Block Island Cruise

Constance went on a 4 day cruise to Block Island over the 4th of July holiday weekend! On board 6 crew which meant I had to take some stuff off the boat and also finally gave me a reason to adjust the size of the inset for the starboard settee to convert into a double bunk. Quite cozy with so many people onboard but we managed nicely, I think.

Passing through Plum Gut

We started off a little late at 7:30p but made it with remainder of the ebb tide through Plum Gut at 5a. Fabulous morning but then of course the wind died and it took us another 8 hours to make it in the Block Island Lagoon. Overall 20hrs to cover the 85 miles from Cedar Point to Block Island, incl about 5hrs of motoring. In the middle of the Block Island Sound Pat caught a big striped bass, which we invited to stay over for dinner :-)

Nice catch, Pat!

Block Island harbor was pretty crowded and there were no more moorings left, big surprise on a holiday weekend... So we anchored at the north eastern corner of the anchoring area, which works nicely with the shallow draft of the Tartan34C. I'm really happy with the holding quality of our 35lbs CQR anchor. Block Island is notorious for bad holding and I slipped here with Berni's boat before. Even though it was very crowded and quite windy the next day with the wind clocking around the whole compass, we never moved an inch.

Crowded dinghy dock in Block Island

Sunset with Dark & Stormies at the bar of "The Oar"

We stayed all Saturday, walking over the island to the Southern Cliffs. Quite a walk, but rewarded with a magnificent view and a cool splash into the crystal clear water! On the way back we indulged lobster rolls at the old harbor followed by the famous ice cream on main street. Great dinner on the boat with the backdrop of fireworks in our semi-secluded corner of the anchoring area.

Mohegan Cliffs

Next day we had start early to ride the flood tide through the Race back into the Long Island Sound. On the way back we got another (!) striped bass, this time he went for Berni's lure. Going through the Race was kind of eerie, the wind stopped as we entered the sound, but the water was churning like crazy. So engine on and towards the Connecticut shore. Tried to go inside long sand shoal to avoid the brunt of the outflowing tide, but in this case the tidal almanac is not correct, inside the shoal we had a ripping current of about 3-4kn against us vs 2kn supposedly outside. On top of that rain and dense fog set in. Time to get the boat washed down! Meanwhile Pat and I were entertaining other boats by using the Vuvuzelas as fog horns.

Rainy passage back to Connecticut

Finally made it into Clinton harbor, which has nice amenities including a pool and a harbor side restaurant. A little on the pricey side but we couldn't really eat any more striper! Getting into Clinton is a little bit tricky, it's basically up a little river that has tidal flats left and right. The channel is supposed to be changing every year and sure enough the GPS was showing us being  off the channel even though we were clearly within the markers! Good that we have a shallow draft with the center board up since the depth meter was showing 3ft something in the channel :-o
Next day was pleasant and uneventful sailing/motoring back to Westport where we settled for anchor beers at the Black Duck on swaying tables..