We've arrived in Newport, Rhode Island

We arrived in Newport, RI on Wednesday afternoon, June 20, 125 hours after leaving Bermuda.  This passage was the antithesis of our sail to Bermuda.  Our sail to Bermuda was marked by extremely cloudy skies with one sunny day; our trip to Newport was full of sunny days and starry nights with just one morning of dense fog.  On the way to Bermuda we had moderate winds from abeam and the appropriate waves to go along with them; on the way to Newport we had mostly light winds and unusually comfortable low seas.  During our trip to Bermuda we sailed 115 hours and motor-sailed 28 hours; during our trip to Newport we sailed 40 hours and motor-sailed about 85 hours.  We were in radio range of several sailboats on the way to Bermuda but we sailed alone to Newport.  This time we didn’t have any weather buddies; too bad, because our sat phone and computer wouldn’t interface so we couldn’t receive grib files (or send and receive emails) while underway.  We could still listen to Herb though, and hear about our continued humdrum winds.  So, altogether we ended up having an extremely quiet, sunny, and relaxing 5 day trip…much more like hanging out at the beach than crossing the Atlantic!

Of course the most significant difference was having a third person along.  It was great having Emily aboard.  Its just amazing how much better it is to get 6 hours of sleep at a time rather than 3 hours.  At the journey’s end we feel downright refreshed.  Originally I thought the space might be a little too cramped and there would just be too much sitting-around time for the three of us, but I don’t believe we ever got on each other’s nerves; the extravagant amount of sleep we were getting probably fostered our good moods.  We also discovered something interesting about Emily…at the beginning of the trip she listed off the things she wanted to see, like Reinhart catching a fish, lots of porpoises & whales, and she even joked about a shark.  We thought that was funny, because Reinhart rarely has any luck with fish and we haven’t seen a whale since last August, and we’ve never seen a shark and wouldn’t expect to.  What do you know, Reinhart caught a tuna the second day out and we saw pods of pilot whales and of course the ubiquitous porpoises on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning a fin swam right up to Maia and Emily and I are both pretty sure it was a shark since it didn’t behave very porpoisey and seemed downright sharky; Reinhart would like it to be on record that he did not witness this and thinks it was probably a porpoise (was not).  We told Emily she should add “winning lottery ticket” to her list of things she’d like to see just in case she is on a roll! 

Now we are anchored in Newport’s crowded harbor (N41 28.79 W71 19.30).  The boat was easy to clean up with Emily’s help and Maia is once again a pleasant home rather than a clammy cramped boat.  We even feel at home here in Newport, which is possibly yachtiest place we’ve been.  Yes, we’ve been places with larger and more numerous yachts, but Newport is just thick with the distinguished America’s Cup atmosphere. We had a pleasant dinner in the cockpit watching the racing sailboats make their way back into port with a striking sunset in the background.  We didn’t expect to have wifi at this anchorage, since we are anchored off a little further away from town than usual, so we were thrilled to find we have enough of a signal to send and receive emails.  This blog entry will probably be published via email, so it probably looks a little funky.  We’ll be going to shore before noon today (Thursday) when a customs and immigration officer can meet us at the dock, so we can clear back into the US and start our exploration of this stately port town.  We eagerly awaiting Kris Buttenberg’s arrival tonight and looking forward to spending a lot of time with him.