An Update from Newport Harbor

We are long overdue for an update on our summer cruising.

Currently, we are sitting on a city mooring in Newport. After waking up to a calm harbor this morning, the southwesterly sea breeze is starting to fill in now at about nine o’clock. While the town seems to be waking up a little slowly on this Monday morning, there is still loads of activity on the water with dinghies flitting about, the harbormaster making “bed checks” on all the transient moorings, lobstermen and the pilot boat going in and out, and the big luxury yachts arriving and departing endlessly. In just a bit, the day charters – 12 Meters, old schooners, and your regular rusty day boats – will start parading around the harbor full of tourists.

The view from our cockpit this morning and every morning here in Newport. We are right at the southern end of Goat Island with the channel to our port and, in the left of the picture, Ticonderoga of Greenwich off our stern.

This is the beginning of our sixth day in Newport, having come in last Wednesday from Bristol with my Mom aboard. We spent two days enjoying the city and the harbor with my folks before they headed back to Florida. Over the weekend, Margaret and I took in the Newport Folk Festival by dinghy and all the craziness involved with that, made a long tour of the harbor in the dinghy, spent time at the Seaman’s Church and Newport Maritime Center (two wonderfully welcoming places for cruisers), and meandered along the Cliff Walk, all while trying to squeeze in some work and boat chores. We were all set to leave yesterday, but Margaret’s hip, which had been giving her some issues all summer, really flared up. So, we extended our stay and she will be off to see a doctor today.

The plan from here is to head to Cuttyhunk, hopefully on Tuesday. After that we will be cruising Cape Cod, the Vineyard, and Nantucket until the middle of August when Margaret has to head back to Illinois for the start of the fall semester. At that point, I will be joined by an as yet to be named crew, and we will take Bear back to the Chesapeake to be hauled out for the season.

For those of you who have been following closely, you know that we had intended to cruise Maine this summer. For a variety of reasons – weather, boat issues, too many good ports along the way, etc. – we never made it that far. While we were disappointed, we have been enjoying the summer as we take our time exploring all these new places. And, we did get to Maine last weekend by car when we drove up to meet friends and explore Acadia. We were enthralled by the beauty and excited by the seemingly endless anchorages, which redoubled our determination to get to Maine next summer.

Atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP. Photo by the illustrious Shawn Duckworth.

We will undoubtedly be filling in the details of our summer and keeping you all updated on our cruising and future plans on the blog and Youtube. And we certainly hope you are all enjoying the summer as much as we are.