We had an excellent time at Block after a bit of trouble with the dinghy motor. Luckily the wind was blowing us right into the dock at Champlains. We managed to get a tow after attempting to limp back to the boat. No shame. right? After lifting the engine onto Celeste then back to the dingy about 3 or 4 times, cleaning the jets and adding sea foam additive to the tank and about giving up, it fired up and stayed fired. The beers at lunch tasted even better with some world cup semis on the tv at Paynes.
We thought about heading out towards Newport early but decided to stay an extra day which turned out to be an excellent idea. We discovered these electric peddle assist bikes. Certainly electric bikes are the future. With every peddle there’s a magical hamster wheel inside the hub that feels like about 2000 hamster power. There are a lot of hills on Block but we simply leaned back and zoomed up and through the lushness of Block island at a minimum of 20mph. Lope topped out at a screaming 31mph down one of the curvy hills. We were able to explore all the back roads that scooters weren’t allowed on presumably because of their annoying whiney sound to the local residents. The big fat tires gripped well on the off-road trails. SO MUCH FUN. We basically covered the entire island in a couple hours and stopped at all the touristy bits for our touristy photos.
Waterboy came to fill us up with water, the pumpout swung by and we were gone. The sail to Dutch Harbor was perfect. It was the shortest jaunt yet and we had a following wind the entire time. Beautiful sail. I think probably the best of the trip at least tied to the sail from Essex but this one had a total of about 10 min of engine.
When we put in to Dutch Harbor Vicky and Ken were relaxing on their beautiful 1930’s 36′ Alden sloop. They’ll be joining me on the trip up to Maine. Ken’s friend Bob offered up his vacant mooring to me for a few days which was just awesome. No worrying about anchors dragging. We dingied over for some sundowners and a delicious steak, chicken and veggie dinner. As the sun fell behind the hills I went down below into the saloon and was instantly transported through a time warp. Oil lamps glowing, warming and drying the air and teak preserved under layers of varnish. Man so cool.
Dutch Harbor is a perfect place to be.
Days Run: 22.8 NM