The Adventures of Solstice

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The trip south -- RI to NY

Well we are done with the first leg of the trip. Our first stop after leaving RI was Mystic Connecticut. They have a great seafaring/shipbuilding museum there, and of course we did have a highly overrated "slice of heaven" at Mystic Pizza. I imagine that place sells more t-shirts and hats than they do pizza. As I recall the movie that was filmed there (also called "Mystic Pizza") wasn't anything to write home about either, although it did star Julia Roberts before

she hit the big time. After the pizza and Seaport museum we headed back to the boat and on to another small highlight of the day -- shore showers. Those of you who live at home connected to a virtually limitless supply of freshwater cannot know how truly lucky you are. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind showering on the boat. In fact we have a very pleasant setup with a separate shower and plenty of hot water. But because we don't want to waste water, taking a shower on board consists of a cycle of turning the water on to get wet, turning the water off to lather up, and then rinsing and repeating. In normal temperatures it's no big deal, but now that we are well into fall, those precious few minutes when the water is off seems like an eternity in a very cold hell. So needless to say, I like shore showers because I can let the water run and be the truly wasteful American that I was born to be. I told Kevin that it felt like I not only washed the dirt off but I also washed my sins away.

Our next stop was Port Jefferson which is only memorable because we came into the port and anchored after dark (our first time trying to navigate based on little red and green flashing lights alone). There were moments of stress but obviously it went okay because we are still here to tell the tale, right? After that it was a couple days in Oyster Bay where we toured the home of Teddy Roosevelt. Let's just say that Teddy liked to kill stuff. A lot. There were dozens of heads, trophies, tusks, skins, in every room of the house, even the kids rooms -- no joke. It made for an interesting tour, but I don't think I could live in a house with all those glass eyes staring me down all the time.

We then spent a night at City Island and waited for the tide the next morning to take us into New York City. We rode the tide down the East River, right past La Guardia, Rikers Island Prison, through Hell Gate, past the UN building, under the Brooklyn Bridge and up into the Hudson River. And of course not only do you have to navigate but you also have to dodge all the ferries and water taxis and tugs with garbage barges etc. It wasn't as nerve wracking as the first time we went through (in May) but we did have to pay close attention. We picked up a mooring at the 79th St. Boat Basin which is on the Hudson at, you guessed it, 79th Street. It was a mile walk to the middle of Central Park, and the subway was just a few blocks from where we were anchored. Plus it was only $30/night. Can't beat that right? We walked till our feet ached, and then walked some more. Surprisingly we ran into my boss from Starwood in line for the Empire State building (what are the odds? small world.). The weather put a huge damper on our trip though. Record rains and windy conditions forced us to stay on the boat several days (it was too

risky to attempt to go to shore with the winds and the Hudson current. We quickly found out why the mooring only cost $30 a night!). But in the end we got to see all the major sights and didn't miss out on too much. The highlight of our whole trip by far was getting to see Brooke and Tom on Thursday. I haven't seen anyone from my family since July and with the weather so bad my spirits were pretty low. So even though it was only for a couple of hours, spending time with them was like a little slice of home. Thanks Brooke and Tom for cheering me up!

All in all, New York was a great place despite the rain. I don't mind a little rain, but I sure hope it doesn't decide to rain that hard every time we hit a tourist town. Ironically we are now in New Jersey where we don't particularly have any desire to see anything ashore and it has been as sunny as can be. Hardly a cloud in the sky! But set one foot in the tourist mecca of New York and the sky opens up, dumping record rains by the bucketful. Guess Mother Nature really is fickle.

Our plans are to get to the Chesapeake (Annapolis) by early next week. Can't wait to see Carrie and Dan, Judy and Jim, and George W. and Laura (j.k.). I hope everything is going well for everyone, keep in touch!

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Mahthah's Vineyud

We have been having an interesting week, weather-wise. It was rainy on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday was extremely windy (35 mph) as we felt the remains of hurricane Katrina. Luckily our marina is really well protected and we were tied up at the dock during the windstorm.

Last week we had a wonderful, long trip away from the dock. We finally left Rhode Island, even. But I get ahead of myself.

Last Monday, spur of the moment, Kevin said that the weather was going to be good all week and we should take a trip to Martha's Vineyard. The next day we set off and after motoring for 2 hours (no wind) we ended up in Bristol, RI. It's a big-time sailing town, they have a huge Museum dedicated to the old time America's cup winners (from way back in the early part of the

1900's). We stayed there one night and explored a bit of the town (great pubs), then the next day we set off down the Sakonnet River. Nothing very eventful, we anchored among the vineyards and spent a peaceful night.

The following morning, it was on to Massachusetts! It was a good wind and we got some good sailing in. We reached Cuttyhunk in the early afternoon (Cuttyhunk...it's fun to say, try saying it five times really fast). Cuttyhunk is supposed to be this wonderful place, but I thought it was a little overrated. It's basically a small island (you can climb to the top of a hill and see ocean on all sides) with little to appeal to the average tourist. If you like nature and hikes though, it was kind of pretty. But the settlers back in the 1600's chopped down all the trees to build stuff so it's mostly scrub. They have a tiny school (2 students!) and one or two restaurants. Everyone drives around on golf carts or ATV's!

Anyway the next day we motored to Martha's Vineyard (again, no wind...how fickle is Mother

Nature!) We had four choices of where to stay with the boat: Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, or Gayhead (okay, they've changed the name to the native american "Aquinnah", but I just like saying "Gayhead" better. Gayhead! Gayhead!). We took a chance on Oak Bluffs and it turned out to be the best decision we could've made. Oak Bluffs has a TINY harbor and you are not allowed to anchor there, but you are required to pick up a mooring. They only have 50 moorings available but they sure know how to pack them in! They require you to "raft", meaning that if you pick up the mooring first, at any time another boat can come alongside you and tie up to your boat (up to 4 boats per mooring). And the people in Oak Bluffs aren't stupid, they charge all the boats the same rate so that even if you have to share a mooring, you still pay full price and so does the other guy. Anyway because our boat is wide we were only "rafted" on one side -- on Friday night it was a yuppie powerboat family and on Saturday night an "old salt" sailboat with an older couple. Both were nice experiences, it kind of forces you to be friendly since it's like you are all sharing a boat for the night.

But anyway, tiny harbor and having to share the mooring aside, Oak Bluffs was the best part of the trip by far! The town got its start back in the 1800's as a Methodist revival camp. They would go there once a year and set up tents and get saved. As time evolved, people started building tiny "tent-houses" on their parcel of land, all crammed in right next to their neighbor.

Then, with the invention of the jigsaw, all these tiny houses were decorated with this fancy trimwork and started giving the impression of gingerbread. They painted them whimsical colors and gave them names like "Heartsease" and "Valentine". I was completely overwhelmed when we started walking around and realized that it wasn't just one street, but that there were 300 of these little houses all clustered together on these narrow streets. Kevin and I felt like we were in some kind of Disneyland attraction. Kevin joked that whoever ran the paint store on the island must be rolling in dough. You'll have to look at the pictures to really get an idea, but if you are ever on Martha's Vineyard it is a "must see".

The rest of the island was very quaint. The other good town, Edgartown, was more swanky. This was where all the old whaling captains built their mansions. In contrast to the crayola colors of Oak Bluffs, most of the buildings here were painted white (that paint guy really has a good thing going) and meticulously maintained. The homes are all stately and very posh, and most of the shops were pretty upscale. It was a pretty town, and most tourists stay there but I preferred the kitschy charm of Oak Bluffs.

It took us four days of sailing/motoring to get to "the Vineyard". and we had hoped to go on to Nantucket and Hyannis Port (c'mon, say it like a Kennedy, you know you want to!) but unfortunately weather got in the way. On Saturday night we checked the forecast and it

predicted bad weather starting Monday. So we had one day to get as close to our home port as possible. Sunday was a beautiful sailing day and we got an early start. We had hoped to get 1/2way home but the wind was so good we ended up sailing the entire way (57 miles). We left Martha's Vineyard at 8:30 and were safely at our dock in Warwick by 6pm. We have pictures posted on the web if you want to check them out: http://photobucket.com/albums/b186/solsticecatamaran/

Geez, sorry I always write a book, hope my travelogues aren't too boring! In other news, Kevin grew a great fuzzy beard in 3 weeks (but shaved it off yesterday without telling me). Hopefully you can see it in the pictures, though. We are looking forward to having Carrie and Dan out this weekend, the weather is supposed to be fine with a nice cool North wind.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Narragansett Bay, RI

So a lot has happened since I last sent out photos. We've had several visitors, and sailed around most of Narragansett Bay.

First Sheelagh and Kathy came to stay with us. It was great to hear all about their around-the-world travels. Plus they were fantastic at the boardgame Taboo! Then Desiree brought lobster and steamers and we had a nice weekend hanging out in an anchorage called Potter Cove. And last weekend Jamie came out and we braved the pea soup fog to get to Block Island. We had Bahama Mamas on the beach and took a taxi tour (right past Christopher Walken's house).

It's been nice having so many people come out to the boat -- in between guests, we have been honing our sailing skills, Kevin has been working on our backlog of maintenance tasks, and I've been learning to cook. Even Boris is enjoying life on the boat (when it's not in motion, of course).

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Newport, RI

Ahoy!
Here we are finally at the boat. My parents spent the last week with us and we had quite an adventure. The day before my parents arrived, Kevin and I took the boat out on a shakedown cruise to find out if everything worked okay. We took a quick two hour sail around Warwick point in Narragansett Bay and everything worked like a charm. That is until we started the engines again to come back in. Our port (left) engine had a huge leak and spewed oil all over the engine room. So we had to come in with only one engine, luckily Captain Kevin’s deft maneuvering got us safely docked.

Then the wait began. Those of you who own homes know that home repair guys never show up on time. Well sometimes with boats they never show up at all. Of course our “accident” happened the day before 4th of July, so no mechanics were available the first 2 days, but then we waited until Wednesday night for the guy to show up and he never did. (Meanwhile my

parents arrived and we had a birthday party on Wed for my stepmom Donna). Frustrated with the no-show mechanic, Kevin decided to just fix our engine himself, and he and my Dad plugged the hole with a stainless steel threaded plug. We ran the engine and the repair held, so off we sailed the next day (Thursday) for Newport, RI.

We got into Newport around 2pm and picked up a mooring (like anchoring, only everything’s already set up and you don’t have to use your own anchor, just tie the line onto your boat). We went into town and decided to do the “Cliff Walk” which is a famous tourist attraction – it’s a walkway along the ocean where all the rich and famous built their summer cottages back in the 1880’s. And they use the term “cottage” very loosely, these are palaces. However, the Cliff Walk soon became the “Mansion March of Death” as we realized that the best houses were at the end of a 3 mile hike, and we had already walked almost that far just to get to the start of the Cliff Walk. By the time we arrived at the Breakers (the Vanderbilt mansion), it was 5pm and it was already closed, so we marched right back into town to the nearest Pub, and then back to the boat where we ended up watching CSI. The next day the forecast was pretty bad, gusty winds and lots and lots of rain and fog later in the day, so rather than spending a second day in Newport and trying to walk around in the rain, we decided to motor back to our dock in Warwick. It was pretty clear when we left and we missed the worst of the weather, my Dad was at the helm for most of the trip and that was pretty cool. It continued to pour on us on Friday night, but by Saturday morning the weather turned better, so we rented a car and drove to Newport (renting a car for the day was actually cheaper than picking up a mooring at $45/night). This time we made it before closing time and took the Breakers tour – the Vanderbilts really knew how to spend their money. Everything was gold leaf this and Tiffany that…even their children had a playhouse as big as my house back home!

We then drove along the coast admiring the views, and we saw hundreds of kites in the distance and decided to check it out. It was apparently a huge kite festival and there were all shapes, sizes

and colors. The wind was just right and there were some amazing looking kites, I’m not sure if my pictures do it justice. So we sat on the grass awhile and just enjoyed the day. So it’s Sunday now and we dropped my parents off at the airport this morning. The boat is cleaned up and we leave tomorrow morning for Phoenix. We’ll be in Phoenix a few days tying up loose ends, and then we’ll drive out here in Kevin’s car. Hopefully we’ll see a few of you guys while we’re there.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Recent Photos Slideshow

Note: Click on photos to see photo descriptions

Monday, April 30, 2001

Where We've Been