Leaving Newport

It's 0800h on 21 May and we are about to leave the dock.
The weather has finally given us a four to five day window to get offshore and clear the Gulf Stream.
There are 2100 miles between us and the Azores, we are counting on covering 100 miles a day but hope to do more so should arrive somewhere around 10 June.
Wednesday is traditionally an auspicious day to set off on a sea voyage and will apparently ensure us the favour of the Norse God Wodin!
The sun has also come out after a day of rain yesterday so we are setting off in good spirits.

David's tried executions by hull cleaning induced hypothermia and electrocution by welding. I'd say I've got a better chance of survival in the middle of the Atlantic than at a Newport marina. - Jay

Almost ready to go and really looking forward to it. Just about to cast off our lines. See you in the Azores! Love Jac xx

Ready to set sail

Bonnie & Earl threw us a wonderful leaving party on their boat last Saturday. Friends came down from Maine and Massachussetts to see us off along with friends from Newport. Bonnie did a great spread of food, the remains of which fed us for the rest of the week, and everyone chipped in to top up our provisioning fund. Even the Antigua Classics Cup made an appearance to pass around rum punch. A great night!
Thank you guys. We certainly won’t starve on the way home…

Katie's best friends - Bonnie, Madi & Marin


Already, the winter boat-dwelling community is dispersing. The ‘Bonnie Lynn’ headed upriver for their annual haul-out and one by one the other boats are moving to their summer anchorages. It is always sad to say goodbye but we are glad to have met a great bunch of people.

We now have our crew aboard. Jackie, from yacht ‘Blackthorn’ of the Exe, is joining us as far as the Azores, and Jay, son of Jim whose boat Dave has just helped launch, is joining us for the whole trip (or as long as he can cope with Dave!).

The crew - Jay, Jackie, Dave, Katie, Hazel

We let Ros Ailither’s mooring ropes go for the first time since October and went for a shakedown sail in Narragansett Bay. It felt great to hoist the sails and get the boat moving again, especially as we topped 6 knots. More importantly, it gave us a chance to find any snags in the re-rigging of the boat and also to remember what sailing feels like!

However, our leaving date of May 15th has come and gone and we are still in Newport waiting to go. There have been a series of low-pressure systems coming up the coast at roughly three days intervals, each crossing our intended path and causing nasty conditions in the Gulf Stream.
We are waiting for at least a three-day window to allow us to reach and cross the Gulf Stream in favourable conditions and give us a good start to the trip.
Since storm systems tend to track to the north of the Gulf Stream, once we clear it, we should have better conditions and it should be plain sailing all the way to the Azores. That’s the theory…

In the meantime, we have all been busy onboard - stowing provisions, lashing safety netting to the lifelines, and generally getting the boat ship-shape. Dave and Jay scrubbed the waterline from the dinghy but Jay (who was the one reaching down underwater) had to recover with a hot shower and sauna afterwards as his arm had turned purple from the cold water!



We are also trying to get in a few ‘last’ swims in the pool and walks ashore. Jackie and I did the Cliff Walk but it was so long since the last time that I’d forgotten how rough the terrain got and the last stretch had us doing a bit of rock-hopping with Katie suspended in the buggy between us.

At the minute, the weather looks like it might be good for Tuesday so we willbe ready to leave if conditions are still good.

Preparing for the off

We have made our third and final trip to Maine to finish off the Herreshoff boat Dave has been working on. It was great see the ‘Wagon Box’ finally back in the water after three years on the hard. These two photos show the transformation it has undergone.

from this...











to this...













Dave made sure the engine was running and we all went for a float around the bay to check everything was working. The masts are now up and Jim, the owner, will be sailing the boat to Nova Scotia this summer.


Back in Newport, we have had fantastic weather. They say there is no spring in New England, winter just turns to summer and that’s exactly what seems to have happened.
Three weeks ago, we couldn’t venture out without a winter coat and the town was quiet. Suddenly, we’ve got temperatures in the 70’s, the shops are bustling, ice cream parlors are back in business and Harley Davidsons are back on the road.
Not that I’m complaining … but I got a serious patch of sunburn on 'the bit I couldn’t reach’. The strength of the sun is surprising until you consider that we are on the same latitude as Spain and northern Portugal.

However, the weather has been a gift to us for working on the ‘Ros Ailither’. The topsides are painted and we have got several layers of varnish on the deck hatches. Dave has replaced bottlescrews, overhauled all the mast fittings and re-sheeted the main on the wheelhouse roof (which we have strengthened with a micro-laminated internal beam).

It is so long since we ran the engine that birds were starting to build a nest in the exhaust. We fired the engine to blow the debris out and draped a tarp over the exhaust to prevent a second attempt. Here’s our disappointed would-be resident!



There is a lot of wildlife around the dock. Our neighbour Meri and I saw a mink creep under the boardwalk in broad daylight and we had a night-time visit from a skunk on the trawler. Luckily he couldn’t get below decks and Dave managed to scare him away without incident (armed with a torch and boathook). There are also a surprising number of starfish in the water, we often see them high and dry on the rocks and pilings at low tide.



So Dave is slowly ticking off his list of jobs to do on board and our departure date is fast approaching (we aim to leave around 15th May). I am frustrated not to be able to help out more but I have my hands full looking after Katie. I try to get out with her as much as possible - walking around the shops, going to playparks, story-telling at the library (a social event for me as well!), or simply playing on the grass at the hotel. Time goes nowhere...