“41:11N 071:35W”

Block Island, East End of Long Island Sound

Monday 17^th July – Thursday 20^th July

We left Fishers Island once the fog had lifted and set off eastwards for Block Island.  We managed to sail for about an hour then the wind dropped so we motored the rest of the way.

We arrived in Block Island, which is a large popular anchorage, at about 3pm.  All the town mooring balls had gone so the harbourmaster put us on a private mooring for just one night, and we have to move in the morning to a town mooring when they become free.

We took the dinghy ashore and fought our way onto the dinghy dock (so many people tie their dinghies up so tightly it’s difficult to squeeze in).  The Oar – the restaurant/bar overlooking the harbour was crowded, so we walked to the old harbour about a mile and a half away.  The old harbour has a supermarket, several hotels and many restaurants, and is the ferry port.

The next morning the harbourmaster arrived and told us to move and led us to a free ball which we couldn’t see from the boat.  As he collected our money he said we could stay there all summer if we wished.  It certainly seems an anchorage that people stay for many days as only a few boats seemed to leave each day.

We hired bicycles on Wednesday and cycled to one of the light houses, quite a bit seemed to be up hill!  On returning we called in at the supermarket to replenish our supplies before returning the bikes.  Quite a nice island to cycle round if a few too many cars.

That evening, we went to the other dinghy dock in Champlin marina; much nicer as had space, but the bar wasn’t as nice, and very windy.