Heading South - One of our best sails Long Island Sound

Sailing in Long Island Sound

We had a great last night in Newport. We had been keen to try Scales restaurant since we were in Newport last time as many locals has recommended it. We grabbed a spot at the bar for a cocktail and some Oysters and were delighted when we were served by James who we met at such a fun night out in Bristol back in July – James remembered us immediately and gave us a big hug and then shucked us some amazing Oysters. We met up with Will and his lovely wife Kristen to thank them for their support and friendship while we have been in New England and managed to just get on the last launch back to the boat after a few too many ‘just one more drinks’. I have a feeling we will see these guys again – I really hope so!

Me with Kristen and Will - one of Oyster Yachts finest

Yachts in Newport....

 A little jaded the next morning we sailed out of Newport in a gentle breeze before the wind dropped and we had to motor the last few miles to Block Island. As we approached Block a huge pod of Dolphins came to visit and played on the bow for ages, we could hear them chatting – a real treat as most of the dolphins we have seen in New England have just past us by.

Dolphins off Block Island

Block sits about 20 miles off the coast just south of Newport and is a summer playground with lively bars, beautiful sandy beaches, bike trails, great fishing and a lovely protected anchorage inside a lagoon. It has long been on our list of destinations and hearing from Supertramp that they were waiting for us to arrive was just the tonic we needed to put our boat yard time behind us and schedule a BBQ on board Askari that night. We spent two lovely calm nights at anchor at Block before getting up early for a sail to Sag Harbour following the US Coast Guard sail training ship, Oliver Hazzard Perry out of the cut.

Poor Peoples Pub - Block Island!

Pano Block Island Beach

Fi at Block Island

Beers and Ballards - an institution

Lovely dinner spot at Block Island

Leaving Block Island

Whilst in Block we had been doing some work on safe places to run to in the event that a hurricane heads our way – Irma made landfall in Florida and her further destruction caused us a lot of concern, whilst also monitoring Jose hot on her heals who might turn north. We drew up a short list and when I called a marina in Stamford, CT we were offered a good deal in a spot tucked up behind a hurricane barrier so decided to book in for a week for peace of mind. That felt a lot better – I don’t think I had realised the stress it would cause us moving south during these two months with new storms appearing every few days out in the Atlantic. Hurricane monitoring is now what we do at least twice a day…. That said we set off to Long Island sound leaving our safe zone of Newport Harbour behind us.

Super Yachts in Sag Harbour

Sag Harbor on Long Island was our first stop in New York State and wow did we know it; we anchored in the outer harbour - a mooring ball here would have been $100 a night without a launch. It was nice a protected spot right in behind islands although careful navigation is required to avoid the shallows. We took the dinghy into town where we were met by a wall of super yachts….. the pilot book did warn us that this was a fancy destination and we didn’t actually see any celebrities whizzing by in launches as suggested – although we probably wouldn’t have recognised them anyhow! The town was nice enough but definitely had a different feel, much more business like and despite being right on the water the town is back from it. It has some fancy restaurants and upscale galleries but not a good spot for a sundowner on the water. We walked around and spotted some of the historic sites that date back to its time as a whaling port and headed back to the boat for a GnT.

Tourist Office Sag Harbour

Whalers Church Sag Harbour

Trees starting to turn - Sag Harbour

The next day was seriously hot and we spent the morning servicing the dive compressor and sorting out the lazerette – the one part of the boat we didn’t cover off in the yard -Andrew is religious in his schedule to ensure we use all the equipment on the boat regularly and keep on top of our maintenance. After all that work we took a swim – yes seriously a swim! The water was lovely and it felt great to both swim off the boat for the first time since we left the Caribbean. We enticed Steve and Fi on Supertramp to come and join us – they were hard at work preparing their boat to be wrapped next week, however we were kind of on their way. We helped them out with finishing off their fresh food before hauling out on Friday - oh and maybe we shared a wine or two….

Sailing Long Island Sound

Thursday morning we passed through Plum Gut, where strong currents can run and then set out sails for a fantastic sail down Long Island Sound. It was just wonderful, we had 10-15 knots just ahead of the beam, the sea was flat, we had a few clouds but it was lovely and warm plus there was no one around – Askari romped along at 7-8 knots for 40 miles down the sound. I cannot actually remember a better sail since we arrived in the US. We pulled into Port Jefferson (Port Jeff) late afternoon and anchored just east of the power station in what is otherwise a beautiful deep harbour.

Our anchorage in Port Jeff

Ship Builders Monument in Port Jeff

Village Center - Port Jeff

Beautiful Water Front Port Jeff

The next morning we went ashore to a really warm welcome at the Yacht Club, even though we were not paying for their services and then went to the Village Center – a converted ship yard where we learned all about the history of this working town that is now doing all it can to attract tourist dollars. It was a lovely day so after lunch we went to explore a bit more of the harbour in the dinghy, visiting Setauket Harbor and the amazing sand dunes on the North East side of the entrance.

Sand Dunes

Canadian Geese - Port Jeff

Port Jeff

Tomorrow we head to Stamford, Connecticut.

Boatyard Time

We decided after our incident in Mustique that even though Andrew had repaired the rudder, it’s a long way home to Australia and rudders are kind of important..... So we had Oyster fabricate a new one in the UK and ship it out to their team here in the USA, we also had a few little jobs at the end of our warranty period so we booked into the Hinckley Yacht Yard at Portsmouth, RI to tackle all these jobs in one.

Who is that at the wheel????

Bright and early on Tuesday morning Matty arrived with his guys and just took over Askari – Andrew didn’t know quite what to do as no-one else drives our girl, but things happen a bit differently in the US and before we knew it Askari was in the slings and out of the water – no hanging around! The guys dropped the rudder out supporting it with a forklift truck and within a couple of hours the new one was in. We had ordered a new rudder bearing too, however when that was checked it was totally fine so we sent that back to Oyster. However, there was a slight wear on one of the cutless bearings so we decided to stay out the water and get both changed out as a pre-emptive measure – the parts arrived the next day and then Rudy was on it. Getting the bolts out was quite a task and there was a lot of groaning and moaning from our man, in the end Andrew snuck in and loosened them – ha ha.

And she's out

Fork Lift Action

The quadrant is under our bed so alot of protection was put in place

If in doubt use a bigger hammer Rudy

While we were out Andrew scrubbed the antifoul – no need to replace it thankfully. And I polished the topsides. Steve and Fi stopped by for a dockside drink to brighten our mood – a burger at the local grille hit the spot. On the way out we checked out a few of the amazing yachts in this yard – supposed to be one of the best on the whole east coast. Askari was parked up right next to a two time Americas Cup winner. We also saw incredible race boats that popped out to have the underneath polished with a buffer in the middle of the night and huge yachts that towered over our Askari.

Askari alongside Courageous- nice new rudder

Another boat yard gathering with the Tramps!

Next AC contender??

On Friday morning the job was complete and as Andrew fitted the zincs to the propeller shaft Matty was there, it was a bit blowy but Andrew parked her perfectly into the marina berth, for the rest of the work to continue. We hired a car for a few days over the weekend but also got loaned vans by Hinckley and Oyster - both did an amazing job in supporting us and we are especially grateful to Will from Oyster who was there for Andrew to consult on everything we did, nearly every day - pretty amazing service.

While we were at Hinckley the list of jobs included:

	Hinkley & Oyster	Andrew and assistant Carolyn
	New Rudder fitted	Main Engine Service
	Replace Cutlass Bearings	Replaced Secondary Fuel Filters on Generator and Engine
	Rear Step – changed fittings and repair paint and gel	Replaced V belts on Main Engine
	Polished Propeller and shaft	Replaced Gear Box Oil
	Replaced door seals	Replaced Impeller on Engine
	Gel coat repair from the furler job in Antigua	Fixed slight coolant leak
	Replaced woodwork around microwave	Replaced aft holding tank sender (yuck)
	Repair and refinish main steps (ipad bouncing down the steps)	Replaced genoa strop, now the sail has settled
	Repair and seal bathroom door – had some water damage	Replaced wifi antenna, fell off during a bad tack (probably my fault….)
	Replaced trim to washing machine door	Replaced covers on light switches and plugs that had slightly tarnished
	New BBQ cover	Cleaned inside and out
	Installed fan to microwave cabinet to improve ventilation	Replaced all anodes
		Laundered everything from pillows to cushion covers
		Fixed slight leak on water maker
		Provisioned
		Polished hull and stainless steel

During the long weekend we popped over to Bristol to pick up Steve and Fi and we all went to Mystic Seaport for the day - this is such a cool museum which is a complete historic working port complete with restored old ships to explore, re-anactments, a ship yard with works underway and buildings that have been relocated. It was a really fun day and ended up with trying out the Stoli Boli at one of our fav Bristol bars. Monday we had a lovely afternoon at the home of friends Nicki and Tim, a really relaxed BBQ was such a treat in the middle of our boat yard time.

Bridge to Bristol, RI

At Mystic Seaport

Mystic Seaport

Mystic Seaport

Mayflower Replica

Lovely Tramps at Mystic

Rope making at Mystic

Mystic Seaport

Stoli Doli in Bristol

Another task that has been challenging us since we got to the US was how to get a prescription filled - simple things we just do at home without thinking can be a reall issue overseas. We finally found a walk in clinic and for a fee similar to our private GP in Australia we got the prescription. Next stop CVS pharmacy - bill $969! Seriously oh my gosh..... our shock lead to us decided to phone around to see if it was cheaper elsewhere - Walmart came up trumps with a saving of $200, but then as we were chatting to Amy (now known as amazing Amy), she suggested a site called GoodRX. Before we knew it we had some codes and the bill was now $190 saving $780. I have no idea how this happened but we are so grateful to her; the locals in Rhode Island really do go out of there way to help visitors and they all love the sailing community here - Thank you Rhode Island for being just great! 

Our last few days at Hinckley ended up being really social, I love it when this can just happen out of no-where. Our friends Bruce and Jane were having there boat lifted out and came for a glass of wine. Then the owner of the Oyster next to us came back to the boat, while two other boats arrived and before we knew it there was a full dock party. Such great fun.... although the owners of the lovely Hylas on the other side of us were flying home to Florida the next day directly into the path of Hurricane Irma which is bearing down on the hospital where he works. What amazing people to leave the safety to RI to get on the last flight into a such terrifying storm. Meanwhile our evenings have been spent reading reports of the devastation in the beautiful islands we have spent the later part of this last season - it just breaks my heart to think if the people we met and the places we visited- we are hoping we can do something to help when we get back to the Caribbean at the end of this year.

Happy face replacing a fuel filter! (he wasn't really that grumpy1?)

When the tools are out - chaos!

We also have had a chance to make a map with links to our more recent blog posts - see it here 

So we finally left Hinkley at Portsmouth for 'sea trials' this morning and trundled down to Newport for the night before we head off on the next part of our trip; carefully moving south. If I say we are monitoring the weather right now that would be an understatement - it's virtually full time! This is the time of year hurricanes can make landfall anywhere on the east coast of the USA so we have mapped out places to hide and haul down to the Chesapeake which is where we will be until we are happy the hurricane season is over.