We passed a beautifully restored 1920’s cruising boat, a Mathis-Trumpy yacht (not “that” Trump) as we left the harbor. It was originally built for a daughter of Woolworth.
We decided to head for Westport, MA which had been recommended to us by Andy as a charming New England town. It was only a two hour cruise so we thought we would check it out and decide if we wanted to stay there or go further.
We had read that the town had mooring balls in the harbor so we found one and tied up. We were amazed by the strength of the current and Jonny was a bit nervous about the mooring ball because it was secured by a line and not by chain. However, we boarded the dinghy and headed for what looked like a dinghy dock so we could explore the town. We couldn’t find a proper town dock but we did see a number of empty docks that didn’t look like they were private. We tied up to one that was next to what looked like a restaurant that wasn’t open. As soon as we tied up, a woman came out yelling that we couldn’t dock there, it was private. We asked her if she could tell us where we could dock and she said she didn’t know. When we pushed her about a nearby spot she said we couldn’t tie up there either. The only place she could tell us about was a marina that was much further away and in a place that we didn’t want to be. So we took off and cruised around to find another place. But although there were a lot of nearby docks they all seemed to be taken in that pickup trucks were parked next to the open spots. Apparently the owners were out on their fishing boats. We finally found a little place to tie up. Jonny went to talk to the harbormaster while Lynn went to throw away a bag of garbage. As Lynn tossed the bag into a trash can on the dock, the same woman ran out of her house again and started yelling to not use the garbage can. I answered that there was garbage in it and she said, that’s my husband’s - don’t use it! So out came the garbage bag. In the meantime, Jonny learned from the harbormaster that the mooring ball we were tied up to was only for residents and we should have called for permission. (Most places we go allow you to take a mooring ball and then a boat comes to collect payment or the boater finds the harbormaster to pay him). Jonny asked if we could keep our dinghy there for an hour while we walked through town and then we would leave. He replied, “Well, since you’re already here I guess it’s all right.” We’ve never encountered such rude people in the many towns we’ve traveled to over the years!
So we took a quick walk through the small village. It was very pretty with lots of historic markers on the homes and lovely gardens. For the record, we did encounter one friendly woman who greeted us kindly.
We saw only one commercial establishment, this historic inn.
We headed back to Zendo and climbed aboard to continue our journey and find another place to stay for the night. As we resumed our cruise, the wind continued to increase and we decided that the best place for us to go was Newport harbor. It’s a very safe and secure harbor and if the weather is too poor to travel the next day, we would be in an interesting place to explore.
We passed the famous “cottages” of the rich and famous lining the waterfront and entered that busy harbor.
As always, it was filled with lots of beautiful boats, especially sailboats.
We found what we thought was a good open spot to drop our anchor and by 3:45 we were settled in. Since it was getting colder and more unsettled we chose not to dinghy into town and just hunkered down for a cozy night. The lights of the super yachts surrounding us were pretty spectacular!
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