TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

As much as we like Norfolk, when we motor/sailed out of the harbor and passed the naval dockyards on Sunday morning, we were not sorry to leave behind the forest-fire smoke that had drifted around us for the last 10 days.  We planned to sail over several days and nights from Norfolk to Block Island, Rhode Island (a new state for both of us), which is just east of Long Island, NY.  With a wary eye out for commercial shipping and leaving the Chesapeake Bay to our north for another trip, we sailed (enjoying confidence in our new mainsail) out to sea passed CapeCharles. We turned northeast to sail overnight with the following wind just on our jib.  The next day, seas were choppy and with a lightening wind the going was rather bouncy.  Towards the end of the day, the dinghy broke loose from her towing lines but luckily I was watching it at the time so we were able to rescue it.  But it was clear that being towed for so long was not working out so we headed to Lewes, Delaware, to hoist it up on the deck under calmer conditions.  We (mostly Randall) had to motor slowly overnight through a fierce thunderstorm (to the accompaniment of emergency warnings on the weather radio) to get to Lewes but everything held together and we avoided being struck by lightning.  We were lucky to get a place on the city dock when we got to Lewes – right where we had stayed the previous year.  They are making progress on huge waterfront renovations (we walked around the beginning of them last time) which will be very nice when finished next year.  Of course, this meant that the docking fees had increased.  But we decided that it was worth spending a couple of nights there during which time we hoisted the dinghy up on the fore-deck and, still needing a suitable–sized motor mount, we temporarily stored the outboard in the fore-cabin.  Between my morning jogs and a long bicycle ride we explored most of the town which is quite a charming place with a very active Historical Society.  On Wednesday night I planned a “mystery-date” (one person organizes everything and just tells the other what to wear and when to be ready) that included dinner on-board followed by a visit to the last night of the Chautauqua (adult education program) being held at the Historical Society facility and including an acoustic rock duo, and a very educational play about the life of jazz musician Clifford Brown (a native of Delaware). We started sailing for Block Island again on Thursday June 26 but eventually had to motor as the wind dropped and eventually the seas turned glassy!  Not good for sailing but easier to look for whales and eventually our patience was rewarded by seeing one cruising along periodically breaking the surface with its long black back and far-back dorsal fin.  Our view was not good enough for a positive identification of the type of whale (I’m hoping it was a Minke) but it was encouraging nonetheless.  On leaving Lewes a pair of ospreys flying surprisingly far off-shore came towards our boat and one tried to land on the bobbing mast.  Given the wind vane, radio antenna, mast-light, etc, up there, I am not sorry that it failed in the attempt and then left us alone, but it was an odd thing to see from below.  We became familiar with gannets, black-capped petrels, and although usually seen singly or in pairs, I witnessed a whole flock of Wilson’s storm petrels appearing to “walk-on-water”.  A characteristic behavior for these small, dark seabirds, the seemed to suggest a troupe of young ballet students on hot coals!  At night-time we were treated to bioluminescence in the boat’s wake, appearing in small discrete balls rather than the long trails of the tropical climes. The more depressing observations were of floating trash including various buckets and an astonishingly large number of mylar balloons.  There were places off the Long Island coast where there seemed to be a trail of these balloons marking our route, at least every couple of miles.  Considering we were just following a pre-determined heading, it was positively eerie…or shocking to think how many more balloons we didn’t see spread out over the sea. We arrived at Block Island on Saturday June 28th in fog (very typical for the area and time of year) and anchored for four nights among hundreds of other anchored or moored boats (summer weekends can see over 1,200 boats).  The island is 6×3 miles in the shape of a lamb chop with the Great Salt Pond in the middle which is a very sheltered and popular anchorage.  Being only 12 miles from the Rhode Island mainland it is a popular weekend destination and there were also many boats from nearby New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.  The rather unappealing name was in recognition of the first (recorded) European landing of a Dutch trader (Adriaen Block) in 1614.  The Native American name of Manisses (meaning “Island of Little God”) seems much more imaginative.  Randall was particularly excited to visit the island as it is well known with mariners who have taken the US Coastguard’s Captain’s license exam, being featured on the charts used in the navigation tests. Winds picked up to a brisk 20+ knots on Sunday and most of Monday so we stayed aboard and caught up with some boat tasks.  A huge cell-phone tower on the horizon provided good internet coverage, but despite the good winds, mostly bright skies, and having motored for so long, power supply on the boat was not overwhelming, curtailing our online time and making us wonder if everything was charging the batteries properly… On Tuesday, we took our fold-up bikes ashore in the inflatable and had a fun day exploring the island.  This included visiting the Southeast Lighthouse National Historic Landmark, a brick structure that in 1993 was moved inshore 250 ft from its precarious position on the eroding cliffs.  This was featured on a PBS TV show which Randall had seen some time ago.  We also climbed down and up the 150 stairs in The Nature Conservancy’s Mohegan Bluffs preserve.  This provided a very impressive view of the natural cliff erosion and an opportunity for me to re-live my childhood memories of splashing about in tidal rock-pools.  After fish and chips in OldHarbor, I cycled out to the northern point of the island, Cow Cove, where early European settlers and their livestock had swum ashore (lacking a suitable harbor) while Randall contemplated the high cost of a glass of beer.  The busy anchorage is serviced by a pump-out boat (free to encourage responsible waste management), trash collection boats ($2 a bag but there are few opportunities onshore), and a heartily announced bakery boat (from which we partook a couple of times – brownies to die for!)