Newport (Still)

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 22 Sep 2013 23:17

Thurs, Fri & Sat – 19th, 20th & 21st September

 

Well there are worse places to be holed up with the wind all wrong for our passage south than Newport.

 

On Thursday Sarah spent a good part of the day with a needle and thread plus the sewing machine effecting repairs to the cockpit tent which we have put back into service for the next few days at least whilst we are at anchor here. In the afternoon we went ashore again and took advantage of the superb new visitor facilities at Anne St Pier. (dinghy dock, showers, wifi, laundry etc.) The evening was rather spoilt by the gas solenoid valve blowing a trip fuse repeatedly signalling its demise. We of course are carrying a spare, but as is the way of these things it is not quite the same. Actually it is nothing like the same and it was going to require some real ingenuity to make this all work again properly. A phone call to Craig on ‘Il Sogno’ which is on the hard nearby having work done resulted in him helpfully giving us the name and details of an outfit (Moy Works) just outside Newport that almost certainly would be able to make up the pipes etc. that we would need.

 

We then were a bit hacked off when a yacht (Quintessa) dropped its anchor almost directly over ours and dropped back far too close to us. It did seem like they were picking someone up, but in the end they stayed the night.

 

So on Friday morning we set off ashore bright and early and Sarah used the showers before heading off to the ‘Stop & Shop’ grocery store which is next to the Newport Tennis Club. (very posh). I in the meantime also set off on foot to walk the 2 miles to Moy Works and of course today had to be the hottest for quite a while. I had no trouble finding the workshop and Joe who was running it on his own today was incredibly helpful, but was stumped when it came to an overall solution. He could make up some of what we needed but not all of it. He suggested that I try Newport County Propane as they are the experts, but of course they were a further 4 miles out of town. Problem was solved when Jimmy who drives for them turned up and was quickly persuaded by Joe to run me out there and to wait to see if I could get the job done. No, of course they couldn’t do any better than Joe as nobody here has anything that will join to 8mm copper pipe.

 

Jimmy ran me back to Moy’s where I got Joe to make up something that I felt would be a good work-around to at least get us sorted for the 340 mile sail south. He made up these pipes and supplied what fittings he could and then very kindly Jimmy ran me back into town to save my legs! Here I met Sarah and had a shower myself before we went back out to Serafina. But the bad news was that one crucial fitting was not what I had expected but I could see an alternative option, but this meant…… a fast walk back to Moys which I had to make before they closed in 40 minutes. All was well and the resulting mess of pipes and fittings actually works (and is safe). Final complication was the electrical wiring for this, but thankfully as ever, Robert Forsdike back in Suffolk was able to put me straight by email. (He did try to call us on our old Sat phone number and found himself chatting to a Russian ship!)

 

We made our way finally back out to Serafina to find that she had clearly moved! It took us a little while to realise that ‘Quintessa’ had now gone and had almost certainly dislodged our anchor when retrieving theirs and so we had dragged for a while until our anchor had reset itself, luckily not snagging the underwater cable laid behind us.  On Saturday we had to relay our anchor as we were now sitting out in the channel through the harbour, so we moved before we got told off, cursing Quintessa under our breath.

 

Our friend Dave Enstone who lives nearby in Jamestown came down at lunchtime and treated us to a superb lunch out at Castle Hill which is a grand house in a wonderful location overlooking the entrance to Narragansett Bay and Newport. Dave then took us on a tour of the ‘mansions’ (something of a specialist subject for him) and we marvelled at these huge opulent edifices whilst he explained the history of them all and the families who own them.

 

Weather forecasts have changed now for the week ahead and it is looking promising for a Monday morning departure for the three day passage, with NW winds of 20 knots falling away over the following few days.

 

Fingers crossed.