Here we are finally at the boat. My parents spent the last week with us and we had quite an adventure. The day before my parents arrived, Kevin and I took the boat out on a shakedown cruise to find out if everything worked okay. We took a quick two hour sail around Warwick point in Narragansett Bay and everything worked like a charm. That is until we started the engines again to come back in. Our port (left) engine had a huge leak and spewed oil all over the engine room. So we had to come in with only one engine, luckily Captain Kevin’s deft maneuvering got us safely docked.
Then the wait began. Those of you who own homes know that home repair guys never show up on time. Well sometimes with boats they never show up at all. Of course our “accident” happened the day before 4th of July, so no mechanics were available the first 2 days, but then we waited until Wednesday night for the guy to show up and he never did. (Meanwhile my
parents arrived and we had a birthday party on Wed for my stepmom Donna). Frustrated with the no-show mechanic, Kevin decided to just fix our engine himself, and he and my Dad plugged the hole with a stainless steel threaded plug. We ran the engine and the repair held, so off we sailed the next day (Thursday) for Newport, RI.We got into Newport around 2pm and picked up a mooring (like anchoring, only everything’s already set up and you don’t have to use your own anchor, just tie the line onto your boat). We went into town and decided to do the “Cliff Walk” which is a famous tourist attraction – it’s a walkway along the ocean where all the rich and famous built their summer cottages back in the 1880’s. And they use the term “cottage” very loosely, these are palaces. However, the Cliff Walk soon became the “Mansion March of Death” as we realized that the best houses were at the end of a 3 mile hike, and we had already walked almost that far just to get to the start of the Cliff Walk. By the time we arrived at the Breakers (the Vanderbilt mansion), it was 5pm and it was already closed, so we marched right back into town to the nearest Pub, and then back to the boat where we ended up watching CSI. The next day the forecast was pretty bad, gusty winds and lots and lots of rain and fog later in the day, so rather than spending a second day in Newport and trying to walk around in the rain, we decided to motor back to our dock in Warwick. It was pretty clear when we left and we missed the worst of the weather, my Dad was at the helm for most of the trip and that was pretty cool. It continued to pour on us on Friday night, but by Saturday morning the weather turned better, so we rented a car and drove to Newport (renting a car for the day was actually cheaper than picking up a mooring at $45/night). This time we made it before closing time and took the Breakers tour – the Vanderbilts really knew how to spend their money. Everything was gold leaf this and Tiffany that…even their children had a playhouse as big as my house back home!
We then drove along the coast admiring the views, and we saw hundreds of kites in the distance and decided to check it out. It was apparently a huge kite festival and there were all shapes, sizes
and colors. The wind was just right and there were some amazing looking kites, I’m not sure if my pictures do it justice. So we sat on the grass awhile and just enjoyed the day. So it’s Sunday now and we dropped my parents off at the airport this morning. The boat is cleaned up and we leave tomorrow morning for Phoenix. We’ll be in Phoenix a few days tying up loose ends, and then we’ll drive out here in Kevin’s car. Hopefully we’ll see a few of you guys while we’re there.
