Rhode Island

Block Island, the “Bermuda of the North”

Block Island, Rhode Island is less than twenty miles from Montauk Harbor across Block Island Sound.  The island is shaped like a pork chop with Great Salt Pond nearly bisecting it.  A mile long and almost a mile wide, this is the favorite anchorage spot for the many boats that converge on Block Island from all directions.  In fact the Block Island website boasts dockage for over 400 boats, mooring space for 100 boats, and anchorage space for 1,000 boats.  When we arrived in the early afternoon of Thursday, August 11^th, I believe we were boat number 1,001 looking for an anchorage spot!!

  

Great Salt Pond was filled with innumerable sailboats and powerboats, the 154-foot luxury yacht Ohana, the 164-foot mega yacht Imagine, the 123-foot luxury yacht Muse, the Mystic Whaler, the American Cruise Line’s American Star, and the Montauk-Block Island high-speed ferry Viking Superstar to name just a few.  We struggled to find a place to drop our anchor with adequate swing room for little Lazy W.  After dropping/raising/dropping the hook several times we were finally satisfied with our little piece of the pond and confident enough to go ashore via dinghy.

Champlin’s Marina and Resort provides a long finger pier for dinghy dockage.  We squeezed ours in and walked the docks thinking maybe we would have been better off springing for a slip at the marina.  Well the situation here was incredibly tight – It reminded us of Annapolis at boat show time!  Boats were docked gunwale to gunwale, bow to stern – and for this they were being charged $4.50/foot + $25 for electric!! 

The “parking lot” at Champlin’s Marina and Resort

Among the few small storefronts at Champlin’s Marina is Aldo’s Bakery.  Aldo’s Bakery looks like any other small town bakery/ice cream shop (except for the price of a single scoop cone - $4.25) but it provides a very unique service for the boaters crammed into Great Salt Pond – early morning and late afternoon delivery of fresh baked goods and sweets right to your boat via Boston Whaler!  Twice a day the rotund delivery man, accompanied by a teenage assistant, shouts “Andiamo! Andiamo!”  signaling his arrival amid the anchored boats.  Flag him down and chose from a variety of goodies.  It is quite reminiscent of the Caribbean where the locals swarm about the boats peddling their wares but with one big difference – Aldo’s is much cleaner, more upscale and much less aggressive!

Aldo’s Bakery peddling baked goods in Great Salt Pond

the morning after most boats had the good sense to get out of the rain

The weather was picture perfect with temperatures in the 70’s, about 10 degrees cooler than mainland Rhode Island.  And while the moon that evening was too bright for stargazing, it was quite a sight to see all the boats’ anchor lights glowing against the darkening sky.

 

The best way to get from New Harbor (Great Salt Pond) to Old Harbor is by bike.  Getting our bikes on the dinghy would entail a precarious balancing act on our part so we opted to rent two bikes from Champlin’s Marina instead.  The young man in charge of bike and moped rentals was an exchange student from Macedonia who assured us that no point on the island is more than a twenty minute bike ride away. 

The shore side of Water Street in Old Harbor is lined with old but well-maintained Victorian hotels, shops that sell all things Block Island, restaurants and dozens of bike/moped rental kiosks.  We window shopped and clambered along the seawall for spectacular seascape views. And then the ferries from Connecticut and Rhode Island arrived at the docks of Old Harbor and disgorged their hundreds of tourists.  Suddenly the streets were brimming with folks of all ages wobbling along on rented bicycles vying with mopeds, taxis and delivery trucks for space on the crowded road. It was time to get out of town.

A ferry arrives in Old Harbor

 Southeast Lighthouse, one of two lighthouses on Block Island, was built in 1873.  It sits high atop Mohegan Bluffs and is said to be the brightest lighthouse on the Atlantic seaboard.  The bike ride from Old Harbor was all uphill and the pedaling was made more difficult than it should have been when the seat on my rented bike kept slipping downward.  Frank managed to tighten it and we finally made it to the picturesque lighthouse.

Block Island’s Southeast Lighthouse

Despite what our friend Jim Lancaster told us about every destination on the island “being uphill both ways,” the ride back to Champlin’s was mostly downhill but with a strong headwind.  We rewarded ourselves with lobster rolls at the Dockside Restaurant served to us by another exchange student from Macedonia.

As we were anchored in Great Salt Pond it became evident that we were beginning to experience electrical issues aboard Lazy W.  When Lazy W is docked at a marina, she is plugged into a power pedestal and all her electrical needs are met by the power company that supplies all landlubbers.  But when she is at anchor her electrical needs are met by a bank of two powerful house batteries.  These batteries are recharged when we are underway (just like the battery in a car) or by the generator and battery charger when we are at anchor for extended periods.  Running the battery charger twice a day for about two hours had been adequate for keeping the batteries at the desired voltage – until now!  The batteries were obviously nearing the end of their useful life and required recharging every few hours.  Without adequately charged batteries the refrigerator and lights would not be available for use.  These batteries are also used for starting Lazy W’s engines so it is really important that they be charged!  After much troubleshooting and phone calls, Frank located a source for new batteries in Providence, RI.  We endured two days of foul weather in Great Salt Pond before making our move to Brewer Yacht Yard’s Greenwich Bay Marina.

The best known attraction on Narragansett Bay may be Newport, Rhode Island.  But for us the best attraction would be Northeast Battery in Providence!  Narragansett Bay stretches eighteen miles from its entrance on Rhode Island Sound to the mouth of the Providence River; the state capital of Providence is another seven miles upriver.  We decided to cruise up the West Passage of the bay past Conanicut Island and Prudence Island to Greenwich Bay, tie Lazy W up at Greenwich Bay Marina and rent a car for the drive to Providence.

 Rhode Island coastline along Narragansett Bay

Dutch Island Light on Narragansett Bay

 

I neglected to mention that the house batteries are about the size of a small microwave, weigh about 150 pounds each, and are stored in a box in the engine room under the salon floor.  The ornery Captain was determined to prove that he could offload the drained batteries and reload the new ones without any help.  In a way that was a good thing because I certainly had no intention of getting involved with this potential fiasco.  However, if by chance, the Captain injured himself in the process, I would be the one to take care of him.  I warned him not to press his luck as nurse Barbara might not be as pleasant as she was last summer when he broke his ankle.  Nevertheless he persevered and, with the help of a strong back, dogged determination, and some creative rope/knot tying, he was able to heft the first acid-sloshing battery off the boat and into the back of the rented Nissan Cube.  We were off to Providence.  (Only the first of the two batteries made that trip to Northeast Battery as we wanted to be sure that the new ones were a perfect size match before hassling with the second one.)

Paul at Northeast Battery greeted us by name as we entered his storefront and before long the Nissan Cube was loaded with two new batteries at a cost of $700 – ouch, ouch, ouch!

Now that Frank had proven that he could singlehandedly wrestle with the batteries, he seemed more amenable to enlisting some help for the remainder of the process.  Troy, an able bodied guy from Brewer Yacht Yard, was willing to assist and the installation went smoothly.  With the second drained battery now in the Cube, we returned to Providence.

Since dockage rates are so steep in tony Newport we left Lazy W with her brand new house batteries in more-modestly priced Greenwich Bay and drove 25 miles to Newport.  Just as we missed seeing Billy Joel on Shelter Island and Madonna in Sag Harbor, we missed meeting Peg Morin in Newport by a week - such poor timing!

 Newport Harbor

Newport was the summer social capital of the nation during the Gilded Age (1865-1914).  The families who built ostentatious summer houses in this coastal city were leaders in national life amassing great industrial fortunes while influencing all aspects of American art, architecture, diplomacy, and business.  The Preservation Society of Newport County is the custodian of eleven of these historic properties with the goal of preserving and protecting Newport’s architectural heritage.  Some estates are still privately owned; others were bequeathed to educational institutions as is the case with Ochre Court.

Salve Regina University sits along Cliff Walk, a 3.5 mile walkway that hugs the rocky shore of Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.  Many of the great mansions of the Gilded Age were built here to take advantage of the beautiful water views.  Ogden Goelet, a noted banker, real estate investor and competitive yachtsmen, gifted his mansion in 1947 to the Religious Sisters of Mercy and Ochre Court is now the centerpiece of Salve Regina University, housing many administrative offices.  The campus is comprised of seven contiguous 19^th century estates with 21 historic Gilded Age buildings.

Ochre Court, Salve Regina University

The grandest of Newport’s summer ‘cottages’ is The Breakers built by the Vanderbilt family  whose fortune was made in steamships and the New York Central Railroad, both of which played a pivotal role in the industrial growth of the United States in the late 19^th century.  In 1893 Cornelius Vanderbilt II commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt (who also designed the base for the Statue of Liberty) to design a seventy room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo inspired by the palaces of Genoa and Turin.  The 138,000 square foot mansion with a 2-1/2 story Great Hall, a Morning Room with platinum leaf wall panels, a billiards room with thick marble walls, 300 windows, 750 door knobs, 15 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, innumerable Baccarat crystal chandeliers and wall sconces, and an overabundance of relief sculptures of cherubs, oak leaves and acorns took just two years to build and decorate.  Of course some of the rooms were designed and built in France, disassembled and shipped to Newport, where they were then fitted into the mansion!  We toured The Breakers and gawked in disbelief at the ornate decor before strolling back along the Cliff Walk to Narragansett Avenue and our humble rental car.

The Breakers

 We worked up quite an appetite and decided to have lunch at The Landing Restaurant on Bowen’s Wharf.  What a great place – not only did they offer wonderful views of the activity out in Newport Harbor but the clam chowder and seafood salad were outstanding.  Afterwards we roamed through Aquidneck Lobster to watch the lobstermen unload their tasty catch. 

Lobster Meat - $38/lb

We ended our day in Newport with a drive along Scenic Ocean Drive.  We were expecting to see dramatic ocean views but, for the most part, the views of the ocean were obscured by the large homes perched on the rocky shore.

After returning the rental car to Enterprise we bid farewell to Greenwich Bay Marina and headed northeast to Bristol Harbor.  Nestled between Popasquash Neck and Bristol Neck, the harbor had developed a considerable chop in the stiff afternoon southwesterly wind.  The closely moored boats rocked in a wild rhythm leaving little room for Lazy W.   Not relishing the thought of a rough night on the hook in such close quarters, we decided to check out Potter Cove, three miles southwest on the northern end of Prudence Island.  The water here was much calmer but unfortunately it was littered by unattended private mooring balls.  The fine for unauthorized use was reportedly $50.  Just outside the cove we found suitable space free of mooring balls and we settled in for the evening.

The Herreshoff Brothers, Nathanael and blind older brother John, started building boats in the town of Bristol in 1878.  Over the next seventy years the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company produced over 2,400 boats.  They only built boats of their own design and every part that went into the boat – anchors, cleats, engines, sails, etc. – was made on site.  The manufacturing campus is now home to the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame.  High speed launches, the U.S. Navy’s first torpedo boats Lightning and Stiletto, the catboat Sprite, the cruising yawl Belisarius are all on display along with hundreds of photos and memorabilia outlining the many accomplishments of the Herrreshoffs.   One of their most well-known accomplishments was the designing and building of seven successful America’s Cup defenders between 1893 and 1934, including 1903’s defender Reliance and 1992’s defender Defiant. 

 Defiant at the Herreshoff Marine Museum

The tree-lined streets of Bristol are bound by Federal-period stone building and 19^th century homes lovingly maintained and used today as the town hall and visitor center, shops, restaurants and art galleries.  The center line running down High Street and Hope Street is painted a patriotic red, white and blue, marking the route of what is billed as the nation’s oldest Fourth of July parade.  (This year’s parade was #226.) 

 

After pizza at Bristol’s House of Pizza we strolled back to the dinghy dock where our dinghy was being battered by the wind and slamming into the wooden decking.  As happens each afternoon on Narragansett Bay, the prevailing southwesterlies were strengthening and the 1-2 foot waves, so benign from the deck of Lazy W, were poised to crash over the low-lying dinghy.  Oh well, it’s only water, salty water!  By the time we zigzagged through a sailboat race or two and pounded over the choppy waves back to Potter Cove, we and the dinghy were crusty form the salt spray.  Cocktail time!

For a change of scenery and better shelter from forecasted winds of 20+ knots) and heavy rain) we moved from Potter Cove to Kickamuit River where we spent another day on the hook.  From here Lazy W was just a few short miles from the Rhode Island/Massachusetts state line.  We thought that we might poke our bow over the line just to say we had cruised as far as Massachusetts.  The next day’s 3-5 foot seas on Rhode Island Sound kept these fair weather boaters on Narragansett Bay for another day.  So why not visit Fall River, MA?

Battleship Cove is dominated by the 608-foot battleship USS Massachusetts.  The museum headquartered here maintains fourteen mooring balls for visiting boaters and on this day they were all reserved for an incoming yacht club!  A skimpy anchorage area was bordered on two sides by menacing stone walls.  Oh well, a visit to the hometown of infamous Lizzie Borden (Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41) was not happening today.

Onward!  We proceeded south on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay passing Newport bound for our last possible anchorage on the bay – Mackerel Cove on Conanicut Island.  We did not want to venture out into Rhode Island Sound as the waves were running 3-5 feet.

Rose Island Light near Newport

We arrived at Mackerel Cove with some trepidation because none of our cruising guides mention anchoring here.   The long finger-like cove had many fine looking homes nestled among the trees high atop the rocky shore and a sandy beach at its far northern end. 

 At the entrance to Mackerel Cove

Throughout the afternoon we marveled at our good fortune to have found such a beautiful place to spend the night.  At one point in the day an impressive sailboat shared the cove with Lazy W.

 

At anchor in Mackerel Cove

As dusk approached the winds shifted.  Lazy W swung gently around and now the incoming waves from Rhode Island Sound buffeted our beam!  This rockin’ and rollin’ would continue throughout the night.  We now knew why this pretty cove was not recommended by any of the cruising guides – its mouth was wide open to Rhode Island Sound!

The morning of August 23^rd was a pleasantly cool  59°. We pulled up anchor and headed to our last stop in Rhode Island – Point Judith.  We had been told that this was the place to stop for the cheapest diesel fuel in New England.  Yesterday’s rough seas on Rhode Island Sound had diminished to gentle rollers and we could not have asked for a more gorgeous day to be cruising.

Fishing on Rhode Island Sound

Point Judith Light

Point Judith is home to one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in New England and the Block Island ferry terminal.  Once inside the massive breakwater which creates the Harbor of Refuge, the channel runs between the villages of Galilee and Jerusalem; we turned to port and dropped over $1,000 on fuel in Galilee!  Then after spending four days on the hook we took a slip in Point Judith Marina for our last night in Rhode Island.