Bristol, RI

The first thing we did on Wednesday, September 11 was to dinghy in to for a longer walk in the Toisset Marsh Wildlife Reserve.  It was a beautiful day and a really pretty walk in the woods and through open fields. 

When we returned to Zendo I finally went for my first paddle board ride of the year. The waters were calm and it was such a warm day - it was a blast!

After finishing up the vichyssoise for lunch we left for Bristol by 1:50.  We debated whether to stay on a mooring at the highly recommended Bristol Yacht Club or get one by the town dock. We decided on the yacht club because they have a launch which will make it a lot easier for the guests who we were expecting on  Zendo the next day.  It was a perfect day for cruising and we arrived after a short one hour trip.

We had a relaxing afternoon thinking we would go in to the yacht club for a drink before dinner.  I received a phone call from what turned out to be a big scam regarding Publisher’s Clearing House. We went in to have a drink at the yacht club but alas, it was closed. So we retired to Zendo and made our own dinner and drinks on board.

The next day Jonny took Archie for a long walk through nearby Colt State Park and got a good shot of this deer.

Later on Andy, Ed, Samantha and our friend Gerhard came to Bristol to spend the day with us.  We had such a a good time together!

We all crammed into their rental car and went into Bristol to stroll through that lovely town followed by a fabulous lunch at a French restaurant called Le Central that Samantha generously treated us to!  Jonny and I had been there on a previous visit and liked it well enough to want to return.

Afterwards we all took the launch back to Zendo and took off for an afternoon cruise. We dropped anchor in Potter’s Cove off of Prudence Island and just hung out on the flybridge for a couple of hours enjoying the beautiful weather.

When we returned to Zendo in the late afternoon, they took Jonny and me to Walgreen’s where we picked up a prescription and said our goodbyes.  We then Ubered over to a local bar in Bristol where we met MTOA friends Gif and Christine for a drink.  Gif is the MTOA port captain for Rhode Island and he recommended several anchorages to us, all of which we loved. They were there to support a friend who was playing in a local band. We had a drink together and chatted a bit before heading back to Zendo.

What a busy and fun time we had in Bristol, another one of our favorite New England towns!  We just had a light bite for dinner and made an early night of it. Next stop - Block Island.

Kickamuit River, RI

I had a Spanish lesson at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10 so Jonny took Archie for a nice off-leash walk along the beach by our Fogland anchorage.  After my lesson I obsessed for a couple of hours trying to figure out why my last blog entry from Fairhaven wouldn’t load properly. I was unsuccessful so I just rewrote the damn thing and that’s why we didn’t leave our anchorage until 11:50.

We had a short hour and a half hour cruise on a beautiful sunny day and arrived at an anchorage on the Kickamuit River not far from Bristol, RI by 1:15.  This is a beautiful anchorage, large and very well-protected with few fellow boaters.  It has attractive homes along part of its banks and a large undeveloped wildlife preserve surrounding the remaining banks.

We had the whole afternoon to ourselves and after lunch Jonny went paddleboarding. He hasn’t taken Archie with him yet this year so little Archie wistfully waited for him to return.

Afterwards we all dinghied in to shore and tied up to an outstretched dead tree. We went for a quick walk in the Toisset Marsh Wildlife Refuge along the well-tended trails. We had to cut our walk a bit short because Jonny’s blood sugar levels were dropping but we knew we would return to explore this attractive refuge some more.

As we hurried back to Zendo, a man in a skiff hailed us and introduced himself. He had seen our trawler anchored in the bay and was curious as to how we learned about this relatively unknown spot since we were clearly out of state.  He was very friendly and shared that he and his wife had just returned from Maine in their Grand Banks. They live nearby and we had an enjoyable chat about our recent travels.  He also was just given a gift membership to MTOA so that was a nice endorsement of this new feature that MTOA has recently implemented.

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon onboard reading and relaxing. I made sausage and peppers for dinner and we made more preparations to meet Andy, Ed and Samantha in Bristol the next day.

Little Compton, RI

We got an early start on Monday, September 9 to avoid the seas picking up as they usually do as the day wears on. We were headed to an anchorage near Little Compton, RI. We planned to be sailing along the extensive Rhode Island coastline for the next few days because we planned to meet Jonny’s brother Andy and his husband Ed by the end of the week in Bristol. We took off by 7:25 for the four and a half hour cruise from Fairhaven exiting through New Bedford’s massive breakwater.

It was a sunny day but chilly, especially on the water. It was also a pretty bumpy ride with plenty of whitecaps until we turned up into the Sakonnet River where it calmed down considerably.

We arrived at our anchorage called Fogland by 11:50  and found a mooring ball that looked like no one had used in a while.  We settled in and had a bite of lunch and I spent a considerable amount of time updating the blog. Unfortunately, I was unable to load it and tried as I might, I was unsuccessful. It wasn’t due to poor connectivity, it’s probably due to the faulty Blogspot  program that has zero support from Google. I am either too lazy or too unmotivated to change my blog platform after all these years of using it.

We took a much needed break and dinghied onto the sandy and and stony shore for a much needed walk. Jonny tied the dinghy up with an anchor in the sand. The tides are not crazy here so it’s not as big a production as it was in Maine.

The shoreline here is something of a peninsula and as we walked up a road there was beach access on both sides. A few hardy souls were braving the blowing sand and sitting on the beach or next to their cars to block the wind. 

The windsurfers were definitely enjoying the windy weather which made for fun viewing for us.

Zendo was one of only a few boats in this large and calm anchorage,

That evening we had vichyssoise and salad for dinner and had a nice quiet night together. Next stop will be another anchorage in Rhode Island. We are back in civilization but there are still many lovely and peaceful spots to anchor.

Fairhaven, MA

On the morning of Friday, September 6 we took one more walk around the pretty town of Mattapoisett stopping for coffee at a little shack along the waterfront.

This next photo show how high the water rose during the hurricane of 1938!

We pulled up anchor by 11:05 bound for Fairhaven, MA and passed this large barge carrying what appeared to be a windmill lying on its side.  We weren’t really sure what it was until we got confirmation of it when we arrived at our port.

As we neared New Bedford we passed Butler Flats Light. It has a spark plug design jutting right out of the water. The lighthouse  is four stories high including living space.  I can’t imagine living there since it has no land surrounding it.

We entered New Bedford’s large, well-protected harbor by 12:40 going through the rather narrow opening of the formidable breakwater.  The gates of the breakwater are only closed when there is a very significant storm.  

Once inside the harbor we went by Palmer’s Island Light. Here’s an amazing story I read about the lighthouse.  During New England’s worst ever hurricane of 1938, the lighthouse keeper attempted to walk the 350 feet to light the lamp in the lighthouse, leaving his wife in the oil house on the highest point of the island. He was struck by a wave and managed to survive, but when he looked back he saw his wife getting ready to launch a row boat  to come out to help him.  He saw the boathouse struck by a wave and he lost sight of her. He was found inside the lighthouse the next day by neighbors but she did not survive and her body was washed up to shore in Fairhaven the next day.  The lighthouse was determined to be unnecessary once the huge breakwater was built in 1963.

Arriving at the Acushnet River Safe Boating Club and home of the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla, we tied up at our assigned berth on the face dock.  Jeannie, one of the staff there, came by with a bag full of goodies.  This is the first welcome bag we’ve received on this trip.  Apparently, marinas are going through some cost cutting and not providing these anymore.  Even more surprising (but maybe not) is that this marina is more like a coop.  The members all have to fulfill certain functions and that is why the cost of membership and dockage is quite a bit lower than average.  We stayed here a few years ago and met a wonderful couple named Jim and Dottie Mello who were very helpful to us when Jonny had a significant health issue causing him to be hospitalized.  They gave us lots of good counsel, many rides back and forth to the hospital and were so helpful to us.  We had originally connected with them through our friends Joe and Pat Apicella and the next day we were all going to spend the day together.

In the meantime we spent the rest of the day taking advantage of being at a marina with running water and electricity.  Jonny cleaned Zendo on the outside while I cleaned the inside.

The next day Dottie and Jim came by to welcome us back and to lay out the plan for the day.  That included meeting Joe and Pat at one of Joe’s favorite haunts called Knucklehead’s, a biker bar in New Bedford with great food.  Joe had been extolling the merits of the fish and chips at Knucklehead’s for good reason. They were delicious.  Jim and Dottie wanted to take us on a sightseeing tour of the area followed by dinner at an Italian restaurant.  And that’s exactly what we did. 

We drove through some attractive parts of New Bedford and headed to nearby Dartmouth. Jonny’s brother Andy used to work in Dartmouth and he has always told us how beautiful it is.  We have to agree and we particularly enjoyed walking through the village of Pandanaram with its lovely shops and waterside ambiance. I was able to find an old-fashioned nutcracker used to crack open lobsters along with the accompanying picks.  We’ll keep it onboard for next season.

 On the way back to the marina Joe and Pat brought us to the incredible Market Basket grocery store which is popular in this area. The store has a huge selection of all the groceries one could need at amazingly low prices.  Of course we ended up buying more than we needed so we’ll be in good shape for a while.

That evening the six of us had cocktails on Dottie and Jim’s boat.  Afterwards, we all went to dinner at Bocca, a very popular Italian restaurant in New Bedford and a good time was had by all!  We encountered the last bit of a rainstorm as we left the restaurant and we were lucky to have missed it because apparently it poured for awhile.

The next day we debated leaving but finally decided to stay one more day.  It’s so easy and convenient staying at a marina where we have access to all the services (water, electric, etc.) and don’t have to use the dinghy three times a day to take Archie in to shore. We also love the town of Fairhaven. Historically, it was a shipbuilding center in the 1700’s as well as a whaling center along with New Bedford. And the first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought off its shores. Interestingly, FDR is a descendant of the Delano family of Fairhaven and he visited often in his youth. Now Fairhaven mostly serves recreational and commercial boaters.  One of its most influential sons, Henry Huttleson Rogers, a Standard Oil millionaire, grew up here in this modest house just a couple of blocks from the marina.

He went on to fund the construction of some of the exquisite public buildings that Fairhaven is known for. They are all nestled within a few blocks of each other and just a short walk from the marina. The first photo is of the town hall that was financed by Rogers as a gift to the town from his first wife, Abbie.

This next photo is of the Millicent Library, named for Rogers’ daughter. I learned this little story from the Fairhaven Visitor’s Guide. Mark Twain, who was a friend of Rogers, was in town to dedicate the town hall across the street and afterwards visited the library. Later, he sent the library an autographed set of his books commenting “They are not instructive but I feel sure you will like the bindings.”

This amazing building was and continues to be the Fairhaven High School.  It sure doesn’t look anything like the high school I went to!

And finally, did you ever see a Unitarian Universalist Church as ornate as this one is?

After our walk and Archie’s chance to run off leash to chase squirrels, we had a mostly lazy Sunday afternoon. We invited Jim and Dottie for cocktails on this, our last evening in Fairhaven.  Afterwards, the four of us went out for a simple, but substantial,  dinner at Mike’s, a casual favorite of theirs.  We would be leaving early the next morning for an anchorage in Rhode Island. Once again, we had a wonderful time in the fair haven of Fairhaven!