'all...

It was a long, uneventful trip.  All overnighters are long. It was 145 nm from harbor entrance to harbor entrance. Fortunately, we had the expected mild weather with SW winds 5 to 15 kts. Unfortunately, that wind speed and direction dictated that we motorsail the whole way, with the main sail up, and the engine helping. Poor Smoke...she's never happy with long voyages, but eventually she just settles down, the "cat" takes over, and she simply sleeps.

She hates the engine noise.  Maybe it hurts her ears.  But she does hate the noise, and she refuses to go below when we are motoring.  So, we do accomodate her by putting food and water in the cockpit for her.  But the litter box ---- that's another story.  When we have long passages, I admit that every 6 hours or so we succomb to using sails only and turn off the engine for 20 minutes or so to give her time to do whatever she needs.  Yeah, I know....crazy old cat owners... but we do.

On any overnight passage, we really look forward to the sunrise. First, the glimmerof the spectacle to come...

And then the main event ...  (you didn't think you'd get out of this blog without sunset/sunrise pictures, did you???)

When we arrived at Block Island, at 6:15 AM on a Sunday morning, we found what we expected - a crowd.  This big 150 ft or so sailboat didn't have a anchorage inside the harbor.

Once we got into the harbor and anchored, we noticed a few more "significant" boats. How'd you like to own your own tug?  This baby is big - look at the anchored sailboat behind her. 

Or your own ship? (yes, check out the sailboat again)  Note her flag - that is a Bermuda flag.  Many, many big money yachts owned in the USA are registered in British colonies to avoid taxes. This baby is lit up tonight like a casino.

 Once you get to to town, you'll find cute, big, New England style B&B's.

But don't be confused - this B&B is filled with tourists from the mainland.  Most come over on the numerous ferries that run back and forth multiple times per day.  Some are "people" ferries; some carry cars and people.

And why are they all coming over? For the beaches, bars, and the shopping strip.

Not that we're complaining!  We love the place.  Today we wandered through the many shops, people watched, visited the beach, split a $15 clam dinner, had locally made ice cream, and visited the historical sites.  oh, and bought a few groceries. 

The weather today was good, but turned windy in the afternoon. Monday promises to be VERY windy, with thunderstorms.  We will wait it out here and hope to get to Onset, to position ourselves to time our scoot through the Cape Cod Canel to Provincetown.

We had only about  2 1/2 hours sleep each last night and a 2 hour nap this morning.  Time for bed!