41.20.259N   071.54.608W

Wednesday morning was still miserable but we headed back round to Newport in the rain and mist; anchoring just north of Ida Lewis Yacht Club. A quick trip ashore to reprovision and it was back aboard “Moonbeam” for another quiet night in!

Thursday morning at 0700 was even more miserable but we decided to move on but the anchor windlass would not work! Fitted a new solenoid and replaced a wire and it now runs faster than ever! So we set off but bad visibility, driving rain and thunder and lightning convinced us to turn round to re anchor and we eventually left at 1100hrs.

Dead downwind down Narragansett Bay then downwind along Block Island Sound, past Jerusalem and Galilee ( ! ). There were still big swells from the Tropical Storm activity and we headed for Stonington where we took a sheltered mooring at  Dodson’s Boat Yard. www.dodsonboatyard.com         www.dogwatchcafe.com

We had a dinner invitation for the evening and Barnaby and Mari Ann Blatch, who we had met in Maine, picked us up and took us to Bill and Pam Kellett’s lovely home for an enjoyable dinner.  Bill and Pam are RCC and their previous yacht “ Islay” was kept in Scotland for many years.

Friday we explored Stonington and carried out the inevitable chores of laundry, gas bottle refills, diesel, water etc and then in the evening we went for supper at the Stonington Harbour Yacht Club which Barnaby ( who is originally from Lymington ) had helped form only a few years ago. The yacht club has superb premises and a new junior training section which this summer had over 500 kids through its’ courses. We enjoyed a very sociable meal while an excellent jazz band played. Like many yacht clubs it has a room with “ half models” of yacht hulls and I was amused to see a half model of a trimaran ( as well as a submarine )!

We were encouraged to join in with the pursuit race to Block Island so Saturday morning saw us tacking in light winds that freshened into a lovely sail. Finishing 9^th out of 12 starters was not our best result but a lovely sail rounded off with a cocktail party aboard a 100ft + superyacht then supper in a local restaurant.

We beat these two!                                                                                   Skipper not concentrating hard enough!

Block Island

The cocktail party venue!                                                                        Mari Ann and Lynn enjoy this element of ‘yachting’