Kickamuit River

Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Tue 6 Sep 2011 23:43

 

42.50.000N  071.15.000W 

 

The New Bedford Yacht Club  www.nbyc.com is set at the head of South Dartmouth at Padnamaran Harbour and a mooring had been organised by Brodie MacGregor. We had met him at Mystic and he is the brother of Malcolm, the West Highland Week Race Officer!

We went ashore in the smart club launch and walked through the village and ended up having lunch at the ‘Black Bass Grill’ www.blackbassma.com  followed by evening drinks in the Yacht Club with Brodie.

Saturday was a mix of boat jobs and reading then ashore in the evening for a lovely supper with Brodie and Maddie and some of their friends. 

Sunday morning we had left the mooring by 06.15 and headed south down Buzzards Bay then headed West towards Naragansett Bay for Rhode Island. While beating past a navigational mark it was obvious that our plotter showed it in a different position and the next buoy was ‘ spot on’. I called the Coastguard to advise them that the buoy was out of position by about a quarter mile and while they seemed fairly disinterested we were called by another yacht about an hour later and he thanked us for the warning and confirmed our observation!

After the hard beat from Buzzards Bay we turned into the Sakonnet River and headed north on a very broad reach with agricultural land to starboard and houses along the western shore. A couple of hours gentle sailing took us through Tiverton Harbour and out into Mount Hope Bay and on to Bristol Narrows which could just as easily be called Bristol Shallows ( ! ) and into the lagoon formed by the Kickamuit River. Here we anchored in calm waters while the gusty SW wind blew for a couple more days.

 

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A long weekend holiday (Labor Day) produced a weather forecast like a UK Bank Holiday but in fact we remained dry and in bright sunshine for the whole period. A time catching up with jobs like varnishing and completing tax returns!

 

The forecast was for the wind to go to the NE early Tuesday and right on time at 0600 we had a blast of wind from the NE gusting to 40 knots and while it soon quietened down we had already got into oilskins in case we had to move. After a quick breakfast we decided we might as well move and we headed out of the river into the low cloud and pouring rain! A quick 7 miles up to Bristol which was very sheltered in the N winds.

We went ashore for a walk and visited the Herreshoff Marine museum www.herreshoff.org  which was a very interesting insight into the two brothers who revolutionised yacht design – in the museum is a replica of a sailing catamaran they designed and built in 1875! The weather was (and still is!) atrocious and worthy of a Hebridean autumn cruise ; indeed the whole place feels very end of season with few yachts moving and trees stripped of leaves by the recent storms. Time to head south!

Back to Moonbeam for tea and a snooze!

 

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1875 catamaran design in the roof!                                                        A beautiful unrestored rowing dinghy

 

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Capt Nat’s favourite boat – a replica of his own Coquina                        Restored Fisher’s Island 31 “Torch”