I am happy to say we are “on the road again” and like Willie Nelson we’re following the mantra “Goin’ places that I’ve never been, Seein’ things that I may never see again.” Our favorite road is the water road and we are happy to be cruising once again on Gaviidae – the second Gaviidae.
My ridiculously optimistic departure date of May 20 that I referenced in our Crazy Schedule blog passed by as did my not quite as optimistic date of May 23. We finally left Wickford Marina in North Kingstown RI on June 1. And in normal chaotic fashion our departure was 3pm rather than noon.
Daniel – The Worker Bee
Over the last two months Dan has been working like a maniac buffing/polishing the exterior of Gaviidae whose dark green paint looked like clouds were floating across the hull. Three weeks of pretty intense care on Dan’s part has brought back the color and while it’s not perfect – it will delay a new paint job by a year or two. In fairness to Dan, I should mention that he was doing this work by himself while I was either pet-sitting or basking in the sun in Belize with the Women Who Sail Rendezvous. Life sucks for him!
When I returned from Belize Dan had gotten the boat launched and moved to her temporary home at the Wickford Marina. And this is where the fun really started. His first project was repairing a leak on the heat exchanger (part of the engine cooling system). Other projects popped up as various systems were tested – a bow thruster that had no thrust, AC units that either wouldn’t start or would blow the circuit breakers after a few minutes, and an outboard that had not been started in four years.
While Dan busied himself with the never-ending list of projects, I worked on stowing all of our “stuff” and trying to logically organize where things should go. I had figured that since this boat was the same as the last boat except bigger, that most things would go into similar spaces. Nope. Sizes and shapes of each cubby hole was just a bit different – either bigger or smaller but our former organization plan just did not work.
Charming Wickford
We did manage to see more than just the boat while we were in Wickford – as the boat was in such a state of chaos,
we pretty much ate out for most meals or picked up food from a local deli. With recommendations from Gaviidae’s prior owners, we sampled our way through some wonderful food at Shayna’s Place for the best chicken curry sandwiches, Duffy’s for Portuguese chowder, and Mae’s for breakfast.
We also hit pretty much every marine store including a number of West Marines, the Newport Ship Yard, and the best of all – Marine Consignment. This place is an amazing collection of everything from every vintage. Dan says you could build an entire boat from all the stuff found in there. And now it also has a few items of ours as well! Sam, the guy who runs the place even called us as we were cruising down Narragansett Bay to say he just got in an item that Dan had been looking for – that man has a damn good memory!
Over Memorial Day weekend as Dan was swearing at the pump installation for the AC a group of 20-some boats from a Rhode Island yacht club came into the Wickford Marina. I puttered around the boat in my typical boat attire, the yachties were dressed in their khaki shorts, perfect little flowered dresses, and not a boat appropriate shoe in sight. As I sat on the edge of the dinghy bailing out the water from the excessive rains, one gentleman stopped over with an incredulous look and asked, “Why are you doing that?” Apparently everyone should have minions that bail out their dinghies. My response, “Why not?”
In the end, we got everything stowed, provisions tucked away, and our vehicle parked at a storage unit waiting for a future opportunity for retrieval.
Back on the Water Road
And that brings us to now where we are on Day 2 after spending the first night at anchor in the Point Judith Harbor of Refuge. In an hour, my navigation skills will be tested as I chart our way through The Race – an area in the Long Island Sound where the currents are strong and some would say backwards from what you’d expect. If my calculations are correct, we will cross the area with a relatively mild current in our favor that will pick up and carry us westward down the Long Island Sound, around the corner to the East River and on to the mouth of the Hudson River. I hope there won’t be a jetliner landing there as we make our way past Manhattan!
On the road again – seein’ places we’ve never been.
June 2, 2017 Underway from Point Judith 41° 17.382’N 71° 49.512’W
Fun to read and imagine each day from stirring to falling into bed. The excitement must be at a high level. Looking forward to the next blog.
Thanks Ilona! We are certainly having our share of adventures as we work through the “New-Boat Blues” – every new sound, squeak, rattle requires investigation! Miss you both!