Great Salt Pond in Block Island - Rhode Island
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 5 Jul 2010 23:56
|
Block Island is a popular summer target for young
and old alike, especially with July 4th approaching. Walking along the old
harbour front with some friends we'd last met at Cape May we agreed there was a
certain resemblance to the town of Amity featured in the film Jaws
as lily-white skinned holiday makers from New York and the
surrounding areas could be seen pouring off the fast ferries from the
mainland. Ironically we'd heard on the news that very morning that the first
Great White Shark of the season had been spotted in Connecticut waters not far
from here. So no romantic night swims off the beach for us
as Connecticut isn't that far away. Besides the water temperature here is
rarther chilly!
   Ferries coming &
going
Dunes surrounding the Old
Harbour They
got more crowded than this..............
It's no surprise that New England USA is just like
- old England UK, and rather like the Channel Islands given the amount
of rock strewn around the shoreline. Further south in the Chesapeake if you
were to go aground you would hit soft mud. You might be stuck for a few hours
but unlikely to sustain any real damage except to your pride. Here you hit hard
rock!! Granite mainly, so we need to be especially vigilant from now on. Tides
also play a greater part in passage planning, not so much for the range of tide
(height) but for the flow through Long Island Sound. It's no exaggeration to say
that distress calls to the Coastguard are almost as common here as radio checks
to the Coastguard are back in the UK. Boats have all the equipment they are
required to have by law but that doesn't guarantee safety. It will be a
challenging few months.
Block Island is very pretty with sporadic
housing dotted around the rolling hills and pastures. The population increases
many-fold in the summer months and the locals have a wish to keep things just as
they are and avoid heavy development that would spoil the character of the small
island. It would also be impossible for the number of cruising boats to be
here if it weren't for the creation of a large harbour in what was once a
salt pond - hence the name. Many years ago a passage was blasted through the
rock to make Salt Pond accessible from Long Island Sound. The old harbour has
very little space to accommodate the number of boats anchored or
moored here and the island has just 2 months to extract the maximum
amount of dollars from its visitors before the fall weather arrives
which sees cruisers heading south again or for the local boats to be lifted
out for the cold winter conditions.
   Rocky
coasts............. Rolling
green pastures............ and
lush colourful gardens
We decided to walk to one of the two old
lighthouses on the island with friends Bob & Vicky, a round trip of 6 miles through lush green countryside past
beautiful detached houses. It was a fascinating look at what Block Island has to
offer, although finding the lighthouse under refurbishment and closed was a
disappointment. So we sat down outside to eat sandwiches kindly supplied by
Vicky whilst chatting to other visitors. It was here that Nikki innocently
re-enacted her own version of Alfred Hitchcock's film 'The Birds' when she
unfortunately almost stumbled on a small seagull chick wandering in the
sand dunes close-by. We had already taken pictures of three chicks behind the
wheels of a cherry picker being used for the lighthouse restoration. It's rare
to see seagull young as they are usually far out on hatcheries (if that's the
correct terminology) offshore. There was no harm intended as she was only
seeking to take a photograph of the north end of the island from a high
viewpoint but one of the parent seagulls (and they are very good
sized gulls on Block Island) thought otherwise and like a Stuka
dive bomber swooped down, threatening to lift the poor Admiral off her
feet which raised a scream of terror regrettably not heard by Skip sitting just
a few yards away on the other side of the lighthouse. He was still tucking
into his banana and peanut butter sandwich. He was reported as being
somewhat unsympathetic to her plight, presumably being judged so by his
reaction when relayed the story which caused much mirth, whilst choking on the
last morsels of sandwich and rolling around on the ground in hapless
laughter. Had it been a pterodactyl perhaps more sympathy would have been
forthcoming before arranging a search of local known dinosaur nests for the
missing Admiral. At least the gull hadn't left a calling card for goodness sake
- but apparently she "felt it's wind" so to speak.
   After 2 miles there it is
..........
the
lighthouse
not the prettiest chicks in the world!
Our long walk ended on the beach by the old harbour
where we wondered along negotiating our way around scantily clad young
ladies sporting the latest in swimwear. It was down right distracting for the
two males in our group. However, on the quay, we finally discovered the type of
fish we had caught on the way north as we showed some fisherman the pictures we
had taken. They were Bluefish we were told - so that solved that riddle at last.
We had seen Bluefish fillets in the fish store back in Cape May and thought
they'd looked similar so now we knew.
   Fish filleting
lesson..............
Traditional seaside hotel
.......................
Sunset over the anchorage.
At Old Harbour we took some liquid refreshment and
ordered some 'stuffies', a local clam delicacy. A visit to the bakery and
grocery brought the day to an end. We judged Block Island to be a very nice
first stop in New England waters. Unfortunately, dropping Bob & Vicky back
to their lovely yacht in our dinghy they found a Cormorant had been (and still
was) using their upper rigging spreader bars as an observation platform for its
fish hunting activities. Unfortunately it had covered their decks and
pristine canvas work with processed fish from it's
previous intake throughout the day. We sympathised, whilst inwardly
praying that we would not find the same mess on Ajaya. We didn't. Next
morning our friends were busy pressure washing their decks and canvas work
before leaving the anchorage for pastures new. We stayed as we have a dangling
fitting from the masthead that can only be attributed to our Cape May bridge
exploits. Ho Hum !
So much like
home.......................... no wonder ..............its New
England........................
   |