Tues June 22: Newport to Block Island RI mooring ball

 In which we learn about our limits ...

Morning skies were clear, and we decided that we would cruise over to Block Island despite a forecast for large-ish waves.  We aren't going to know our limits unless we experience some wave variation. We stopped by the water dock to fill our tanks with fresh water and then headed out into the bay, blowing our horn all the way at the big yachts.  We wanted them to know that Blue Horizon her big bad self was exiting the harbor. 

 

Saw this beauty on the way out of the harbor - I bet she is FAST.  But Blue Horizon has a good personality, and body positivity, so there.

Block Island sits about 24 miles off the coast between the east end of Long Island and Martha’s Vineyard. It is a prime location for sailing and fishing, and has a perfect harbor that can hold hundreds of boats.  As we cruised out of the Newport Hahbah (as the harbor master called it) one of the boats moored near us called us to warn that it was Race Week on Block island.  That sounded ominous - what does that mean?  No mooring balls, dodging sailboats, what???  Given Rick’s new less-anxious state of mind we decided to go find out.

Route for the day.

 

Well - it turns out that exact combination of wave height/periods was my limit. The ride over to the island was uncomfortable, with waves of about 4 feet with a cross chop wave that made the ride both rolly and bouncy (these are technical yachting terms that mean puke-inducing).  Fortunately the day cleared up so at least I wasn't getting rained on while I tried not to throw up.

We cruised out of Narraganset Bay, past Judith Point and into Block Island Sound.

 

I loved the more wild feel of the island!

In the distance we could see what looked like tall buildings on the horizon. As we got closer, using the binoculars, we could see they were many many sailboats.  Eventually we got close enough to to realize that we were seeing a race from the aforementioned Race Week.  We could see all kinds of sails and Rick lost count when he got above 100.  Later we learned that there were about 160 boats at the island, racing from Monday to Friday, some of them top tier world racers.  What an incredible thing to see. It even distracted me for the last bit of the bounce.

The race was a bit off to the south so we were able to skirt the course and enter the harbor where we easily found a mooring ball, tied up and promptly took a nap.  Even after the nap I couldn't shake the nausea, so we took a rain check on seeing Cathy/Curt - who had taken the ferry over.

We stayed on the boat watching the sleek predatory racers come in, and caught up on where our friends are:

The majority of Loopers will try to finish the loop this year, or at least get through the great lakes.  So you can see them all lined up on the way through NY, or on the Hudson and Erie canals.  Looks like there are at least 6 of us turtles over here in LIS, though.

 By sunset I was feeling better and ready for the next adventure.

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